Awkwafina

Also known as Nora Lum

Nora Lum (born June 2, 1988), known professionally as Awkwafina ( ), is an American actress and rapper. She rose to prominence in 2012 when her rap song "My Vag" became popular on YouTube. She then released her debut album, Yellow Ranger (2014), and appeared on the MTV comedy series Girl Code (2014–2015). She expanded to films with supporting roles in the comedies Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), ''Ocean's 8 (2018), Crazy Rich Asians (2018), and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019). For her starring role as a grieving young woman in The Farewell'' (2019), she won a Golden Globe Award.

AI overview

Awkwafina is an American actress and rapper born Nora Lum who rose to fame through her 2012 YouTube rap hit "My Vag" and has since become a prominent film and television performer. She matters because she has successfully crossed over from music into major Hollywood productions, earning a Golden Globe Award for her leading role in the 2019 film *The Farewell*.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: 1989
Works: 1

Top works

Awkwafina's NYC

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Acting · Stony Brook, Brookhaven, New York, USA

Nora Lum (born June 2, 1988), known professionally as Awkwafina (/ˌɔːkwəˈfiːnə/), is an American actress, comedian and rapper. She rose to prominence in 2012 when her rap song "My Vag" became popular on YouTube. She then released her debut album, Yellow Ranger (2014), and appeared on the MTV comedy series Girl Code (2014–2015). She expanded to films with supporting roles in the comedies Neighbors…

Known for

Wildwood — (voice)2026
The Man with the Bag2026
Jumanji: Open World — Ming2026
The Bad Guys 2 — Tarantula (voice)2025
The Bad Guys: Little Lies and Alibis — Tarantula (voice)2025
Lisa Lu Plays Herself — Self2025
Marvel Zombies — Katy Chen (voice)2025
No Taste Like Home with Antoni Porowski — Self2025
Jackpot! — Katie Kim2024
Kung Fu Panda 4 — Zhen (voice)2024

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Female
Origin: United States
Active from: 1988

hip hopproducerrapperusa

Discography

Official site Discogs Stream

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 82,651
Total plays: 735,484

Quotes

“Awkwafina induces the panic attacks and Nora takes them, [she has] a kind of abject confidence that people outgrow in adulthood.”
“There is a duality between Awkwafina and Nora. Awkwafina is someone who never grew up, who never had to bear the brunt of all the insecurities and overthinking that come with adulthood. Awkwafina is the girl I was in high school – who did not give a hoot. Nora is neurotic and an overthinker and could never perform in front of an audience of hecklers.”
“When I first started, YouTube was known as Asian Hollywood…A lot of these Asian YouTubers popped off because they’re in control of their own content. There’s no gatekeeper on YouTube.”
“People say that you’re never famous as an Asian-American ‘til you make it to the Chinese newspaper… You could be on the cover of Time, and your parents won’t recognize you until you are on that newspaper!”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Person.name: Awkwafina
Person.image: Awkwafina by Gage Skidmore.jpg
Person.caption: Awkwafina at the 2025 San Diego Comic-Con
Person.birth_name: Nora Lum
Person.birth_place: Stony Brook, New York, U.S.
Person.occupation: Actress • rapper • comedian
Person.alma_mater: University at Albany (BA)
Person.years_active: 2001–present
Person.awards: Full list
Musical artist.embed: yes
Musical artist.instrument: Vocals
Musical artist.origin: Queens, New York, U.S.
Chinese.child: yes
Chinese.name1: Nora Lum
Chinese.c: 林家珍
Chinese.p: Lín Jiāzhēn
Chinese.j: Lam4 Gaa1zan1
Chinese.y: Làhm Gāajān

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Official website: www.awkwafina.com
Image: Awkwafina by Gage Skidmore.jpg

Show 7 more facts

birth name: 林家珍
Commons category: Awkwafina
date of birth: 1988-06-02
start of work period: 2011-00-00
pseudonym: Awkwafina
name in native language: Awkwafina
social media followers: 143000

Sources (14)

via Wikidata · CC0

~18 min read

Article

13 sections

Contents

Early life
Career
Public image
Other ventures
Filmography
Film
Television
Web
Discography
Awards, nominations and recognitions
See also
References
External links

From 2020 to 2023, Awkwafina had been a co-creator, writer, and executive producer of the Comedy Central series Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens, where she also plays a fictionalized version of herself. In 2021, she portrayed Katy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. She has also performed voice roles in the animated films Storks (2016), The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019), Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), The Bad Guys (2022), The Little Mermaid, Migration (both 2023), Kung Fu Panda 4, IF (both 2024) and The Bad Guys 2 (2025). She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie for starring in and producing the TV movie Quiz Lady'' (2023).