Awkwafina

Awkwafina
Awkwafina in 2018
Born
Nora Lum

(1988-06-02) June 2, 1988
Alma materUniversity at Albany (BA)
Occupations
  • Actress
  • rapper
  • comedian
Years active2005–present
AwardsFull list
Musical career
OriginQueens, New York, U.S.
Genres
InstrumentVocals
Websiteawkwafina.com
Nora Lum
Chinese林家珍
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinLín Jiāzhēn
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationLàhm Gāajān
JyutpingLam4 Gaa1zan1
IPA[lɐm˩ ka˥.tsɐn˥]

Nora Lum (born June 2, 1988), known professionally as Awkwafina (/ˌɔːkwəˈfnə/), 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 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.

Since 2020, Awkwafina has 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, and IF (both 2024). She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie for starring in and producing the TV movie Quiz Lady (2023).