Asia Society Southern California U.S. Asia Entertainment Summit

Los Angeles

October 30, 2022

By Taylor Yukiko Sato and Suzanne Joe Kai

The 2022 U.S.-Asia Entertainment Summit was a historic event that brought leaders from Hollywood and the Asian entertainment industry to Los Angeles. 

Janet Yang, Chair of U.S.-Asia Entertainment Summit, was honored with the 2022 Career Achievement Award.

Janet made history as the first Asian American, and fourth woman to become the President of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Actress and emcee of the evening’s gala, Kara Wang said “I am particularly honored to be here as we honor Janet with the Career Achievement Award."

"We call her the Asian godmother of the industry because she has had a hand in so many of our careers. And I am just very very happy that I get to be here with this moment as we shower her with love… She has done so much for us.” 

CEO and Co-Founder of Gold House and AU Holdings, Bing Chen led a Fireside Chat with Janet Yang as she reflected on her career.

This was the 13th U.S.-Asia Entertainent Summit with panels spotlighting top talent in the Asian and Asian American entertainment industry. 

How Asia Markets Have Changed and What It means for Hollywood panel moderated by Patrick Frater, Asia Editor, Variety

• Apoorva Bakshi, Managing Partner and Co-Founder, Golden Karavan, Awedacious Originals
• Lindsay Conner, Partner, O'Melveny & Myers LLP
• Erika North, Head of Asia-Pacific Originals, Amazon Studios
• Bennett Pozil, Executive Vice President, East West Bank

Asian Women Empowered: Wavemakers in Animation panel moderated by Ramsey Naito, President, Nickelodeon Animation, Paramount Animation

• Adele Lim, Screenwriter, Crazy Rich Asians, Raya and the Last Dragon
• Domee Shi, Director, Turning Red, Bao
• Janet Wu, Director, Film, Animation - Content, Netflix

Fireside Chat with Bowen Yang

• Bowen Yang, Actor, SNL, Fire Island, Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens
• Andrew Ahn, Director, Fire Island

Evolution of Entertainment panel moderated by Heidi Chung, Media Analyst, Correspondent, Variety Intelligence Platform

• Randy Ahn, Head of Subscription Video On Demand, Roku
• Jason Kwong, Chief Innovation Officer, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment
• Rebecca Liao, Co-Founder and CEO, Saga
• Tina Trankiem, Video and Entertainment Marketing, Meta

Spotlight on Showrunners panel moderated by Piya Sinha-Roy, Writer, Journalist

• Jessica Gao, Creator, Writer, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
• Georgia Lee, Creator, Executive Producer, Partner Track
• Alan Yang, Co-Creator, Executive Producer, Director, Master of None

Asian Women Empowered Panel: The Power of Women Funding Women moderated by Janet Yang AWE Chair and Katie Soo AWE Co-Chair. Presented by Asian Women Leadership in Philanthropy Fund (AWLPF) at Asian Pacific Community Fund (APCF).

• Chun-Yen Chen, Executive Director of the APCF
• Julia Gouw, Chairwoman of the Board at Piermont Bank
• John Chiang, Former State Treasurer

The Julia S. Gouw Short Film Challenge Panel moderated by Michelle Sugihara Executive Director of Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE) honoring Inaugural Award Grantees: 

• Ragini Bhasin
• Banban Cheng
• Soma Helmi
• Liz Sargent

Entertainment Game Changer Awards were presented at the evening's Gala to:

• Bowen Yang, the first Chinese American cast member of Saturday Night Live
• Sherry Cola, comedian, actor and writer, Good Trouble and Turning Red
• Ms. Marvel, the creative team behind Marvel's first Muslim and South Asian superhero
• 88rising, Sean Myashiro, Founder/CEO, hybrid management, record label, video production, and marketing company
• Park Chan-wook, Director, Screenwriter, Producer, Joint Security Area, Thirst, The Handmaiden
• Jimmy O. Yang, Actor, Comic, Writer, Producer, Love Hard, Silicon Valley, Crazy Rich Asians
• Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert "Daniels", Directors, Writers, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and Producer Jonathan Wang with Actor Ke Huy Quan, who presented the award. 

Singer, songwriter Paravi sang during the gala dinner. Asia Society Southern California Chair, Katie Soo, gave closing remarks at the U.S.-Asia Entertainment Summit for this historic year in Asian and Asian American representation.