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In 1955, Dorothy Dandridge became the first Black woman to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for Carmen Jones. She was effervescent, witty, hilarious and a touchstone for Angela Bassett, Halle Berry, and Jada Pinkett Smith, who have all cited her as the blueprint.
In 1915, Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa appeared in a silent film and sparked an instant, international fandom. Hayakawa started his own production studio which produced 23 films but acted in over 100 films himself. He was also widely considered the first Hollywood sex symbol.
Triple threat Jennifer Lopez was the first Latina to be paid $1 million for a film in Selena, and the first Latina to top the Billboard and box office charts simultaneously. She was also robbed of an Oscar nom for Hustlers, as we all know.
At Cannes in 1973, the festival jury declared Bill Gunn’s vampire horror, Ganja & Hess, one of the best films of the year. As sensual as it was spooky, the movie was a major breakthrough for Black indie filmmakers. Spike Lee remade the film as Da Sweet Blood of Jesus in 2014.
25 years before Crazy Rich Asians hit theaters, the first Hollywood film to feature an all Asian American cast was The Joy Luck Club, co-adapted as a screenplay by Amy Tan from her bestselling, award-winning novel about multiple generations of Chinese immigrant women.
A standout cast member on Silicon Valley and a hilarious stand-up comedian, Kumail Nanjiani is one of Hollywood’s first Pakistani-American stars. He starred in and co-wrote the beloved indie romance, The Big Sick, and if you haven't already heard, he is currently ripped as hell.
Rita Moreno triumphantly took home a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1962 for her performance as Anita in West Side Story, making her the first Puerto Rican woman to win. This God-like woman later became an EGOT recipient and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
You know him, you love him. You’re low-key afraid of what’s in his imagination. Already a beloved comedian, Jordan Peele became the first Black director to win the Oscar For Best Original Screenplay in 2018 with his directorial debut, Get Out.
Do we even have to tell you? Ok, we will. Oprah was the first Black woman to own her own production company, the first woman to own and produce her own talk show, and has been nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in her very first movie role, The Color Purple.
Alejandro González Iñárritu is the third director in history to win Best Director back to back, for Birdman and The Revenant. Known globally as an auteur, Iñárritu broke into Hollywood after years of making critically acclaimed Spanish language films. His content is THAT. GOOD.
Like any smart artist, Iñárritu knows who to collab with. In the mid 2010s, many-time Iñárritu collaborator Emmanuel Lubezki became the first Mexican cinematographer to take home an astounding three Oscars in a row, for Gravity, Birdman, and The Revenant.
One of the most recognizable Asian American actors in Hollywood, John Cho hit the mainstream starring in the stoner classic Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. In 2018, he became the first Asian American actor to play the lead role in a Hollywood thriller for the movie Searching.
An American film, television and Broadway actor and director, Ossie Davis received the National Medal of Arts and the NAACP Image Award for best performance by a supporting actor for Do the Right Thing (1989). His talents are seriously unmatched. Unmatched, we said!
The most successful Asian American director to date, Ang Lee has won two Oscars and made classic movies including Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi. One of his first, Pushing Hands, explores tension at home when a Chinese American man brings his father to live with his family.
Irrfan Khan is a widely celebrated Bollywood actor that's been credited as a cultural bridge between South Asian cinema and American film before his passing earlier this year. His movies have grossed over 4 billion worldwide and is considered a one man box office juggernaut.
Songwriter Robert Lopez was the youngest and quickest film industry professional not only to EGOT, but to EGOT more than once. He shares four wins with his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, and you can thank them for earworms such as "Remember Me," and "Let It Go."
