Background and career
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. From 2020 to 2023, Awkwafina was a co-creator, writer, and executive producer of the Comedy Central series Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens, in which she played 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 voiced roles in Storks (2016), The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019), Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), The Little Mermaid, Migration (both 2023), Kung Fu Panda 4, IF (both 2024), and Descendants: Wicked Wonderland (2026) as well as The Bad Guys film franchise (2022–present). She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie for producing the TV movie Quiz Lady (2023).
Early life and education Nora Lum was born in Stony Brook, New York, the only child of Wally Lum (Chinese: 林希凡), a Chinese American, and Tia Lum (born Hong Hyun Joo), a Korean American. Her father worked in the information technology field, and her mother was a painter. Her paternal family were restaurateurs; her great-grandfather, Jimmy Lum (林华耀), immigrated to the United States in 1937 from Xinhui, Guangdong, and opened the Cantonese restaurant Lum's in Flushing, Queens, one of the neighborhood's first Chinese restaurants. Her paternal grandparents remained in China until 1965, settling in Whitestone, Queens with relatives. Her maternal family immigrated to the United States in 1972 from Gunwi County, Daegu. Awkwafina's mother died from pulmonary hypertension in 1992 when she was four, and Awkwafina was raised by her father and paternal grandparents. Awkwafina's Chinese name was chosen by her grandfather, Lin Yihe (林以和), who was a research assistant at Columbia University.
She became especially close to her grandmother, Powah Lum (刘宝华), who was a nurse at Stony Brook University Hospital. Awkwafina grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, and attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, where she played the trumpet and was trained in classical music and jazz. At age 15, she adopted the stage name Awkwafina, originally a nickname coined by one of her friends, which she described as "definitely a person I repressed" and an alter ego to her "quiet and more passive" personality during her college years. Her stage name referenced the way that brands such as Neutrogena feminize themselves, and her self-perception as "awkwardly fine". She cited Charles Bukowski, Anaïs Nin, Joan Didion, Tom Waits, and Chet Baker as early influences. From 2006 to 2008, she learned Mandarin at Beijing Language and Culture University to communicate with her paternal grandmother. She majored in journalism and women's studies at the University at Albany and graduated in 2011.
How Awkwafina makes money
She has voiced roles in Storks (2016), The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019), Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), The Little Mermaid, Migration (both 2023), Kung Fu Panda 4, IF (both 2024), and Descendants: Wicked Wonderland (2026) as well as The Bad Guys film franchise (2022–present). Her stage name referenced the way that brands such as Neutrogena feminize themselves, and her self-perception as "awkwardly fine".
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth, in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
