Awkwafina: How 'Crazy Rich Asians' star made it in Hollywood

Nora Lum, known by the stage name Awkwafina, is an American actress, rapper, and television personality.

She playes Peik Lin Goh in "Crazy Rich Asians", Hollywood romantic comedy, based on a global bestseller. The movie follows native New Yorker Rachel Chu to Singapore to meet her boyfriend's family.

 Directed by Jon M. Chu,  "Crazy Rich Asians" was released   in the United States on August 15, 2018, by Warner Bros. Pictures

Before release, Awkwafina  wrote a message about the taking risks while reflecting on the all rejection she faced during her rise to fame.

Awkwafina was born as Nora Lum in New York City to a Chinese American father, Wally, and a South Korean immigrant mother, a painter.

She grew up in Forest Hills, Queens. Her great-grandfather was a Chinese immigrant in the 1940s who opened the Cantonese restaurant Lum’s in Flushing, Queens.

Lum's mother died when she was four, and she was raised and influenced heavily by her grandmother.[7]

Lum attended LaGuardia High School where she played trumpet and was trained in classical and jazz music.

At age 16, she adopted the stage name Awkwafina, "definitely a person I repressed" and an alter ego to her "quiet and more passive" personality during her college years.