Asian Canadians to Watch in 2023

by Rebecca Gao
December 29, 2022

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2022 has undoubtedly been a landmark year for Asian representation. From Everything Everywhere All at Once rocking the big screen (and Michelle Yeoh’s rightful career renaissance) to season two of Netflix’s Bridgerton centring a pair of south Asian sisters, Asian talent has been front and centre this year. And while relishing these moments is great (especially as you cozy up in front of the TV during the cold holiday season), there’s so much more to look forward to in 2023. 

Here up North, Canada is bursting at the seams with talented Asians across all industries! Looking towards the year ahead, we’ve rounded up our first-annual list of Asian Canadians to look out for in 2023.

Among Toronto’s largely male-dominated music scene, Tiger Balme is the sonic salve we need. Led by Asian women and gender-nonconforming folks, members Anda Zeng, Danielle Sum, Estyr Chen and Yang Chen synergize to create music that heals wounds of the past, expands what the future could hold, and explores how the system we live under impacts our identities. 

Tiger Balme was born after Estyr Chen’s unsavoury experience navigating the Toronto music scene. “I was constantly being talked over and questioned, and I couldn’t tell how much of that was coming from my own insecurity and how much of that I was picking up on in the rooms that I was in,” Chen tells The RepresentASIAN Project. “So, I thought I think it would be really good practice for me to co-create music with other women and see, does it feel different?” 

After accruing a loyal following through performing in and around Toronto for four years, the indie-alt band and creative collective released their debut self-titled album in 2022. 

In the new year, the group will participate in a residency with the Raging Asian Womxn Taiko Drummers, devoting time to writing material and exploring new sounds. With healing and community infused in all of their creative output, Tiger Balme surely has lots more on the horizon. 

(Photo: Patch Fraser)

Iranian Canadian fashion designer Dorian Who and her label (named after herself) specializes in avant-garde, seasonless and genderless outfits that have made headlines. This year, her label debuted outside of Canada at LA Fashion Week and was nominated for the Canadian Arts and Fashion Award (CAFA) for Emerging Talent, Fashion, signifying her arrival in the fashion industry. 

On top of her maximalist style, Dorian Who hopes to educate others on the importance of slow, ethically-made fashion—especially as fast fashion brands like SHEIN continue to rise in popularity and trendiness. “Fashion is a leading cause of carbon emissions, the industry’s contribution to the climate crisis is not to be dismissed,” she told Vita Daily in October. “Being a lover of fashion, it is an ongoing battle on how to enjoy creativity and this wonderful industry, while being cautious of the short and long-term impacts on the environment.”

Plus, with her newfound platform and social media following, the designer aims to bring attention to issues close to her heart, like Mahsa Amini’s death and the protests it sparked in Iran and around the world.

After watching a pirated version of Django Unchained on his iPod Touch at age 12, Reangsei Phos knew right then and there that his future career was in film. The traditional path for him was clear: film school. But a year into his degree at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), he dropped out. 

“When I dropped out, I didn’t know anyone else who had done the same. It’s always something you hear from celebrities, but I didn’t know anyone personally who dropped out of school,” Phos tells The RepresentASIAN Project. “I felt alone. I didn’t have anything to refer to or a case study to use. There was a lot of uncertainty.” 

Hailing from Markham, Ontario, the Chinese-Cambodian Toronto-based writer and director has since made waves for his short films #StopAsianHate and Talisman, the latter of which won the Audience Award at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth.

Drawing from his childhood and culture, Phos’ films explore the auspicious superstitions of East Asian cultures and the intricacies of life through his eyes. 

As his presence grows online, Phos says he is imagining ways to create, develop and release work through non-traditional means; his most recent project, Man & Fish, was shot entirely on an iPhone 13 Pro. His upcoming film, All Bark Never Bite, is expected to be released in 2023, and is currently in the festival circuit.

In 2011, writer/director Renuka Jeyapalan took a leap of faith and quit her Bay Street job to pursue a career in film. She moved to Los Angeles, where she heard a story about a young woman who met a celebrity at a Hollywood party. “It’s clear from the initial interaction that this could be a one night stand—and the question that went through her mind was like, can I be that girl who has a one night stand with a famous actor?” recounts Jeyapalan, who took inspiration from that encounter and wrote her first feature film Stay the Night centred around that question. 

Before Stay the Night, which took about 10 years to be made, Jeyapalan worked extensively on well-loved TV shows like Kim’s Convenience, Ginny and Georgia and Workin’ Moms. “I couldn’t get my feature made, so I pivoted to television,” says Jeyapalan. But she still had other dreams. “I love movies. I’m obsessed with movies. I just wanted to be a filmmaker.” 

Stay the Night was finally shot over two winters from 2019 to 2021. The film stars Kim’s Convenience star Andrea Bang as Grace, a chronically single outcast searching for a connection, who meets down-the-his-luck NHL star Carter (played by Joe Scarpellino) on a cold winter night in Toronto. The pair strike a link and spend the night wandering around beloved haunts (like Cold Tea, RIP). The film debuted at South by Southwest in early 2022 and played a limited run in Canadian cinemas in October and November. It’ll hit Crave in January 2023. 

Next up, Jeyapalan is directing and executive producing the second season of the CBC comedy Son of a Critch, which starts airing in January. 

Vancouver-based actress Jennifer Tong knew she loved performing at a young age. Growing up, she dabbled in dance, singing and musical theatre before finally discovering acting as her main passion. However, the 26-year-old’s journey into Hollywood hasn’t always been smooth sailing. When she began auditioning in 2017, she was up for roles with ambiguous titles such as “Asian woman” or “Asian girl.” 

“It’s hard because, as an actor, everything is so out of your control, and you have to go along with it… I [wasn’t] in a position to say no to roles or gigs because I was trying to establish my career,” she tells The RepresentASIAN Project. “Earlier in my career, I didn’t know why it felt wrong. But as the industry grew and as society became more aware of systemic racism, that’s when I realized, ‘Oh, that’s why it felt weird.”

However, Tong found a fitting role in the Netflix and CBC Gem show FAKES which follows two best friends who accidentally built one of North America’s largest fake ID empires. Her character, Rebecca, is a rebellious high schooler who is presented as rich and slightly superficial; however, throughout the series, we see she is a motivated, passionate and adventurous girl who also has “fatal flaws” of hurting others.

“She was a really refreshing character to take in because she rebelled against a lot of the stereotypes that are often put onto Asian women,” explains Tong. “Also, the story wasn’t about her being Asian; she didn’t have to learn kung-fu and run a Chinese restaurant… throughout the season, we see nods to the fact that she’s Asian, but it’s never  in a way that’s superficial.”

Tong hopes this character, along with her future roles, will inspire other aspiring Asian actresses, as well as continue to make a case for more Asian representation both on and off camera.

“If you’re an Asian girl out there who wants to be an actor and not be [cast] the nerdy best friend, it can happen, and it will happen,” she says. “Asian representation is incredibly important in all forms and articulations, so I hope we can continue on that path as well and keep growing because there’s a lot of work that still needs to be done. And I think it comes from the top in terms of producers, greenlighting different projects and writers writing stories that matter and are true and relatable to all different kinds of marginalized communities.”