90+ Historical Figures that Shaped Asian and American History

Kamala Harris is an American politician and attorney. She is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well as the first African American and first Asian American vice president.

Hiram Leong Fong was an American businessman, lawyer, and politician from Hawaii. Born to a sugar plantation Cantonese immigrant worker, Fong became the first Chinese-American and first Asian-American United States Senator, serving from 1959 to 1977.

Daniel Ken Inouye was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Hawaii from 1963 until his death in 2012. Beginning in 1959, he was the first U.S. representative for the State of Hawaii.

Ladda Tammy Duckworth is an American politician and retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel serving as the junior United States senator from Illinois since 2017.

Daniel Kahikina Akaka was an American educator and politician who served as a United States Senator from Hawaii from 1990 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Akaka was the first U.S. Senator of Native Hawaiian ancestry.

Pramila Jayapal is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from Washington's 7th congressional district since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she represents most of Seattle, as well as some suburban areas of King County.

Mazie Keiko Hirono is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Hawaii since 2013. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Patsy Matsu Mink was an American attorney and politician from the U.S. state of Hawaii. Mink was a third-generation Japanese American, having been born and raised on the island of Maui.

Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu was an American civil rights activist who resisted the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Yuri Kochiyama was an American civil rights activist. Influenced by her Japanese-American family's experience in an American internment camp, her association with Malcolm X, and her Maoist beliefs.

Dalip Singh Saund “The Judge” was the first Asian American, the first Indian American, the first Sikh American, and the first member of a non-Abrahamic faith to be elected to the United States Congress.

Isabella Aiona Abbott was an educator, phycologist, and ethnobotanist from Hawaii. The first native Hawaiian woman to receive a PhD in science, she became a leading expert on Pacific marine algae.

Kalpana Chawla was an Indian-born American astronaut and mechanical engineer who was the first woman of Indian origin to go to space. She first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator.

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was an Indian-American astrophysicist who spent his professional life in the United States. He shared the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics with William A. Fowler.

Tetsuya Theodore Fujita was a Japanese-American meteorologist whose research primarily focused on severe weather. His research at the University of Chicago on severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and typhoons revolutionized the knowledge of each.

Sunita Lyn Williams is an American astronaut and United States Navy officer who formerly held the records for most spacewalks by a woman and most spacewalk time for a woman.

Satya Narayana Nadella is an Indian American business executive. He is the executive chairman and CEO of Microsoft, succeeding Steve Ballmer in 2014 as CEO and John W. Thompson in 2021 as chairman.

Narinder Singh Kapany was an Indian-American physicist best known for his work on fiber optics. He is credited with inventing fiber optics, and is considered the 'Father of Fiber Optics'.

Steven Chu is an American physicist and former government official. He is a Nobel laureate and was the 12th United States Secretary of Energy.

Min Chueh Chang, often credited as M.C. Chang, was a Chinese-American reproductive biologist. His specific area of study was the fertilisation process in mammalian reproduction.

Roseli Ocampo-Friedmann was a Filipino-American microbiologist and botanist who specialized in the study of cyanobacteria and extremophiles. Her work has been cited in work exploring the terraforming of Mars.

Fazlur Rahman Khan was a Bangladeshi-American structural engineer and architect, who initiated important structural systems for skyscrapers. Considered the "father of tubular designs" for high-rises, Khan was also a pioneer in computer-aided design.

Pichai Sundararajan, better known as Sundar Pichai, is an Indian-American business executive. He is the chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google.

Michelle Wingshan Kwan is an American retired figure skater. She is a two-time Olympic medalist, a five-time World champion and a nine-time U.S. champion. She is tied with Maribel Vinson for the all-time National Championship record.

Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist. Born in Paris to Chinese parents and educated in New York City, he was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. 

Gemma Chan is an English actress. Born and raised in London, Chan attended the Newstead Wood School for Girls and studied law at Worcester College, Oxford before choosing to pursue a career in acting instead, enrolling at the Drama Centre London.

Michael Te-Pei Chang is an American former professional tennis player. He is the youngest male player in history to win a Grand Slam tournament, winning the 1989 French Open at 17 years and 109 days old.

Steven Hiroyuki Aoki is an American DJ, record producer, music programmer, record executive, and heir to his father Rocky Aoki's fortune from the Benihana restaurant franchise.

Kalpen Suresh Modi, known professionally as Kal Penn, is an American actor, author, academic lecturer and former White House staff member in the Barack Obama administration.

Jeremy Shu-How Lin is a Taiwanese-American professional basketball player for the Beijing Ducks of the Chinese Basketball Association.

Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga is a Filipina singer and actress, best known for her roles in musical theater. At age 18, she won the Olivier and Theater World Awards and became the first Asian woman to win a Tony Award

Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa is an American actor and filmmaker. He made his acting debut as Jason Ioane on the syndicated action drama series Baywatch: Hawaii, and since 2016 has portrayed Aquaman in the DC Extended Universe. 

Li Na is a Chinese former professional tennis player. Over the course of her career, Li won nine WTA Tour singles titles including two Grand Slam singles titles at the 2011 French Open and 2014 Australian Open.

Hayley Kiyoko Alcroft is an American singer, songwriter, dancer and actress. Beginning dance lessons as a child, Kiyoko's interest in entertaining led to her working as a child model and actress.

Dwayne Douglas Johnson, also known by his ring name The Rock, is an American actor, businessman, and former professional wrestler. He wrestled for WWE for eight years prior to pursuing an acting career.

Inbee Park is a South Korean professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour and the LPGA of Japan Tour. She has been the number one ranked player in the Women's World Golf Rankings for four separate runs.

Wong Liu-tsong, known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered to be the first Chinese American Hollywood movie star, as well as the first Chinese American actress to gain international recognition.

Bruce Lee was a Hong Kong and American martial artist, martial arts instructor, actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and philosopher.

Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records.

Vera Mindy Chokalingam, known professionally as Mindy Kaling, is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, producer, director, and author.

Hideki Matsuyama is a Japanese professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He is the first-ever Japanese professional golfer to win a men's major golf championship – the 2021 Masters Tournament.

Troy Aumua Polamalu is a former American football safety who played his entire twelve-year career for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League.

Rizwan Ahmed is a British Pakistani actor and rapper. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, Primetime Emmy Award, National Board of Review Award, Independent Spirit Award, London Film Critics’ Circle Award and two British Independent Film Awards.

Victoria Manalo Draves was an American competitive diver. Draves became the first woman to be awarded gold medals for both the ten-meter platform and the three-meter springboard.

Samuel Lee was an American physician and diver. He was the first Asian American man to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States and the first man to win back-to-back gold medals in Olympic platform diving.

Ali Fazal is an Indian actor and model who primarily appears in Hindi films and television. He made his screen debut with a small role in the English language film The Other End of the Line before appearing in the American television miniseries Bollywood Hero.

Apolo Anton Ohno is an American retired short track speed skating competitor and an eight-time medalist in the Winter Olympics. Ohno is the most decorated American at the Winter Olympics and was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 2019.

Kristine Tsuya Yamaguchi is an American former figure skater. In ladies' singles, Yamaguchi is the 1992 Olympic champion, a two-time World champion, and the 1992 U.S. champion.

Hasan Minhaj is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host of Indian descent. His Netflix show Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj won two Peabody Awards and two Webby Awards.

Ichiro Suzuki, also known mononymously as Ichiro, is a Japanese former professional baseball outfielder who played professionally for 28 seasons. 

Jim Paek is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, who is currently the director of hockey for the Korea Ice Hockey Association and head coach of the South Korean national team.

Shohei Ohtani is a Japanese professional baseball player who has established himself as one of the sport’s greatest two-way players following his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut in 2018.

Emperor Meiji, also called Meiji the Great or Meiji the Good, was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule, and to later inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

Bhumibol Adulyadej, conferred with the title King Bhumibol the Great in 1987, was the ninth monarch of Thailand from the Chakri dynasty, titled Rama IX.

Elizabeth Choy Su-Moi OBE was a Singaporean educator and councillor who is regarded as a war heroine in Singapore. Along with her husband, Choy Khun Heng, she supplied medicine, money and messages to prisoners-of-war interned in Changi Prison when the Japanese occupied Singapore during World War II.

José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda was a Filipino nationalist, writer and polymath active at the end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is considered the national hero of the Philippines.

Chloé Zhao is a Chinese-born filmmaker. Zhao's debut feature film, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, premiered at Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim and earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature.

Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean film director, producer and screenwriter. The recipient of three Academy Awards, his filmography is characterized by emphasis on social themes, genre-mixing, black humor, and sudden tone shifts.

Lulu Wang is a Chinese-born American filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the comedy-drama films Posthumous and The Farewell. For the latter, she received the Independent Spirit Award for Best Film and the film was named one of the top ten films of 2019 by the American Film Institute.

Ang Lee OBS is a Taiwanese filmmaker. Born in the Pingtung County of southern Taiwan, Lee was educated in Taiwan and later in the United States. During his filmmaking career he has received international critical and popular acclaim and a range of accolades.

Jonathan Murray Chu is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known as the director of 2018's Crazy Rich Asians, the first film by a major Hollywood studio to feature a majority cast of Asian descent in a modern setting since The Joy Luck Club in 1993.

Manoj Nelliyattu "M. Night" Shyamalan is an Indian-American filmmaker and actor. He is best known for making original films with contemporary supernatural plots and twist endings. He was born in Mahé, India, and raised in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania. The cumulative gross of his films exceeds $3.3 billion globally.

Taika David Cohen ONZM, known professionally as Taika Waititi, is a New Zealand filmmaker, actor and comedian. He is a recipient of an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Grammy Award, and has received two nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards.

Bing Liu is a Chinese-American director and cinematographer. He is best known for directing the documentary Minding the Gap, which was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 91st Academy Awards.

Justin Jitae Chon is an American actor, director, and YouTube personality. He has directed three films, Gook, Ms. Purple, & Blue Bayou. He is also known for portraying Eric Yorkie in The Twilight Saga film series. He is a member of the K-pop parody group Boys Generally Asian.

Wayne Wang is a Hong Kong–American director, producer, and screenwriter. Considered a pioneer of Asian-American cinema, he was one of the first Chinese-American filmmakers to gain a major foothold in Hollywood.

Vera Ellen Wang is an American fashion designer. Wang was hired to be an editor at Vogue immediately upon graduation from Sarah Lawrence College, making her the youngest editor at that magazine.

Phillip Lim is an American fashion designer of Chinese descent whose parents immigrated to America from Thailand during the Cambodian genocide. Lim co-founded and worked at the Los Angeles-based fashion label Development from 2000 to 2004.

Prabal Gurung is an American fashion designer who was born in Singapore and was raised in Kathmandu, Nepal. After beginning his design career in New Delhi, he moved to New York to finish his studies at Parsons the New School for Design.

Derek Lam is an American fashion designer. In addition to designing his own line, Lam was Tod's creative director for ready-to-wear and accessories from 2005 until 2010.

Jason Wu is a Taiwanese-Canadian artist and fashion designer based in New York City. Born in Taiwan and raised in Vancouver, he studied fashion design at Parsons School of Design, and trained under Narciso Rodriguez before launching his own line.

Panichgul started his career as a fashion editor for Harper’s Bazaar, covering runway designers and chasing style news. In 2004, Panichgul created his first ready-to-wear collection centered on pieces that were, at once, beautiful and easy to wear.

Eric S. Yuan is a Chinese-American billionaire businessman, engineer, and the chief executive officer and founder of Zoom Video Communications, of which he owns 22%.

Jen-Hsun "Jensen" Huang is a Taiwanese-American billionaire business magnate, electrical engineer, and co-founder of Nvidia Corporation, where he currently serves as president and CEO.

Shahid Rafiq Khan is a Pakistani-American billionaire businessman and sports tycoon. He is the owner of Flex-N-Gate, an American automotive company.

David Sun is a Taiwanese-American billionaire businessman, co-founder and COO of Kingston Technology.

Vinod Khosla is an Indian-American billionaire businessman and venture capitalist. He is a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the founder of Khosla Ventures.

Jerry Chih-Yuan Yang is a Taiwanese-American billionaire computer programmer, internet entrepreneur, and venture capitalist.