A24 photo: Steven Yeun in Minari
Steven Yeun made history this morning when he garnered a Best Actor nomination for his role in Minari.
He’s the first Asian American to be honored in the category.
He’ll go up against Riz Ahmed who is British Pakistani and won a nod in the same category for his role in Sound of Metal.
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This is the first time two Asians have been nominated for best actor in the same year.
According to Newsweek, there are two other Asians who have been nominated in the category. They are Yul Brynner who won for King & I (1956) and Ben Kingsley who also took home the Oscar for Gandhi (1982) and won a nomination in the category for House of Sand and Frog in 2003. Kingsley is Asian Indian on his father’s side and English on his mother’s side. Brynner is part Mongol.
Asian Americans celebrated Yeun’s honor on Twitter.
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