With time, the confidence Min gained from growing up and working in Asian-led environments carried over to his work in Hollywood. Tank top (price upon request), Calvin Klein Underwear. “It was a trash can commercial,” Min recalls with a smirk: a comedy sketch, paid for by a trash can company, that ended up getting millions of views on YouTube and Facebook.

A chance meeting with the team behind Wong Fu – the Asian-American production house that helped launch US comedy stars Randall Park and Harry Shum Jr – resulted in his first starring role. In his mid-20s, when Min decided to try acting, another tight-knit Asian community helped him find his footing. I was surrounded by my culture.” At school, the white kids “were the ones trying to assimilate, trying to eat more Korean food.” As a result he “never felt stifled or insecure about who I was, or my identity, or speaking up.” “My school was predominantly Asian and Korean,” Min says. I was enraptured by it.”īut unlike many Asian-Americans, Min didn’t grow up feeling like a minority. “It was tough.” Min’s grandmother lived with the family and helped spark his storytelling bug around the dinner table, “regaling us with these incredibly moving, animated stories about fleeing North Korea, experiencing the Korean War. “All I remember growing up was my parents working all day,” he says. His parents emigrated from South Korea in the US, his dad worked for a local Korean paper, while his mum ran a dry cleaning business. In some ways, Min had a typical Asian-American upbringing in Cerritos, a heavily Asian suburb of Los Angeles. Rubber band bracelets (throughout), stylist’s own.

Rainbow bracelets (price upon request), Roxanne Assoulin. Necklace (price upon request), Martine Ali.

Justin h. min