The Korean American Actor Who Called Out Hollywood’s Racism | Legacy Project Hollywood

Stephen Park is an actor who was born in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, to Korean immigrant parents seeking to relocate their family away from the busy city. When he was a child, his family moved to a small town called Waverly before eventually settling in Vestal, New York. Stephen describes how he became a class clown during his school days—popular among his peers, but often made fun of or taken advantage of by the same “friends,” some of whom targeted him for his ethnicity.

In college, Stephen encountered racism within his school’s theater department, which largely cast white actors in a limited, rotating repertoire of plays. After one casting incident, Stephen organized a protest against the department’s racial biases, culminating in the creation of a student-body “minority representative” position.

Passionately outspoken on racial injustice in Hollywood, Stephen later wrote a mission statement style open letter after witnessing blatant racism on the set of Friends. Though initially unpublished by the L.A. Times, the letter circulated widely online and led to invitations to speak at universities and conferences about racism and diversity in the entertainment industry.

Stephen’s acting credits include memorable roles in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, In Living Color, Fargo, and guest appearances on Friends. Today, he continues to appear in film and television, most recently featured in Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17 and Alex Scharfman’s Death of a Unicorn.

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CREDITS
Interviewer: HJ Lee
Video & Audio: Kimberly Young Sun @kimberlyyoungsun
Editor: Kimberly Young Sun
Production Manager: Kimberly Young Sun
Motion Designer: Aj Valente https://ajyval.myportfolio.com
Music Composer: Jang Hyeong Yoon
Executive Producer: HJ Lee

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