Who's Rising
New names, second leads, breakout faces, and the people we have our eyes on, personally.
October's Soft Power Index: Michelle Yeoh's Busan prize, Indonesia's Citra ballot and Ibuku premiere, Rosé's LACMA booking, and the BLACKPINK songs YG would not license for Always Lalisa.
Image: Harald Krichel (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Bae Hyun-sung plays the son who returns wrong in Yeon Sang-ho’s Paradise Lost, out in Korea October 21 after TIFF and Busan. It is his first feature lead, and the casting started with one Hellbound episode.
Image: CJ ENM
Hsu Kuang-han left Nantou substitute service in August 2025 and walked straight into Measure in Love, a Cheng Wei-hao crime series, and a Taipei Golden Disc mic. Japan just got the romance under a new title. The Marvel rumor can wait.
Image: Play大明星 (CC BY 3.0)
Sarnia-raised, Toronto-based actor-director Shreya Patel is MISAFF’s 2026 Rising Star. She hosts a symposium chat with Transplant lead Hamza Haq on October 1 as the Mississauga festival runs through October 4.
Image: Shreya Patel
Sri Lankan-born Perth founder Rosh Kumarasinghe led makeup for Marco Rambaldi and Casa Preti at Milan Fashion Week, becoming the first South Asian Makeup Director reported on the official schedule while her vegan brand sponsored both shows.
Image: Beauty by Rosh
HYBE's new girl group TUIDE just got its first Billboard week: No. 1 on Emerging Artists, World Albums No. 3, Top Album Sales No. 8. The debut EP already cleared 112,000 first-week copies at home.
Image: ABD / The Korea Times
The older Raj sister signed the first joint Republic × HYBE America deal, with 5 Junction Management in the room. Lara is already at HYBE × Geffen. Rhea spent a decade getting there on her own terms.
Image: Angel Rivera
Anushka Sen is the first Indian actor to headline a South Korean film. Jeju Olle wraps a three-year India-Korea bridge into a Jeju romance musical with a November multi-market release.
Image: News1 / 오미란
Unloveu is Lara Raj's first songwriting and production credit on a KATSEYE release, written with Amy Allen and Ross Golan and buried on the Target edition of Wild. It landed the same week the EP hit No. 1.
Image: David Lee (CC BY 4.0)
Vietnam's defining supermodel developed the script for eight months, produced it, and played the dancer who gets destroyed. Madame in Saigon opens in North America this week after a domestic run that lost money.
Image: Live On
In Honolulu, Asian life spans Kalihi, Ala Moana, Waikīkī, and Kakaʻako without needing to perform for a white center. Mainland "Asian American" culture often sells the polished slice. Here the range just reads as local.
Image: Goldscene
Ruby Ruiz and Pokwang tied for Cinemalaya Best Actress after decades of work Manila already knew. Hollywood still treats women like Dolly de Leon, Chai Fonacier, and Jaclyn Jose as overnight finds.
Image: Cinemalaya / Black Cap Pictures
Li Sitong was a Jieyang finance student when a Douyin search made her the lead of Dear You. The film is already a roughly $291 million hit. September 4 is whether North America learns her name.
Image: Well Go USA / Damai Entertainment
OUT Museum, a bilingual one-room space at 949 Clay Street, bills itself as the world’s first Chinese queer museum. Founder Xiangqi Chen built it so Chinese LGBTQ+ artists from China and the diaspora can be seen in public, including work that cannot safely circulate at home.
Image: Cecilia Lei / COYOTE Media Collective
After singing Mira in KPop Demon Hunters and riding Golden through the Hot 100 and awards season, Audrey Nuna drops superHuman on Republic with Cirkut, her first solo since Trench and a VCT Pacific Stage 2 anthem.
Image: Ajt9 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Big Hit Music's first boy group in six years is under a year old and already selling out arenas, hitting Billboard No. 3, and spilling into 870 movie theaters. Cortis is rising as inventory math, not a slow-burn debut.
Image: Big Hit Music / The Korea Herald
Colorado-born Ji-young Yoo went from Tribeca and Expats to Zoey's speaking voice in Netflix's most-watched film. Now she leads Paramount and HYBE's K-Pop: The Debut, due February 26, 2027.
Image: Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Vijay’s 69th and final film hits theaters worldwide on July 23 after CBFC delays and a spring leak, with the actor already months into office as Tamil Nadu chief minister. The release joins a rare MGR-era parallel more than a normal opening weekend.
Image: KiranSaphoto (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Jun Ji-hyun's summer is a stacked career, not a single award night: My Sassy Girl in 4K, Colony from Cannes Midnight to 5.91 million admissions to NYAFF's first Korean actress Extraordinary Star Asia honor, Well Go USA theaters on August 28, and Human X Gumiho already booked for Amazon Prime in 2027.
Image: Republic of Korea (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Goldscene's July 2026 Soft Power Index ranks who converted attention into lasting influence across BTS's World Cup final halftime and Paris stadium run, Jun Ji-hyun's Colony stack, luxury ambassador weeks, Hope's argument-driven box office, and KATSEYE's HITC setup.
Image: Kenneth C. Zirkel (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Chayadhorn "Ing" Kitiyadisai turned ingredient explainers into Ingu Skin, a fast-growing Thai skincare brand now testing whether formulas made for tropical weather can travel across Southeast Asia.
Image: Ingu Skin
Goldscene's June 2026 Soft Power Index tracks who converted attention into cultural influence across SMA week, girl-group chart heat, residency gravity, and comeback windows for North American diaspora audiences.
Image: Supercarwaar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Late June rising radar: Felix on hanbok billboards, U-Know Yunho's solo Asia tour map, Esnyr's comeback momentum, Eunnuri Lee's protest art visibility, and Austin Kang's sports-culture crossover clips.
Image: The Korea Times
Felix of Stray Kids was named the Ministry of Culture's 2026 Hanbok Wave artist on June 17, partnering with five domestic hanbok brands on designs, pictorials, and billboards in Seoul, New York, Paris, and Milan.
Image: Jason Hargrove / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Filipino creator Esnyr Ranollo returned with a 53-minute First Day High YouTube special on June 14, starring Vice Ganda, Donny Pangilinan, Belle Mariano, and other Pinoy stars, hitting 4 million views in under 24 hours.
Image: Esnyr / YouTube
Ten Asian Canadian writers to start with after CBC Books' wider reading map: spy, horror, grief comedy, memoir, queer YA, romance, fantasy, comics, mystery, and Giller-winning literary fiction.
Image: CBC Books
Kevin Jonas says he got sick in the bathroom while wingmanning Nick Jonas on his first date with Priyanka Chopra-Jonas at the Hollywood Bowl.
Image: Indian Express
Creator Eunnuri Lee argues in a TikTok get-ready-with-me video that white activists too often center self-expression at protests, turning solidarity into spectacle and content.
Image: Where Is The Buzz
Greta Lee wore mid-length fringe at the Toy Story 5 UK launch in London, framing micro bangs as a red-carpet trend the Past Lives star has worn on and off for years.
Image: Karwai Tang / Getty Images via Harper's Bazaar
PEN America's PEN Ten interview with Sarah Wang centers on her debut novel New Skin and themes of beauty standards and the modern immigrant experience in North America.
Image: Little, Brown and Company
Kimberly Kong, known as Nomtastic Kim, and her partner are building #100AsianRestaurantsInMaryland series spotlighting mom-and-pop Asian eateries statewide.
Image: Valerie Plesch / The Banner
A desk guide to how Asian and diaspora talent is rising now: through multilingual reach, streaming crossovers, fan discipline, luxury visibility, and storytellers who make place-specific TV feel mainstream.
Image: Outhere505 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Goldscene's Soft Power Index tracks which Asian entertainers converted attention into cultural influence this week across music, fashion, and streaming.
Image: Outhere505 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Maggie Kang received recognition in Korea, director of Netflix's KPop Demon Hunters, tying the honor to the film's visibility in the K-culture conversation.
Image: TV10 (CC BY 4.0)
BLACKPINK's Lisa lined up for a Las Vegas residency as the first K-pop artist to headline that kind of Strip engagement.
Image: Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Entertainers who move easily between languages are building careers that skip the old crossover waiting period, especially in music and digital content.
Image: Lerdsuwa / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Asian entertainers are no longer crossing over into Western fame. They are building parallel global careers that luxury, streaming, and social platforms now treat as the default model for star power.
Image: Sian Lilly (CC BY 3.0)
The Goldscene Desk
Mina Park
Anika Rao