Celebrating this year’s history-making Asian Tony nominees
Ahead of the 2025 Tony Awards on Sunday, we're rooting for this year’s six nominees of Asian descent
Daniel Dae Kim as DHH in "Yellow Face."
Joan Marcus
Words by Lauren Perez Silva
When Willa Kim won a Tony award for Best Costume Design in a Musical in 1981, she became the first winner of Asian descent in the awards’ 34-year history at that point. It wasn’t a long wait for the next winner of Asian descent: in 1983, Ming Cho Lee became the first and only person of Asian descent to win for Best Scenic Design in a Play (he had previously been nominated in 1970 for Best Scenic Design in a Musical). Just a few years later in 1988, David Henry Hwang and BD Wong became the first Asian American playwright and actor, respectively, to win in their categories for M. Butterfly.
There have been more “firsts” since then, with 19 total wins by people of Asian descent across the Tony categories, and many more still nominated. Still, there are other “firsts” for us on the horizon—for example, no actress of Asian descent has even been nominated for a role in a play—which makes it extra exciting each year to see which Asians are recognized for their work every Tony season. Ahead of the 2025 Tony Awards on Sunday, let’s celebrate this year’s six nominees of Asian descent, all of whom are being nominated for the first time.
Darren Criss
Darren Criss at the press day for "Maybe Happy Ending."
Photo by Michaelah Reynolds, courtesy of Polk and Co.
Darren Criss, best known for his TV roles on Glee and The Assassination of Gianni Versace, is nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for his portrayal as the stiff, but kind, humanoid robot Oliver in Maybe Happy Ending.
Variety called Criss’s “commitment to the physicality…remarkable and impressive,” and noted that he was the “stronger singer” compared to his co-star Helen J. Shen. In addition, an anonymous Tony voter told Vulture that it “takes a lot of talent to give humanity to a robot.”
The third actor of Asian descent to be nominated in this category, if Criss wins, he would be the first to do so.
Nicole Scherzinger
Famed Pussycat Dolls frontwoman Nicole Scherzinger is now a Tony nominee for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, as Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd. An iconic role played in previous iterations by Patti LuPone and Glenn Close, the fallen starlet Norma Desmond is made fresher (and bloodier) by Scherzinger’s performance in this current revival.
“Scherzinger and the stage she inhabits push each other to grand extremes. The result is something like magic,” Variety writes about her performance. Another anonymous Tony voter told Vulture that Scherzinger won their vote for “elevat[ing] the entire story for me to another level because of her transcendent performance.”
Scherzinger would be the first Native Hawaiian and actress of Asian descent to win in this category since Lea Salonga’s win in 1991, when she became the first Asian actress to win a Tony.
Daniel Dae Kim
Daniel Dae Kim is the first actor of Asian descent to be nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play.
Known largely for his TV and film roles, Kim is no stranger to theater, having starred in The King and I at both Royal Albert Hall and on Broadway in 2009. Playing a version of Hwang in Yellow Face, who wrote the play and based it off of some of his personal experiences, Kim “capably holds the show’s center as DHH, with an appealing layer of fluster behind his veneer of success,” according to Time Out.
Francis Jue
Francis Jue has been nominated for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for his portrayal of HYH and other characters in Yellow Face. An actor of Asian descent has not won in this category since Wong’s 1988 win.
Time Out’s review of the play called Jue “irreplaceable…in a heart-bursting turn as Hwang’s father, Henry (or HYH), an immigrant banker still giddy at the breadth of American possibility.” One of Vulture’s anonymous Tony voters is leaning towards Jue, noting that Jue “grew even more into” the role of HYH, which he first inhabited off-Broadway (and won awards for) in 2008.
Conrad Ricamora
Up against Jue for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play, Conrad Ricamora plays Mary's Husband, or a lustful Abraham Lincoln, in the riotous play Oh, Mary!. Seen on screens in How to Get Away with Murder and Fire Island, Ricamora has already made a name for himself on the stage for starring in the musical Here Lies Love and a revival of The King and I.
His portrayal of Lincoln garnered critical praise ahead of this nomination. “Ricamora is a hoot as Abraham,” wrote The Hollywood Reporter, while a Tony voter told Vulture that they couldn’t “imagine another actor playing that role.”
Hue Park
Hue Park’s musical Maybe Happy Ending picked up three Tony nominations: Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Original Score. Park shares the book and score nominations with his working partner, Will Aronson.
“Aronson and Park have made these robots feel anything but robotic, and have made their musical feel as much about the human condition as it is about technological advancements,” wrote Variety in its review of the musical.
Published on June 6, 2025
Words by Lauren Perez Silva
Lauren Perez Silva is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer. She specializes in personal essays, spanning bi-ethnic and millennial girlhood, culture, and mental health. She also writes educational health and wellness articles, favoring supplements, nutrition, mental health and holistic medicine. You can find her work in Forbes Health, Oh Reader magazine, and her Substack, Just a Mix of Things. When she's not working, she's probably reading, embroidering, or hanging out with her tortie cat.