Ryan Potter

While there is still a long way to go in terms of diversity at the Oscars, the Asian American community was not only represented it even took home a few statues this year. Best animated feature went to Big Hero 6, a film that featured Disney’s first mixed race lead in its Asian American protagonist Hiro Hamada played by the Japanese American Ryan Potter. While the film was a love letter to Japanese culture by Disney, the film did a great job at not resorting to stereotypes when portraying Hiro or his multi-ethnic family. Tom Cross a Vietnamese American, also took home an Academy Award for editing on staff favorite Whiplash. That was the film’s third Oscar win of the night.   Marketing Director Dan Tabor actually got a chance to interview Ryan Potter, for Geekadelphia, a hyper-local arts and entertainment blog. It’s definitely worth a read since Ryan discusses what it was like for him to be the be the first Asian American in a Disney film and what that meant to him growing up in both San Francisco and Tokyo. You can read the interview HERE.