Asian and India's far East Pleasures Karma Sutra Women of Beauty

1. Michelle Yeoh

Actress | Everything Everywhere All at Once

Michelle Yeoh was born in Ipoh, Malaysia. She's the daughter of Janet Yeoh & Kian Teik Yeoh. She's of Hokkien descent, speaking English and Malay before Chinese. A ballet dancer since 4, she moved to London to study at the Royal Academy as a teen. After a brief dance career, she won the Miss ...

2. Ziyi Zhang

Actress | Yi dai zong shi

Ziyi Zhang is a Chinese actress and model. She is best known for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Rush Hour 2 (2001), Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004), and Memoirs of a Geisha (2005).

She made her feature film debut in The Road Home (1999).

For her work in Memoirs of a Geisha she was...

3. Joan Chen

Actress | Judge Dredd

Born into a family of doctors and educated in China at the Shanghai Film Academy and the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Languages, Joan Chen was discovered by veteran Chinese director Jin Xie while observing a filming with a school group. Her performance in Xiao hua (1979) (A.K.A. "The Little Flower...

4. Mindy Kaling

Actress | The Office

Vera Mindy Chokalingam is an Indian-American actress, comedienne, producer, writer and director from Cambridge, Massachusetts known for playing Kelly Kapoor in The Office, Disgust in Inside Out, and creating The Mindy Project. She also appeared in Wreck-It Ralph, Despicable Me, The 40-Year-Old ...

5. Moon Bloodgood

Actress | Terminator Salvation

Moon Bloodgood was born on September 20, 1975 in Alliance, Nebraska, USA. She is an actress, known for Terminator Salvation (2009), Faster (2010) and The Sessions (2012). She was previously married to Grady Hall.

6. Gong Li

Actress | Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia

Born in Shenyang, grew up in Jinan, the daughter of an economics professor. Loved music from childhood, and dreamed of a singing career. After failing to gain entrance to China's top music school in 1985, applied for and was admitted to the Central Drama Academy in Beijing, from which she graduated...

7. Ming-Na Wen

Actress | Mulan

Ming-Na ("enlightenment") was born on the island of Macau, forty miles from Hong Kong. Her mother, Lin Chan Wen, divorced her father when Ming-Na was only a toddler. She has an older brother named Jonathan. After the divorce, they moved to Hong Kong where her mother became a nurse. There her mother...

8. Devon Aoki

Actress | 2 Fast 2 Furious

Born in New York but raised in California, Devon Aoki is no stranger to the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Her father is former Olympic wrestler and Benihana restaurant magnate Rocky Aoki and her mother is Pamela Hilburger, a jewelry designer. Devon is of Japanese (from her father) and German ...

9. Sarita Choudhury

Actress | Lady in the Water

After her debut film Mississippi Masala (1991) became an art house hit, Sarita Choudhury was determined not to "go Hollywood," focusing her acting energies on independent film instead.

Raised in Jamaica, Mexico, and Italy, the half-Indian, half-English Choudhury studied economics at Queens ...

10. Amrapali Ambegaokar

Actress | Truth Be Told

The former Principal Dancer of Cirque du Soleil in over 750 shows, Amrapali is an American actress with recurring roles on 18 episodes in ABC's Scandal seasons 4,5, 6 and 7 and she previously recurred in 19 episodes of ABC's Grey's Anatomy with Guest starring roles on NBC's Heroes and roles on The ...

11. Rayna Tharani

Actress | The Young Pope

Rayna Tharani is an actress, writer and director known for films such as For Colored Girls. She has appeared in many television shows including Rosewood (FOX) NCIS (CBS) Criminal Minds (CBS) Days of Our Lives (NBC) among others. She moved to Los Angeles as a dancer upon graduating from San Diego ...

12. Veerta Motiani

Actress | Easy A

Veerta Motiani was born on August 8, 1984 in Mumbai, India. She is an actress, known for Easy A (2010), You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008) and Being Bin Laden (2011).

13. Summer Bishil

Actress | Nothing Is Private

Summer Bishil was born in Pasadena, California. She and her family moved overseas when she was three. Summer attended British and American schools while her family lived overseas, She returned to her home town of Pasadena just shy of her 14th birthday. In love with the idea of becoming an actress ...

14. Tinsel Korey

Actress | The Twilight Saga: New Moon

The Canadian-born Arizonan actress Tinsel Korey is best known for her role as "Emily" in The Twilight Saga.

Korey's career started after her passion for performing skits as a young child led her to pursue her dream to become a professional actress. As a teen she appeared in many commercials, and ...

15. Imali Perera

Actress | Repo Men

Born in Sri Lanka. Grew up in Calgary, Alberta. Started her studies in Piano, Speech & Drama and Singing at the age of 6. Invited to study Opera at McGill University, she left Calgary and moved to Montreal and finished her degree in Music and Voice Performance there. However, Imali opted to ...

16. Sofia Hayat

Actress | Jonathan Creek

Sofia Hayat is an award winning actress, who has worked both in Hollywood and on Bollywood projects. She began her career in 2003, where she starred in "Absolute Power", with Stephen Fry. She went on to have roles in Footballers Wives Extra Time, Waterloo Road for the BBC, and starred in films, ...

17. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

Actress | Jodhaa Akbar

Born into a traditional south Indian family, Aishwarya started modeling at a young age. This green-blue-eyed beauty appeared in advertisements for many prestigious firms; the ones that brought her into the limelight were the garden sari and the Pepsi ad. Crowned Miss India 1994 runner-up, she was a...

18. Noureen DeWulf

Actress | Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Actress Noureen DeWulf was born in New York and raised in Georgia. Her parents are from Pune, India. She was educated at Boston University's School of the Arts. One of DeWulf's first roles was in the Oscar winning short West Bank Story (2005). Acting success continued with roles in TV hits such as ...

19. Julia Nickson

Actress | China Cry: A True Story

Julia Nickson was born on the beautiful island city of Singapore. Her early years were spent in the vales of Wiltshire, England, followed by the red rock canyons of the Zambezi river in Africa, but she returned to Singapore after her father's death, when she was six. From the age of seven to ...

20. Shu Qi

Actress | The Transporter

Born in Taiwan, Qi Shu has won the prestigious Golden Horse Award in Taiwan (regarded as the East Asian Oscar) for Best Supporting Actress in 1998. She has also received a Golden Horse Award for Best Leading Actress in 2005. She appeared with Jackie Chan in the romantic comedy Gorgeous (1999) ("...

21. Kelly Hu

Actress | The Scorpion King

On February 13th, 1968, a girl of Chinese, English, and Hawaiian ancestry was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her father, Herbert, was a salesman and her mother, Juanita, worked many odd jobs to help support the family. She has one older brother, Glenn. She is a former Miss Teen USA, and modeled in Japan...

22. Bai Ling

Actress | Red Corner

Bai Ling is recognized for unbridled freedom and creativity, Bai Ling has become undoubtedly one of the world's most diverse and captivating actresses! Born in the city of Cheng Du in southern China, Bai Ling began her career at age of 14. She enlisted In the Chinese People's Liberation Army, where...

23. Maggie Cheung

Actress | Fa yeung nin wah

Maggie Cheung was born on September 20, 1964, in Hong Kong, and moved at the age of eight with her family to England. After finishing secondary school, she returned to Hong Kong, where she began modeling and appearing in commercials. In 1983 she participated in the Ms. Hong Kong pageant, winning ...

24. Tia Carrere

Actress | Wayne's World

Tia Carrere, born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, was discovered in a grocery store and landed the female lead in the film Aloha Summer. She then moved to Los Angeles and continued her ascent in the acting world as a series regular on General Hospital as well as a string of guest starring roles on ...

25. Jamie Chung

Actress | Big Hero 6

Jamie Chung was born and raised in California, the daughter of Korean parents. She studied Economics at the University of California, Riverside. Chung's break came in 2004, when she was working in a sports bar. MTV held auditions for The Real World (1992) there, she tried out, and was successful, ...

26. Koyuki

Actress | The Last Samurai

She rose to fame in the drama Kimi wa petto (2003) with Jun Matsumoto and gained huge popularity.

Her first international film was The Last Samurai (2003) where she played Taka, wife of a Samurai slain by the character Nathan Algren, portrayed by Tom Cruise, Koyuki was well-known in Japan for years ...

27. Ayelet'

Actress | Weeds

Ayelet' left her home country Israel and relocated herself to Los Angeles, CA. Seeking for an acting career, Ayelet' landed her first American TV role on the CW Tv show '90210' More TV work followed and she landed a recurring role on ShowTime series 'Weeds' playing the role of young Arab Beauty, ...

28. Asin Thottumkal

Actress | Ghajini

Asin was born in Cochin, Kerala, India in the Malayalam-speaking Thottumkal family which consists of her businessman dad, Joseph, and mom, Dr. Seline, who practices in Ernakulam. She attended Naval Public School in Cochin, and after obtaining her Matriculation, was enrolled in St. Theresa's Higher ...

29. Ayesha Takia

Actress | Taarzan: The Wonder Car

Ayesha Takia was born in Mumbai on April 10th 1986. Her father's name is Nishit, a Gujarati and her mother's name is Faridah, who is half Maharashtrian and half Caucasian British.

Ayesha had never let her lack of speaking Hindi fluently come in her way. A go-getter, she is no stranger to the silver ...

30. Sonakshi Sinha

Actress | Holiday

She is the daughter of legendary Indian actor Shatrughan Sinha and Poonam Sinha and sister to Luv Sinha and Kussh Sinha. She started her career as a model and walked the ramp in the Lakme Fashion week in 2008. She got her break in movies after being signed up by Salman Khan for his thriller Dabangg...

31. Rachel Grant

Actress | Die Another Day

Actress Rachel Louise Grant De Longueuil was born on the Island of Luzon in the Philippines. Her mother is Filipino and her father, British. Rachel is the middle of three sisters and grew up in the English town of Nottingham where she and her sisters performed on stage for many years. She attended ...

32. Marie Matiko

Actress | The Art of War

Marie Matiko was born on September 12, 1970 in Los Angeles County, California, USA. She is an actress, known for The Art of War (2000), Mystery Men (1999) and Date Movie (2006).

33. Lucy Liu

Actress | Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Born to immigrants in New York City, Lucy Liu has always tried to balance an interest in her cultural heritage with a desire to move beyond a strictly Asian-American experience. Her mother, Cecilia, a biochemist, is from Beijing & her father, Tom Liu, a civil engineer, is from Shanghai. Once ...

34. Ellen Wong

Actress | Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Ellen Wong was born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. Her first role was on the award winning television series "This Is Wonderland". She is best known for her role as Knives Chau in "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World", starring alongside Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Jason Schwartzman. She ...

35. Janina Gavankar

Actress | Borderlands

Janina Zione Gavankar (born November 29, 1980) is an American actress and musician. Gavankar is also trained as a pianist, vocalist, and orchestral percussionist. She majored in Theatre Performance at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Gavankar's roles include Papi, a lesbian lothario in The L ...

36. Freida Pinto

Actress | Slumdog Millionaire

Freida Selena Pinto was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, India, to Sylvia, a school principal, and Frederick Pinto, a senior bank branch manager. She is from a Mangalorean family.

Pinto traversed the modeling circuit in Mumbai (represented by Elite Model Management India) for two years ...

37. Priyanka Chopra Jonas

Actress | Barfi!

Priyanka Chopra Jonas (née Chopra) was born on July 18, 1982 in Jamshedpur, India, to the family of Capt. Dr. Ashok Chopra and Dr. Madhu Chopra, both Indian Army physicians. She had a very varied upbringing. She started her education at La Martinière Girls College in Lucknow as a resident student; ...

38. Kashmira Shah

Actress | Jungle

A former model and beauty queen (both as Miss University World and Miss India talent winner), Shah has acted on the big screen and on stage for over eight years, fast becoming a household name in India. She is best known for her roles in such hits as Yes Boss and Jungle, as well as for her ...

39. Cindy Cheung

Actress | The Sinner

Cindy Cheung is an award-winning actor across the stage, screen, and series. She thrilled audiences as one of the battling matriarchs in the final season of "The Sinner," and played one of the most memorable moms in "Thirteen Reasons Why." Cheung starred in two of the most high-profile Asian ...

40. Tamlyn Tomita

Actress | The Day After Tomorrow

Tamlyn Tomita was born on January 27, 1966 in Okinawa, Japan. She is an actress and writer, known for The Day After Tomorrow (2004), The Karate Kid Part II (1986) and The Eye (2008). She is married to Daniel Blinkoff.

41. Diane Mizota

Actress | Austin Powers in Goldmember

Diane Mizota was born on September 9, 1973 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), Cyrus (2010) and George of the Jungle (1997).