Filipinos have been in the United States since the 16th century, yet many of their stories remain untold. To celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage Month, we would like to give you weekly short biographies of famous Filipino American role models and achievers, some of whom you may not even know are Filipino.

There are hundreds of names, but this month, we are only focusing on those who are still active, visible, in the limelight and who have a high “audience following” – those who continue to make us proud to be Filipino, regardless of their religious and sexual orientation and political flavor.

Lou Diamond Phillips, actor

Lou Diamond Phillips (Source: Biography.com)

Phillips was born at the Subic Bay Naval Station in the Philippines to Lucila Umayam Aranas and Gerald Amon Upchurch. His mother is a native of Candelaria, Zambales while his father is of Scot-Irish and Native American descent. He was named after the US Marine Leland “Lou” Diamond, and after his father died, he took his stepfather’s surname, Phillips. He was raised in Texas and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Drama from the University of Texas. His claim to fame came with the starring role in La Bamba (1987) where he played Ritchie Valens. In 1988, he co-starred with Edward James Olmos in Stand and Deliver and he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture and won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. His more recent works included portraying Richard Ramirez in The Night Stalker (2016) and in 2019, Aethon Books announced that it would be publishing his novel, Tinderbox: Soldier of Indira, a science fiction retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen story of the same name, and illustrated by his wife, Yvonne. He is an avid poker player. In 2006, Phillips was arrested for domestic violence and was sentenced to three years of probation. In 2017, he was arrested for driving while intoxicated and sentenced to two years of probation. He is very close to the Native American community and was adopted by an Oglala Lakota Sioux family. He is a member of Artists Against Racism and in 2020, appeared in the NoH8 LGBTQ equality campaign.

Rob Schneider, actor and comedian

Rob Schneider (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock)

Born to Pilar Monroe, a former kindergarten teacher and Marvin Schneider, a real estate broker, Schneider grew up in Pacifica, California. His maternal grandmother was a Filipina who met and married his grandfather, an American army private, while stationed in the Philippines. His mixed background is often the subject of his comedy acts. He has appeared in numerous movie and television comedies including SNL, Real Rob and Grown Ups. He won a 2005 Worst Actor Razzle Award for his role in Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo. In 1996, he established the Rob Schneider Music Foundation that provided teachers’ salaries and funds for music instruments and other equipment at Pacifica’s elementary schools. He switched political parties from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party and is an avid anti-vaccination activist.

Nico Santos, actor

Santos moved to Oregon, U.S.A. from the Philippines when he was sixteen. In his junior year, he discovered his love for acting when he attended the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He studied acting at Southern Oregon University before transitioning to costume design due to discouraging remarks from his acting teacher. He later dropped out when he came out as gay and his family refused to continue paying for his education. He moved to San Francisco in 2001 and worked at various luxury retail stores in Union Square while doing stand-up. In 2014, he landed a spot at the annual CBS Diversity Showcase and eventually landed a role on the NBC comedy television show, Superstore, where he plays Mateo Liwanag, a gay, undocumented Filipino. He had a supporting role in the 2018 romantic comedy, Crazy Rich Asians. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Santos revealed that both his mother and stepfather contracted the virus. His stepfather passed away while his mother recovered.

Manny Jacinto, actor

Manny Jacinto (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Jacinto’s family immigrated to Canada from the Philippines in 1990 when he was only three years old. He was raised in Richmond, British Columbia. He participated in hip-hop dance competitions before transitioning into acting. He was frustrated by the lack of other Asian actors in Vancouver and relocated to Los Angeles. He had small roles in Once Upon a Time, Supernatural, iZombie and The Romeo Section. The latter role won him a Leo Award nomination for Best Supporting Performance in a Dramatic Series. In 2016, he was cast in the NBC comedy, The Good Place and in 2018, he landed a spot at the sequel Top Gun: Maverick starring Tom Cruise. He is an environmental activist, joining Jane Fonda at the “Fire Drill Fridays” protests in front of the Capitol building where he gave a speech that highlighted legal action that Filipino citizens are taking against corporate climate polluters. He is the Internet’s Newest Boyfriend where one Twitter user posted, “Manny Jacinto’s jawline for president.” Glamour magazine’s headline story read, “If Manny Jacinto’s Cheekbones Can’t Get You to Care About Climate change, I Don’t know What Can.”

Dan Inosanto, martial arts instructor

Inosanto is best known as the training partner of Bruce Lee. He is an authority on Jeet Kune Do and Filipino Martial Arts including Eskrima and Pencak Silat. At age eleven, he learned Karate, Judo and Jujitsu from his uncle. Inosanto related in the film, I Am Bruce Lee, that he was the teacher to Bruce Lee, introducing the nunchaku to Lee. He continues to teach until today. Some of his famous clients include Brandon Lee (deceased son of Bruce Lee), Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker. He has written several books on martial arts and starred in several films featuring martial arts.

Caterina Fake, entrepreneur and businesswoman

Fake grew up in New Jersey with an American father and Filipina mother. As a child, she was not allowed to watch television and her hobbies included reading poetry and playing classical music. She graduated from Vassar College in 1991 with a degree in English. In 1997, she took a job managing the community forums of Netscape. In 2004, she and Stewart Butterfield started Flickr, a photosharing website that was acquired by Yahoo for $30 million. She worked briefly with Yahoo after that. In 2009, she co-founded with Chris Dixon the website, Hunch, which was bought by eBay for $80 million. In 2012, she launched Findery, headquartered in San Francisco. She has won numerous awards including Bloomberg Businessweek’s “Best Leaders” in 2005, Forbes’ Fast Company’s Fast 50, Red Herring’s 20 Entrepreneurs under 35 and the Visionary Award from the Silicon Valley Forum. She was also listed by Time magazine among the world’s most influential people under the category “Builders and Titans.”

Jennifer Rubio, businesswoman

Rubio was born in the Philippines but moved to New Jersey when she was only seven years old. She co-founded Away, a direct-to-consumer travel and luggage company, with Stephanie Korey. By 2017, they had raised $31 million, making it one of the largest seed financed female-backed start-ups. She was named among the 30 under 30 List of Inc. magazine. In 2018, Rubio received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of the Year New York Award. The company expanded its shipping to 40 countries and is valued as high as $2 billion. In 2019, she became engaged to Stewart Butterfield, Caterina Fake’s ex-husband.

Kevin Nadal, author, activist and professor

Growing up in Fremont, California, Nadal says he was bullied during his high school years for being gay. He has written about “the need for Filipino Americans to address colorism with their families and communities, the need for people to challenge homophobia and transphobia, the experiences of invisibility and marginalization of Filipino Americans and other ‘brown Asians’ in the general Asian American community, the racial microaggressions LGBTQ people of color experience in dating and sexual relationships, the systemic colorblindness and marginalization of people of color in queer studies as well as anti-Black racism.” In 2007, he gained national attention when he started an online petition against ABC Studios for negative statements made about Philippine medical schools on its show, Desperate Housewives. In 2017, American Psychologist published Nadal’s “Let’s Get in Formation: On Becoming a Psychologist-Activist in the 21st Century. He received his Bachelor degrees in psychology and political science from the University of California, Irvine, a Master’s degree in counseling from Michigan State University, as well as a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Columbia University. He is currently a full professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and The Graduate Center, CUNY.

Geena Rocero, model and transgender advocate

Born in Manila, Philippines, Rocero started competing in beauty pageants at age 15. Two years later, she immigrated to San Francisco, California, and then moved to New York City. Rocero was discovered by a fashion photographer in a restaurant in Manhattan and she spent the next 12 years modeling for international swimsuit and beauty editorials. In 2014, she launched Gender Proud, an “advocacy and awareness campaign that aims to advance the rights of all transgender individuals.” That same year, Rocero came out as transgender while delivering a TED talk in New York City. In 2015, she became the executive producer of “Beautiful As I Want to Be,” a digital series focused on transgender youth. In 2019, she became the first openly transgender Asian Pacific Islander model to pose for Playboy magazine. She has also spoken about transgender rights at the United Nations, the World Economic Forum and the White House.

Paul Qui, chef

Born in Manila, Philippines, Qui moved to the United States as a child, attended high school in Springfield, Virginia and completed his culinary training at Le Cordon Bleu in Austin, Texas. Qui was one of 29 contestants who appeared on Top Chef Season 9 in 2011 and won eight of the 16 elimination challenges and won the entire season. He is also the winner of the James Beard Award. Following his win, he opened the following high profile restaurants, among others: Qui, his flagship restaurant, East Side King, which serves various Japanese-inspired dishes via food trucks, Thai Kun which was recognized by Bon Appetit magazine as one of the best restaurants in America in 2014, Pao by Paul Qui at Faena Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. Qui received a rare four-star review from the Houston Chronicle. Then in 2016, Qui was charged with assaulting his then-girlfriend while intoxicated. Even if charges were dropped in 2018, his restaurants lost customers and investors, and most of them eventually closed. In the wake of #MeToo, critics refused to review his restaurants and female customers waited for Qui to do the right thing. In an interview with Dallas Morning in 2018, Qui said,” I can’t change the past. I can’t. All I can do is make sure people see me right in the future, and that’s what’s important to me.”

Jon Jon Briones, actor

Briones was an engineering student in the Philippines when he auditioned for Miss Saigon. He joined the touring production as a swing and covering other roles until finally playing the Engineer in 2014 in the West End revival. He was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He played that role till 2016. On April 30, 2019, Briones received the Visionary Award from East West Players during the annual awards dinner. In his speech, he said, “his vision is that we change hearts and minds in Hollywood and in the theater community so they see that we have a voice and a story – beautiful stories – to tell, and we are the ones who can and should tell it.” In 2018, he appeared in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story as the father of Andrew Cunanan, and in American Horror Story: Apocalypse as Ariel Augustus. In 2019, it was announced that Briones will star in Ratched, a Netflix drama series.

Chad Hugo, record producer

Chad Hugo (left) with Pharrell Williams (Source: Complex)

Hugo was born in Portsmouth, Virginia to Filipino parents. His father was a retired Navy officer and his mother was a laboratory technician. He is one half of the music production and writing duo, The Neptunes with Pharrell Williams. Together, they have produced number-one hit tracks. They met each other in grade school in band class. In 2002, The Neptunes were named Producers of the Year at The Source Awards and the Billboard Music Awards. He is also a member of N.E.R.D., a hip-hop band. The latter produced three songs to the soundtrack of The Sponge Bob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop” from the Manny Pacquiao movie soundtrack. In 2018, The Neptunes worked with Justin Timberlake for his Man of the Woods album.

Emmanuel Maceda, management consultant

Emmanuel “Manny” Maceda is the worldwide managing partner of Bain & Company. He is responsible for all aspects of the firm's strategy, team and operations across Bain's global network of 50+ offices. Manny leads the firm in its mission to deliver the best client results in the management consulting industry. He is the first Asian leader in Bain & Company’s history. The eldest son of the late Senator Ernesto Maceda and Marichu Vera Perez, Manny received his Bachelor degree in chemical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology where he graduated magna cum laude, and a Master’s Degree in management from MIT Sloan School of Management. He has published articles, such as in the MIT World series, and spoke at the World Economic Forum. He is married to Lyra Rufino and they have four children.

Sources: Google and Wikipedia

The Magazine

Fil-Ams Among The Remarkable And Famous, Part 6