First South Asian Excellence Awards Set a Benchmark for Success
Last Updated: May 30, 2008
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LOS ANGELES - The 2008 JCPenney Asian Excellence Awards was held at UCLA’s Royce Hall, attracting some of the hottest stars in film and television. The Asian Excellence Awards is the only annual nationally televised event celebrating the outstanding achievements of Asians and Asian Americans in film, television, music, and the performing arts. Welly Yang is the creator and executive producer of the Asian Excellence Awards, working with Syd Vinnedge Productions. Teddy Zee and Hugh Wright are Executive Producers.
The Asian Excellence Awards had many celebrity presenters, nominees and attendees at the red carpet in their finest including Steven Seagal (Under Seige, Above The Law), Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction), Justine Dharni (Miss India Globe 2008), Jinder K. Chohan (‘Miss India America’ & ‘Miss South Asia’), Kelly Hu (Sunset Beach), Ian Ziering (90210), Devon Aoki (2 Fast 2 Furious), Michael Yo (Showbiz Tonight), Sharon Leal (DreamGirls), Michaela Conlin (Bones), Michelle Krusiec (Dirty Sexy Money), Will Yun Lee (Bionic Woman), Mark Dacascos (Iron Chef America), Christian de la Fuentes & Katrina Smirnoff (Dancing with the Stars), Jack Yang (Cashmere Mafia), Daisy Fuentes (Shop Like a Star), Brenda Song (Suite Life of Zack and Cody), Bai Ling (The Crow), Kenny G and many others.
The awards show was hosted by Carrie Ann Inaba, who was featured in ABC’s talent competition Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann and has been a judge on all five seasons of the hit television show Dancing with the Stars, and comedian Bobby Lee, known for his role on the live comedy series MADtv. They were a fantastic and comedic duo. Bobby Lee embraced the Indian culture so much as to sport a sari half way through the awards show. It was hot pink and would be a smash on shaadi.com.
During the spectacular show there were dance routines by JabbaWockeeZ, an all-male dance crew that won MTV’s America’s Got Talent earlier this year and Street Dance Troop KABA Modern America’s Best Dance Crew winners. It was a riot as these two performed head to head. Whoever said Asians can’t dance obviously had no idea of what was to come and these two crews pumped up the crowd with their precise movements. Also actress/singer Tia Carrere sang songs from her 2008 Grammy-nominated Hawaiian music album Hawaiiana.
Indian comedian Russell Peters was the backstage host, providing the voice and comic relief and he did not disappoint as he enticed the audience later with his stand up. Justine Dharni (Miss India Globe 2008) said, “Russell really has a way of putting to words the truth about people or more appropriately, types of people! It was refreshing to be able to have Russell make jokes about Chinese people and have them laugh with the rest of the audience. The entire stadium laughing at one point or another about their own race. You could really see the tremendous amount of growth by the Asian community.”
Asian Excellence Awards presented two honorary awards. YouTube co-founder Steve Chen was presented with the Pioneer Award and Olympic Figure-Skating Champion Kristi Yamaguchi received the special Inspiration Award. Kristi Yamaguchi gave a great speech where she spoke about her life and how she was successful simply by following her dreams. Hollywood players came out in force to honor Asian and Asian Americans’ accomplishments in the arts and entertainment, sports and business. As Steven Seagal was a presenter on stage and Quentin Tarrantino presented a special tongue-in-cheek “Half Asian Award” to actor/comedian Rob Schneider.
The charming Lindsay Price (Lipstick Jungle) beat out Indian actresses Navi Rawat (Numbers) and Parminder Nagra (ER) for Best Television Actress, and the very talented B.D. Wong (Law & Order SVU) won over Indian actors Naveen Andrews (Lost) and Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes) for Best Television Actor. Sonja Sohn grabbed the Best Television Supporting Actress over Indian actresses Janina Gavankar (The L Word) and Mindy Kaling (The Office). While ‘gayasian’ Rex Lee (Entourage) was awarded Best Television Supporting Actor over Indian favorite Kal Penn (House MD). Cheryl Burke took home the award for Favorite TV Personality, where the beautiful Indian model, chef & host Padma Lakshmi (Top Chef) was also nominated.
Jinder K. Chohan (‘Miss India America’ & ‘Miss South Asia’), stated after the Asian Excellence Awards, “It was a superb event, from the Red Carpet to the Awards show to the After Party. Of course, it would have been great to have seen an Indian actor/actress win an award tonight, but I have to commend the Awards show committee and crew on putting together a great presentation, as it was flawless.” ther winners were: outstanding film went to Director, Ang Lee (Lust, Caution) and from the same movie was the Outstanding Film Actor Tony Leung. Outstanding Film Actress went to Sharon Leal (This Christmas). And from the audience’s reaction all night long, the award for Favorite Reality Star went to right group, the JabbaWockeeZ (America’s Best Dance Crew).
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