Latest news with #JapaneseAmerican
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Who is Sean Kaufman, who plays Steven Conklin in The Summer I Turned Pretty? The New York-born actor has a younger sister IRL and is one of Hollywood's hottest young talents – but is he dating co-star
Sean Kaufman is rapidly emerging as one of Hollywood's most versatile young talents. He's racked up over 1.2 million followers on Instagram at the time of writing thanks to his breakthrough performance as Steven Conklin, the protective yet sometimes exasperating older brother of Belly (played by Lola Tung ), the protagonist of hit Amazon Prime series The Summer I Turned Pretty Sean Kaufman with his The Summer I Turned Pretty castmates, including Lola Tung (second from right), who plays his on-screen sister Belly, and rumoured girlfriend Minnie Mills (right). Photo: @ In a break from the original novel by Jenny Han – who also wrote To All the Boys I've Loved Before – where Steven is a minor and somewhat annoying character, Amazon Prime's adaptation expands his role, turning him into a fan favourite with a blend of humour, loyalty and vulnerability. 'My favourite quality about Steven is that he makes mistakes and always learns from them. There is something beautiful about having a flawed character, not only from an actor's perspective but from an audience's perspective, because it allows one to sympathise with the character,' Kaufman told Timid Magazine. Advertisement Fresh off filming the series' final season, the 25-year-old, Japanese-American actor is expanding his repertoire with a string of high-profile projects. Recently, he has joined the cast of upcoming supernatural horror film Other Mommy, in which he'll star alongside Jessica Chastain and Jay Duplass. He will also appear as a recurring cast member in the fifth season of the sci-fi series For All Mankind. Here is everything you need to know about this Hollywood rising star. He actually has a sister Sean Kaufman has a younger sister named Abby. Photo: @ Kaufman was born and raised in New York City alongside his real-life sister Abby, who's three years younger than him. Being protective over Abby gave him insight into why his character Steven is protective over his on-screen sister Belly. In an interview with Timid Magazine, Kaufman said, 'I'm an older brother in real life, so I feel most similar to Steven in that protectiveness. I love my sister to death, and there's nothing I wouldn't do for her, so it's very easy to understand where Steven comes from when he is seemingly overprotective.' Kaufman also revealed to Schön magazine that, growing up, he and his sister shared a room and used to fight frequently. Playing Steven made him realise how important this relationship was; he ended up applying Steven's emotions toward Belly, to his own life. He's loved acting since childhood Sean Kaufman's had an interest in acting since childhood. Photo: @ Kaufman's passion for acting began in childhood, but it wasn't until middle school that his interest became serious. He initially decided to audition for the school musical simply as a way to spend time with a girl he liked, but after landing the lead role, his love for acting grew rapidly during rehearsals.
San Francisco Chronicle
3 days ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
A Japanese grocery giant is opening a new Bay Area store. Here's where
A Japanese specialty grocery store is expanding with a new Bay Area location, becoming the most recent entry in a flurry of Asian supermarket openings in the region. Osaka Marketplace has signed a lease in Foster City at the Edgewater Place Shopping Center. The location is the vacant 35,000-square-foot space at 919 Edgewater Blvd., where a Lucky supermarket previously operated. The new retailer is best known for their selection of Japanese and Asian goods, as well as fresh seafood and prepared foods. The store is slated to open in November. This will be Osaka Marketplace's third Bay Area location, with its other stores located in Fremont and Pleasant Hill. The company is currently working to expand in Northern California and Arizona. The 123,000-square-foot Edgewater Place is currently in the middle of a capital improvement program to refresh its common areas and parking lot, among other amenities. The shopping plaza has attracted a variety of Asian dining options such as Chinese restaurant Rickshaw Corner, Yemeni Coffee house Sana'a Cafe and Rita Indian Restaurant. 'We're thrilled to join the Foster City community and bring our authentic Japanese grocery experience to Edgewater Place,' Osaka Marketplace owner Kazuhiro Takeda said in a statement. 'From fresh produce and seafood to prepared meals and pantry staples, we're looking forward to serving the community and celebrating the tastes and traditions of the neighborhood we now call home.' The incoming store is is located not far from San Mateo, known for its Japanese American heritage. It's also the latest in a wave of Asian specialty supermarkets across the Bay Area that looks to satiate ever increasing demand, as seen in the recent opening of the Korean grocery store Jagalchi at Daly City's Serramonte Center, which drew hours-long lines. Future Asian grocery store arrivals include Tokyo Central at Emeryville's Bay Street mall, T&T at San Jose's Westgate Center and the long-anticipated H Mart in Dublin.
San Francisco Chronicle
6 days ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘Keep ICE out of Dublin': Hundreds protest prospect of immigrant detention centers
Hundreds of protesters gathered Saturday at a park in Dublin to oppose the possibility of Immigration and Customs Enforcement reopening the nearby federal prison into an immigrant detention center. Drivers passing by the family-friendly protest at Don Biddle Community Park honked their horns in support of the demonstrators holding signs that read, 'Keep ICE out of Dublin.' There were designated art tables where children could color, and attendees could pick up screen-printed posters that read, 'Hands off our immigrant neighbors.' The protest was organized by Tsuru for Solidarity, ICE Out of Dublin Coalition, several labor unions and other organizations. Tsuru for Solidarity, a Japanese American social justice advocacy group that seeks to end detention sites, organized the rally in solidarity with immigrant communities and to protest detention centers from opening in the Bay Area, specifically the scandal-plagued former women's prison in Dublin that shuttered last year. FCI Dublin made national headlines in 2023 after incarcerated people filed a class-action lawsuit alleging rampant sexual abuse by many of the prison guards. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons closed FCI Dublin in early December, citing poor facility conditions and staffing shortages. Later that month, the bureau announced that it will pay $115 million to 103 women who were sexually abused — the largest monetary settlement in the bureau's history, according to representatives of the prisoners. Rumors of potentially reopening the site as an immigrant detention center began after ICE officials toured the facility in February. A bureau spokesperson told the Chronicle last week that 'there are no plans to reopen it.' Still, Bay Area residents have been on edge about the possibility of the prison reopening as a detention center, prompting demonstrators to take to the streets to protest. Stacy Suh, program director at Detention Watch Network and one of the speakers at Saturday's rally, told the crowd that immigrant women were targeted at FCI Dublin because of their immigration status. 'We do not want ICE in our backyard, not in Dublin, not in the Bay Area, and not anywhere,' Suh told the cheering crowd. 'Mass detention and deportation mean more and more and more Black and brown people are racially profiled because of the color of their skin,' Suh added. Marissa Seko, of the Oakland-based Family Violence Law Center, said she has worked with survivors of the prison for 15 years. The prison's conditions described by the survivors reminded Seko, a Japanese American, of the conditions her grandmother endured while she was detained at an internment camp in Arizona. Hundreds of thousands people of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated after President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 and invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 during World War II. In March, President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to detain Venezuelans. 'As a kid, my grandma and my great aunt told me stories about what it was like losing everything, how desolate, dusty and dirty the camp was,' Seko said. 'Supporting the survivors of FCI Dublin … reminded me of what my family endured during the internment.' 'The prison was closed for good reason and should remain closed,' she added. Sharon Osterweil of Oakland said she attended the rally because, as someone of Jewish descent, 'we have a responsibility to stand up whenever any group is facing detention, concentration camps, kidnappings the way that we're seeing right now.' 'This is the time when elected officials need to stand up and actually represent people who elected them, which means not allowing ICE to expand, let alone keep operating the way they are,' she said.
CNN
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Video: George Takei draws parallels between 1940's Japanese-American internment camps and ICE detentions
"Star Trek" actor and activist George Takei tells CNN's Audie Cornish about his family's experience in a 1940's Japanese-American internment camp, saying Americans "need to speak out" as he sees what is happening with ICE detentions today as "the same thing" as what he experienced.
CNN
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Video: George Takei draws parallels between 1940's Japanese-American internment camps and ICE detentions
"Star Trek" actor and activist George Takei tells CNN's Audie Cornish about his family's experience in a 1940's Japanese-American internment camp, saying Americans "need to speak out" as he sees what is happening with ICE detentions today as "the same thing" as what he experienced.
