The Asian And You Could Be Asian Emmy Nominee List

Friday, July 18, 2008


Steven Okazaki

Here's the deal. I'm not the all knowing Asian American with "the chip" which can spot out Asian and Asian Americans by name alone (which in ways is a good thing) - and to be honest, it's just not possible because of the diversity of people who are from Asian decent.

At the same time, I wanted to get a list of Emmy nominees who were Asian/Asian American and not just ones that everyone knows about (because we all know who Sandra Oh is) because I wanted to highlight Asian/Asian Americans behind the scenes as well - because they definitely make a difference.

So you can see my dilemma.

I wanted to highlight people of Asian decent - but without pictures this can get difficult.

So what do you do?

You make your best Asian estimate and make apologies to everyone who either got left out (and I'm sure you're there because names don't always tell the picture obviously), or you bow your head in shame for putting someone on this list when maybe they shouldn't have been there in the first place.

But for what it's worth - I'm thinking I'm 95% accurate on the people listed below - and hey - show me a list that tries to do this (because if it's there, I just would have copied it).

P.S. - If I missed you or you know someone I missed, feel free to e-mail anything. At the same time, there were a couple people in camerawork that were in multiple shows (but I only showed them once).

Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour)

  • Tom Yasumi - Animation Director - SpongeBob SquarePants
  • Patricia Shinagawa - Animation Timer - The Simpons
Outstanding Art Direction For A Miniseries, Or Movie

  • Radha Mehta - Set Decorator - Recount
Outstanding Cinematography For A Miniseries Or Movie

  • Tak Fujimoto - Director of Photography - John Adams
Outstanding Cinematography For A Half-hour Series

  • Michael Goi - Director of Photography - John Adams
Outstanding Hairstyling For A Single-camera Series

  • Yuko Tokunaga-Koach - Key Hairstylist - Pushing Daisies
Outstanding Main Title Design

  • Garson Yu, Creative Director/Art Director - Bernard And Doris
  • Synderela Peng, Designer/Art Director - Bernard And Doris
  • Etsuko Uji, Designer/Animator - Bernard And Doris
  • Karin Fong, Title Designer - Chuck
  • Dana Yee, Title Designer - Chuck
Exceptional Merit In Nonfiction Filmmaking

  • Steven Okazaki, Producer - White Light/Black Rain
Outstanding Picture Editing For A Special (single Or Multi-camera)

  • Narumi Inatsugo, Editor - The AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute To Al Pacino
Outstanding Reality-competition Program

  • Joe Sungkur, Senior Producer - DWTS
Outstanding Reality Program

  • Jeanne Kazumi Petrone, Produced By - Extreme Makeover Home Edition
Outstanding Sound Editing For Nonfiction Programming (single Or Multi-camera)

  • Noz Furuya, Sound Effects Editor -Life After People
Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (half-hour) And Animation

  • Susan Moore-Chong - Weeds
Outstanding Special Class - Short-format Animated Programs

  • Won Dong Kun, Animation Director
Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special

  • Daniel Kumiega, Visual Effects Animator

Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Series

  • David Takemura, Visual Effects Coordinator
  • Jamie Yukio Kawano, Lead CGI Artist - Stargate Atlantis
  • Daniel Osaki, Lead Model Maker - Stargate Atlantis

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series

  • Sandra Oh - Grey's Anatomy

Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special

  • Easter Xua, Camera - American Idol

Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video For A Series

  • Fred Shimizu, Camera - Late Show With David Letterman