Qui Nguyen, writer of Raya and the Last Dragon Not only can my parents in Arkansas see this, it's being seen globally and has been translated into different languages. 'Even if I have a huge hit in New York,' he says, 'it's still bound by the limitations of geography. At the same time, Raya is touchstone in terms of representation: Raya is Disney's first Southeast Asian heroine, and voice artist Kelly Marie Tran is the first Southeast Asian performer to star in a picture from the fabled studio.Īs for Nguyen himself, it's the opportunity to introduce the world to a style he's spent his entire career building in downtown spaces.

The film's launch comes at a particularly difficult moment for the Asian-American community, with horrific, racist attacks occurring across the country. Nguyen is the co-author, with Adele Lim ( Crazy Rich Asians) of the latest Disney animated film, Raya and the Last Dragon (currently in cinemas and available for an added fee on Disney Plus). His most popular works, which are now regularly seen in schools and amateur houses, are She Kills Monsters and the semiautobiographical Vietgone. Nguyen is the co-founder and co-artistic director of the Obie-winning off-Broadway troupe Vampire Cowboys, a self-described 'geek theater company' that creates action-adventure plays that feel ripped from the pages of comic books, more often than not on a shoestring budget. Qui Nguyen is a name that's well known to most regular theatergoers.

Raya and the last dragon movie near me