Awkwafina’s quick timing makes her a good comic partner when the writing gives her someone to play against. We rate her most highly in The Farewell, where she lets the discomfort linger without forcing the sadness.
Fi1m perspective
In The Farewell (2019), Awkwafina’s Billi cannot quite join in with the family’s determined cheerfulness. She makes an ordinary conversation uncomfortable without pushing the sadness to the front. We were moved by her difficulty in being present with Nai Nai while everyone was already preparing to miss her. Lulu Wang gets the best out of her by allowing that unease to remain small and unforced.
That restraint marked a turn after the supporting comedy parts in Ocean's 8 (2018) and Crazy Rich Asians (2018). Her low, raspy voice is immediately recognisable, and her timing can make a short exchange worth keeping. Since then, she has combined animation and supporting blockbuster roles with Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens (2020–2023), which she co-created and starred in. The danger is that a recognisable voice can become all a film asks of her.
Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024) shows what the comic voice needs: somebody worth answering back to. As Zhen, she is dry, quick and a beat ahead of Jack Black’s Po, whose delight gives her impatience something to work against. The film lacks the feeling beneath the slapstick, but their exchanges have a workable rhythm. In The Little Mermaid (2023), Scuttle talks fast and then raps; speed alone does not make that a pleasure.
Renfield (2023) gives her a different problem as Rebecca, a traffic cop whose crime story takes time away from Nicolas Cage’s Dracula and Nicholas Hoult’s familiar. She is game, but Chris McKay keeps sending the film back to corrupt colleagues and the Lobo family when its more interesting relationship is elsewhere. We found ourselves waiting for Cage to return. Her willingness cannot make the two stories fit.
For anyone tired of the quick-talking parts, Wang is the director to start with. The Farewell sometimes explains its family dilemma too tidily, but Awkwafina and Zhao Shuzhen make the deception difficult to dismiss. It is the performance to try before deciding that the rasp and the rapid delivery tell us all we need to know. Another comedy willing to let her be quiet for a while would be welcome.
Biography
Awkwafina, born Nora Lum, is an American actress, rapper and comedian. She rose to prominence in 2012 with the viral YouTube rap song "My Vag" and released her debut album Yellow Ranger in 2014. She appeared on the MTV series Girl Code (2014–2015) before moving into film roles.
Her film credits include supporting parts in Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), Ocean's 8 (2018), Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019). She starred in The Farewell (2019), for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Voice roles include Scuttle in The Little Mermaid (2023), Zhen in Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024) and Rebecca in Renfield (2023).
She co-created, wrote and executive produced the Comedy Central series Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens (2020–), in which she also stars. For producing the television film Quiz Lady (2023), she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie.
