Awkwafina

Inside Awkwafina’s Lifestyle

Food & Drink Favorites

New York Food Culture

• New England Clam Chowder — Her stated favorite food. “Both Nora and Awkwafina love soup.” Considers it a staple identity item.
• Everything Bagels — Her Ocean’s 8 heist fantasy. “I want to hoard them all. They always run out of everything bagels — I want them all in a bagel room.”
• Jimmy John’s Big Italian — Her go-to excitement. When asked what she was most excited about: “I was gonna go to Jimmy John’s — I love the Big Italian.”
• Matcha — Preferred over coffee or standard tea. Goes for matcha when given the choice.
• Thai food at Pa Ord (Hollywood) — Her favorite LA restaurant recommendation. “I know this great Thai place called Pa Ord down in Hollywood.”
• Queens food diversity — Raised in Queens, NYC; cites the food diversity and accessibility as the most underrated thing about the borough. Family history includes her great-grandfather’s 1940s Cantonese restaurant in Flushing, Queens, and her grandmother’s restaurant in Port Jefferson.

Hot Sauce & Spicy Food

• Attempted eating raw Carolina reapers twice in her life — “ruined her earth” both times; caused 12 hours of food poisoning. “Ruined my earth once. Ruined it a second time.”
• Owns the Hot Ones x 88 Rising “Dragging the Clouds” Hot Sauce Collab — displayed unopened in her kitchen as a collector’s item. “I love it as a shelf piece — I don’t actually want to open it.”
• Grandmother provided her with Chinese stomach medication before the Hot Ones appearance.

Style & Beauty

Fashion Preferences

• Loves pantsuits as her favorite red carpet look. “I love pantsuits.”
• Wants to see more latex on the red carpet, specifically around the shins.
• Regretted short angry bangs: “I ran my finger through it and it felt like a toothbrush.”
• Daily essential: a full-body Spanx — “from toes to neck.”
• Starbucks order name: Michelle Pfeiffer — “All F’s in the Pfeiffer — throws them off a little bit.”

Skincare Routine

• Uses a serum followed by moisturizer. “Maybe moisturizer first then the serum — who knows.” Trusts her makeup artist Kirin Bhatty for product recommendations.
• Always carries a facial mist/spritz in her carry-on. “I love spritzing my face when it needs it.”

Music & Arts Background

Trumpet & Music

• Played trumpet in junior high — was the best player there. Attended LaGuardia High School (NYC’s famous performing arts school) and was notably less dominant. “I was the least best there.”
• Describes the trumpet as sacred: “It carries your voice — it lets you sing through it.” Still misses her relationship with the instrument.
• Started out on NYC rap blogs with garage-produced beats; broke through with viral music videos.
• Playlist staple: Jamiroquai. “He always wiggles his way in there.” Dream cover artist: The B-52s to cover one of her songs.
• Karaoke go-to song: “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac. Favorite karaoke spots: K-Town, LA and 32nd Street, NYC, often with rapper Dumbfoundead (who forgets the lyrics and blames the audience).

Books & Intellectual Influences

• Charles Bukowski poetry — Read her dad’s copy at age 11. Drawn to “his self-hatred, self-awareness, and self-deprecation.” Says his work appealed to her sense of humor as a defense mechanism.
• Authored Awkwafina’s NYC — a travel guidebook about New York City.
• Podcast recommendation: Criminal (hosted by Phoebe Judge). “It’s a great podcast.”

Acting & Career Milestones

Roles That Define Her

• The Farewell (2019) — Considers it the role of a lifetime. “I never thought I would receive a script about an Asian American woman and her relationship with her grandma. I can’t believe I got it.” Drawing on her real-life bond with her own grandmother — “she’s my best friend.”
• Crazy Rich Asians (2018) — First Hollywood film with an all-Asian cast in 25 years. “It wasn’t until we came back and saw kids come out of screenings crying that we realized — that’s the power of representation.”
• Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) — Voiced the shape-shifting dragon Sisu. Animators used her eyes and teeth as reference for the character.
• Ocean’s 8 — Played a pickpocket; went method using wrist-diversion techniques. Demonstrated on her Vogue interviewer, taking his watch mid-interview.
• Created and stars in Nora from Queens (Comedy Central).

Personality & Background

• Developed humor as a defense mechanism at age four, after losing her mother. “I wanted to be an emblem of joy, not an emblem of sorrow.”
• Worked a vegan bodega early in life — “fond memories, less drama.” Also worked at a Japanese restaurant where she spilled hot sake on a customer’s coat on her first shift, and a video store at age 16 — her favorite job. Most-rented film: Beaches (Bette Midler).
• Strong bond with grandmother — credits her grandmother’s Chinese recipes and lifestyle wisdom as formative.
• Night owl who goes to bed and wakes up early. Self-described daily routine: “Wake up wearing yesterday’s clothes, spend an hour laughing or crying, put on shoes, go out the door.”

Sources: Vogue 73 Questions, Hot Ones (First We Feast) (YouTube)