The last couple years have been fantastic for Stephanie Hsu. After her huge breakout role as Joy Wang in 2022’s Everything Everywhere All At Once, for which she won a number of awards and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, you’ll find Hsu just about everywhere.
She’s stayed booked and busy doing voice work for shows like Blue Eye Samurai, reunited with her Everything Everywhere All At Once family in the Disney+ series American Born Chinese, and most recently joining forces with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in The Fall Guy.
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One of Hsu’s most memorable roles to date is in Joy Ride, which follows four Asian American friends who travel around China to find Ashley Park’s character Audrey’s birth mother. Hsu plays Kat, Audrey’s college roommate who is now a famous actress in China. She’s outrageously horny but is hiding her promiscuous past from her religious fiancé. In this role, Hsu got to go completely gross out slapstick proving yet again her many talents.
Joy Ride also allowed for Hsu to work with fellow LGBTQ+ members (Joy Ride is nothing if not very queer) Sabrina Wu, who identifies as non-binary, and Sherry Cola, who identifies as queer. Hsu described the Joy Ride set feeling very family oriented. “I think growing up within not only the Asian community, or the theatre community or the queer community, I feel my whole life I’ve been discovering chosen family, and friendship is such a lifeline for me,” she told Pink News.
While Joy Ride had plenty of queer moments, they saved some stuff for a hopeful follow-up film—specifically the tension between Hsu’s Kat and Cola’s Lolo that got cut. Hsu told Collider, “There’s a whole gay track between Sherry’s character and my character that kind of got edited and will be saved for the sequel. Sherry’s livid about it.”
Visibility is very important in Hsu’s career and something she really talks the talk and walks the walk about.
That was something that fellow queer actor Ariana DeBose said about Hsu when she received the Visibility Award at the 2023 Human Rights Campaign Gala. “We’re seeing beautiful moments for Stephanie Hsu right now. That’s a queer character played by a queer, beautiful woman. These are wins and I will take them when we get them,” DeBose said.
Hsu keeps coming with wins—starring in a Kate Spade campaign, she’ll be leading and executive producing a new Peacock show Laid. And she’s doing a must for any queer celebrity— guest judged a recent episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 9.
Hsu is also quick to shout out what inspires her whether that’s the style inspiration of non-binary activist (and fellow Pride50 honoree) Alok Vaid-Menon or her own work with sustainability and nature conservancy—the positivity that Hsu puts out into the world she also brings back by showering praise and kindness on others in her industry and beyond.
Hsu is a class act and we’re so proud she’s part of our community.
