From carefully picking her roles to venturing into producing, Arden Cho has always stayed true to her path.
Arden Cho’s bright and sunny disposition often belies her many years of hard work quashing stereotypes and picking out the right roles in TV and movies. Behind that smile, the KPop Demon Hunters actress hides years of feeling like an outsider whilst growing up in Texas as a minority in the community, and holding out for the right acting roles so she can stay true to her principles. “I’ve actually tried avoiding a lot of the Asian typecast roles,” she told GRAZIA Malaysia when she was in Kuala Lumpur for several weeks to shoot a music video. “I’ve passed on, gosh, maybe hundreds of projects that I felt were really stereotypical to Asian Americans.”
Therein lies the pain of balancing between wanting to put yourself out there and sticking to your principles—something Cho knew only too well. Below, we continue our conversation with our August 2025 digital cover star on her career, KPop Demon Hunters, and future passion projects.
How do you balance wanting to take on a role but also sticking to your principles?
It’s tough. It doesn’t lead to as many opportunities, but I’m super thankful to have had the opportunity to do a show like Partner Track, because it’s really just about a girl entering her 30s, trying to figure out her life, career, and climbing the corporate ladder. It’s basically experiencing everything that women experience from the belittlement and discrimination in a male-dominated workplace. I felt like that project was special because it was less about her being an Asian American, but more about her being a woman.
So many people who watched the show resonated with it till this day—I’ve had so many women come up to me to tell me that the show was so meaningful to them because they could relate to the pain and trauma that Ingrid went through in that show.
So, yes—I actually passed on quite a bit of projects until Partner Track, because I was waiting for something where I felt, as an Asian American, I could play a complex, main character to hopefully inspire other Asian American women. I wanted to show that we don’t have to just exist to support someone else. I feel oftentimes, Asian Americans don’t get to play complex, three-dimensional characters—and we got to do that with Partner Track. We’ve had some really great Asian American stories come to life in the past 10 to 15 years, but I’m always saying that I want more. It’s nice that we had shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender with a predominantly Asian cast. I’m so happy to be a part of it because 20 years ago, we never would have imagined that we’d have a story of that calibre, having a full Asian cast, right? I think that’s why KPop Demon Hunters is so widely loved, because it is such a specific story showcasing South Korean culture, food, music, beauty, and fashion. There’s comedy, love, and action—a little bit of everything for everyone.
What roles do you want to explore in the future that you have not yet done?
Again, I’m always hoping for opportunities that are more complex and three-dimensional—characters who experience all the range of emotions. I don’t want to just be a cute girl that exists, or the nice girl. I’d want to be a villain. The antagonist. I want to try them all! I also love rom-coms and drama, so I’m open to anything as long as the story is good and the writing is good. I’m actually really excited for my next few roles that are all in the world of very complex characters and strong female leads. Mainly, I’m hoping to continue being selective and choosing roles that are different from what we’ve seen for Asian Americans.
Any chance you can share more about those projects that you mentioned?
I’m filming a movie soon—it’s a really fun one where I play a bride-to-be, and my best friend is also getting married. We end up competing against each other in a reality show of sorts, like a “wedding planning on a budget”. It’s a comedy, rom-com, and of course, everything you expect to see when best friends are competing against each other. It’s cute, funny, and lighthearted. I feel like we don’t get to see a lot of films like that with an Asian American lead, so it’s really exciting.
And after that, I’m shooting a really cool horror-thriller with a K-Pop background—but it’s not so much about K-Pop than it is about female relationships. The story is about sisters and what one would give up to get what they want. I’m really excited for this—it’s a project that I’ve been keeping close to my heart and hoping that we’ll nail it just like KPop Demon Hunters, and respect the incredible world of K-Pop. These [K-Pop] girls may be beautiful, great at dancing and singing, and are so cute—but they’re also really strong women battling very real and tough issues in relationships and identity. They are some of the hardest-working women I’ve ever met in my life. Yes, acting is hard and I respect my career, but the idol life is a whole other ballpark—it’s so tough. But then, I also wondered how that applies to us as women in our everyday lives. Of course, we want to be the best and achieve it all, but at what cost? That’s why I think this upcoming movie really plays on that. I’m very excited for it—we have some really great people involved.
Would you ever produce or direct your own movie?
I actually recently joined the amazing producing team of Perfect Girl—the horror movie I mentioned earlier. But other than that, I do produce a lot of my music videos and creative content. I definitely don’t ever want to direct; I personally don’t prefer producing as well, but I get involved in producing things that I want to ensure are protected, and we can be as authentic as possible. For this particular project, we have a very diverse team from all around the world, so it’s been nice to be a part of it. In a way, it’s sort of an inevitable step as my career progresses. It’s also a way to wield that creative energy in a different way. It’s one of the reasons why I’m here in Malaysia as well; working with an incredible team to create some music videos in a short film format, and producing content. These are always things I’ve wanted to do in my career, and hopefully, inspire the next generation of Asian girls to have that main character energy.
For me, at least, I grew up feeling like I couldn’t be the main character; that I wasn’t good enough, pretty enough, or worthy of being the main character. I think that’s the difference of growing up Asian in America. I think it was really only in my 30s that I realised that we deserve to be the main character. We totally deserve to be a part of the story—have our stories told. That’s also what led me into producing as well, so I could hopefully direct that message more clearly and inspire other Asian Americans to just go for it.
It must have been especially hard since you grew up in someplace like Texas.
Oh, yeah. I’ve been in this industry for 24 years, and I still have moments where I feel like I don’t belong. There are so many layers to it—it’s not just about being a woman or being Asian, it’s all of it combined. It was tough, but I’ve never had a “woe is me” mentality. I’m actually grateful for my battle scars, the trauma, and the pain. They’ve shaped my identity, made me stronger, and fueled my passion to tell the stories I tell. I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now without having experienced the discrimination and sexism. Feeling invisible pushed me to fight to be seen.
When I meet young people, they get to hear the different hardships and struggles I went through. They’d be like, wow, it’s so much better now. I feel like so many great actors paved the way, and we’re still paving the way. I hope that the next generation no longer needs to pave the way but instead, stand strong.
Our August issue’s theme is “Fantasy”—hence, we wanted to pick your brain on what your fantasy life would be like.
Oh my gosh! I have a few different answers. On a serious note, one of my fantasies is something we’ve actually be doing while we’re here in Malaysia. We’re shooting music videos where I get to feel like the prettiest version of myself. We’re doing photo shoots where I feel like royalty—the hair, makeup, and styling from amazing Asian artists who know how to do an Asian face, dress an Asian body, and do lighting for Asian skin. I feel like all of that matters so much.
On a sillier note, my real fantasy is to be able to eat everything all the time without needing to diet or work out. I have to work out so much because I just love eating. I refuse to go on diets! I just love rice, noodles, spicy foods, and greasy foods—I love it all. Just last night, I was eating so much Malaysian food that my director and producer got so worried that it’d affect my shoot today! I hate that we have to worry about that. I wish I could be like Rumi; eat it all and have a perfect body, and just be beautiful. That’s my true fantasy!
Photography: Amani Azlin
Creative Direction & Styling: Joseph Cheng
Hair: Cody Chua
Makeup: Bao
Styling Assistant: Sarah Chong, Lorraine Chai
Photography Assistant: Suan
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