#21 JUMP STREET SERIES#

His latest television role goes against many of his previous roles, as he plays a straight-up villain named Zing on “Warrior.” It’s the type of martial arts-heavy role he might have thought twice about accepting in his younger days while worrying about stereotypes, but director Justin Lin and the Asian representation on the show drew him back to Hollywood. Nguyen was in his mid-20s and just looking for steady work when he landed the role on “21 Jump Street.” He said the role was initially slated for a character of color, not specifically an Asian actor, and he remembers being at the audition with African American and Latino actors also vying for the part. “I don’t sit and think about ‘I’m a pioneer’ and this and that - you’re just focused on getting another job to keep working - but it means a lot to me,” he said. He is also viewed as an inspiration by a host of younger Asian American actors who clung to a glimpse of what was possible when they first saw Nguyen on “21 Jump Street' in the late '80s.

#21 JUMP STREET SERIES#

He will be filming the third season of the HBO Max series “Warrior” in July and stars in 'Blade of the 47 Ronin,' an upcoming sequel to the film “47 Ronin.” Twenty years later, Nguyen has not only survived the Hollywood roller coaster, he is as busy as ever.

And I quit, I literally just quit for a while.” Dustin Nguyen Universal 1440 Entertainment “I was very depressed, so it just kind of magnified that it was kind of a dead end for me as an actor in terms of what I aspired to do. “I was in a really bad place personally,” he said.

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