Filipinos have been in the United States since the 16th century, yet many of their stories remain untold. For the past year, Positively Filipino has been running a series on notable Filipino Americans who have made their marks in this country. There are hundreds, or maybe even thousands more, that need to be added to this story, and we need your help. If you know of a Filipino American who deserves to be included in this line-up, please send us their names and any supporting documents you may have to pfpublisher@yahoo.com. For now, we are including only those who are currently active and visible in the media and the community, regardless of their religious, sexual or political orientation. Thank you.

Steve Lacy, Singer, Songwriter and Producer

Steve Lacy (Source: Forbes/Getty Images)

Filipino American artist Steve Lacy won his first Grammy Award, taking home Best Progressive R&B Album for “Gemini Rights.” Lacy was previously nominated for his work with the band The Internet and received three additional nominations for this year’s awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance. He also performed at the awards for the first time ever, singing his hit track “Bad Habit.” In 2019, his debut album, “Apollo XXI,” earned him a nomination for Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 62nd Grammy Awards. Born in Compton, California, Lacy is the son of an African American mother and Filipino father who was largely absent from his life. In an interview with The Fader, Lacy said that he “is most comfortable writing about topics regarding love and dating, and describes his musical sound to be like the tartan fabric.”

Michael Manese, Filmmaker

Michael Manese (Source: IMDb/George Kerrigan)

New York-based filmmaker Manese’s film, Filipinos Get Some, won at the 2023 New York City International Film Festival last January. It is a story about a public marriage proposal gone wrong, shot in NYC with a cast of Filipino Americans. Other films to Manese’s credit include When Bart 6874 met Lulu5547 (a silent film about senior citizens doing online dating) and The Pleasure of Being Served (about an undocumented Filipina immigrant working as a domestic worker for a rich young American). Manese was born in Quezon City, Philippines but his family moved to Passaic, New Jersey in 1979. He attended Rutgers University as a Communications major. He was the school’s daily newspaper photographer and then was editor-in-chief for CNBC’s Becky Quick. He also writes and draws an online comic strip, “Angry Doug,” originally based on a college roommate. On Netflix/Stage 32, he says, “I like mainstream Hollywood movies with an edge. My goal is to make movies that are thought-provoking, daring and experimental that can also reach a wide audience. Movies such as Carnal Knowledge, Pulp Fiction, Annie Hall, and Last Tango in Paris are, to me, just a few examples of this formula.”

Doug Baldwin, Community Leader/Former Football Player

Filipino American and former Seattle Seahawks football wide receiver player Baldwin was selected as the recipient of the Paul G. Allen Humanitarian Award presented by Microsoft during the Seattle Sports Star of the Year Awards on Feb. 28. Baldwin was recognized for his leadership in creating more equitable opportunities, which includes his work with the NFL Players Coalition and the Family First Community Center in Renton, Washington. Baldwin played football at Stanford from 2007-2010. In 2016, he signed a four-year contract extension with the Seahawks worth $46 million, with $24.25 million guaranteed, making him the sixth-highest paid wide receiver in the NFL. In May 9, 2019, the Seahawks released Baldwin with a “failed physical designation” and a few days later, he announced his retirement on Twitter.

Christian Franz, Nurse/Podcaster

Christian Franz (Source: Friends of Franz Podcast)

Of Filipino and Chinese heritage, Franz was born in the Philippines on a small farm in Luzon and moved to New York City at six years old with his single mother, who has been a nurse for the past 30 years. He studied nursing at Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing while also minoring in Theater. He became a registered nurse in 2019 working as a cardiac surgery recovery nurse and continuing his love for the arts through photo/video creation. In February 2021, Christian started the Friends of Franz Podcast to combat misinformation about medical fields and to normalize the humanization of medicine by inviting clinical experts to discuss their life journeys and experiences outside of work. His podcast has been streamed in 80 countries and on six continents. In an interview with VoyageLA, Franz said, “Working as a nurse within the hospital walls during the pandemic and seeing all the gruesome events, I was truly affected by the amount of misinformation on social media. After one horrible night shift, I stumbled upon a ‘COVID is a Hoax’ protest a few streets from the hospital. I realized that misinformation usually originates from those not qualified to spread and interpret data, which strays people from taking vital precautions and can ultimately cost lives.”

Jason Magabo Perez, Ph.D., Poet Laureate

Jason Magabo Perez, Ph.D. (Source: csusm.edu/Alicia Lores)

Perez is San Diego’s 2023-2024 Poet Laureate. He blends poetry, performance, film/video, ethnography and oral history to investigate Filipino American histories, state violence, colonization, migration, memory and intimacy. He is the author of two hybrid collections of prose and poetry: Phenomenology of Superhero (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2016); and This Is for the Mostless (WordTech Editions, 2017). His writing has appeared in Witness, TAYO, Entropy, and Feminist Wire. Formerly a featured artist at the New Americans Museum and community scholar-in-residence at San Diego Public Library, Perez, for over 15 years, has performed, lectured, and convened dialogues panels, and workshops in public libraries, community centers and K-12, college and university classrooms. Perez has performed at notable venues such as the National Asian American Theatre Festival, International Conference of the Philippines, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and La Jolla Playhouse. An alumnus of the VONA Writing Workshops, Perez holds an M.F.A. in Writing and Consciousness from New College of California and a dual Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies and Communication from UC San Diego. Perez previously served as Assistant Professor of English at CSU San Bernardino (2016-2019) and currently serves as Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at CSU San Marcos.

Faith Bautista, TV Network Founder

Chime TV, America’s first English-language Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Entertainment TV Network was established by Filipino American Faith Bautista, the first Asian woman to own a TV network. Chime TV (Creating History in Media Entertainment) features “modern general entertainment programming – over 70% of which is new to US TV audiences – including dramas, comedy, procedurals, food, travel, lifestyle, wellness, news, mixed martial arts, and digital creator content,” the company said in a press release. Bautista currently serves as the founder and CEO of the National Diversity Coalition, an organization advocating for greater financial equality and empowerment for underserved groups. ChimeTV will also be available on multiple devices and platforms, including smart TVs, mobile, tablets, desktops and laptops. Appointed by President Trump's administration in 2017, Bautista served a four-year term on the Treasury Department's CDFI Fund Community Advisory Board and the FCC's broadband adoption and diversity advisory board. She attended Harvard Divinity School for leadership training, as well as the Wharton School, UCLA, Washington University and UCSD.

Molly Olis Krost, Playwright

Krost is a Filipina Jewish playwright splitting her time between the Bay Area and Seattle. Her plays explore the constant collisions of the human experience: collisions with others, with our society, and within ourselves. She incorporates ritual and faith, in a variety of forms, to manifest the emotions that often exist beyond words. She loves to blur the line between reality and the fantastical and all the creative possibilities that she can create for the artists she collaborates with. Her play, Nanay, was a semi-finalist for the National Playwrights Conference and the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Her play, What We Found, was a finalist for the National Jewish Play Contest and semifinalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. She was also awarded the Gita Specker First Place Award for Best Dramatic Monologue by the San Francisco Browning Society. Krost holds an MFA in Playwriting from San Francisco State University and BA in Classical Civilizations and Theater and Performance Studies from UC Berkeley.

Tim Atlas, Singer and Songwriter

Oakland-born but based in Los Angeles, Atlas is a singer/songwriter and photographer. With a “sweet voice and a sweet smile, his songs will make you drift off to daydreams of islands and sunshine.” What sets his music apart from others are his concoctions of R&B-infused indie pop.. He has a loyal community of 25 million streaming fans. He says he grew up in a musical family -- his mother is Filipino and always had the karaoke microphone and his father played guitar and sang at church. Atlas plays the guitar, drums and keyboard. Some of his credits include “Lost in the Waiting,” “All Talk!,” “Compromised” and “Unwind.” “Together Lonely” was released last November where Atlas “takes us on an emotional rollercoaster of low-fi intonations and heavy rhythmic tunes.” The song‘s premise is to bring people together. “I think we all feel alone in some of our thoughts. This record can be a reminder that we may be all messed up, but we’re all in it together,” he says in cantxnot.com. He headlines tours across the US and UK. In an interview with detour.live he said his advice to aspiring musicians: Practice a lot. Don’t feel pressure to put anything out into the world but don’t hold on to something for too long, and don’t fight yourself.

Jennifer Ouyang Altman, Executive Coach

Altman, whose mother is Filipino and whose father is Chinese, is on a mission to help hungry leaders feel confident in themselves and proud of the teams they lead. She founded Inner Radio after an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and 10 years in sales leadership. She works with executives to expand their leadership style, build effective interpersonal relationships, and harness the power of teams. She also facilitates Interpersonal Dynamics, Stanford Graduate School of Business’ most popular elective, and Stanford GSB’s Executive Program and Stanford Continuing Studies. Also a coach for Berkeley Haas’ CEO program, Altman equips business leaders with the sills required to successfully navigate uncertainly and transformation. Her work has been published in the Los Angeles Times. Her clients include top business leaders in finance, consulting, healthcare, venture capital, e-commerce, banking, tech and education. In addition to an MBA from Stanford, she graduated at Amherst College with a BA in Psychology.

Reggie Narito, Sommelier

Reggie Narito (Source; Newport Beach and Wine Festival)

A few years ago, Narito was one of only 230 people and one of only 3 Filipino Americans to hold the prestigious title of Master Sommelier. A native of Alameda, California, Narito began his career in the restaurant industry at the age of 17 and worked at famous restaurants such as Star’s in San Francisco, Le Papillion in San Jose, and Plumed Horse in Saratoga. Narito even became a board member of the Court of Master Sommeliers, America (CMSA).

However, a cheating scandal at the 2018 Master Sommelier exam showed that Narito, as exam proctor, had passed advance information about two of the six wines the 24 candidates had to identify during the blind tasting section, considered the most challenging of the three portions of the exam. Two of the successful candidates, to whom the information was known to have been passed (a third had failed) unsolicited, were barred from retaking the exam for three years. All the others were allowed to make up the exam at a later date at no extra charge; six passed. Narito was expelled from the organization and he lost his Master Sommelier title.

Source: Google and WIkipedia

The Magazine

Fil-Ams Among The Remarkable And Famous, Part 45