Several movies, TV shows, and a rap career later, it has paid off spectacularly.

The next moves are hers.

We trade favorite episodes and she offers a spot-on armchair analysis of the typical perps.

Rapper and actor Awkwafina aka Nora Lum on the cover of Allure magazine’s July/July 2021 issue. In a close up portrait, Lum has swirls of pink and orange makeup covering her face

Its always the husband and its usually some kind of infidelity.

And its…its…stupidity because they never cover their tracks, right?

You know what I mean?

Because its obviously a hole, [but] how do they put that hole back?

And like some of our favoriteDatelineepisodes, sometimes the correct explanation is also the easiest explanation.

This one is straight-up like you cut things and then put tape.

It really is, like, very practical, practical magic.

I catch her on a Zoom call during a rare break from filming.

Then it was back to New York for season two of her Comedy Central series,Nora from Queens.

Im doing it every day and many weekends, she says of filming.

But it fills the time up better when youre busy rather than kind of idle.

Photographed by Christine Hahn.

Fashion stylist: Kyle Luu.

Hair: Gonn Kinoshita.

Makeup: Grace Ahn.

Manicure: Naomi Yasuda.

Production: Hudson Hill Production.

I first met Lum five-foot-one with a wide smile and a big personality right at that inflection point.

In June 2018, she visited my office around the release ofOceans Eightand weeks beforeCrazy Rich Asians.

Before writing this, I decided not to mention Lums start with the viral rap video,My Vag.

(I even wrote *no My Vag in my notebook.)

*no My Vag.)

She looks back fondly on that time as the first indication that her life was about to change.

That was kind of a pinch-me thing.

She feared shed lose that PR job because of the bawdy parody clip.

But as they say, when one door closes, another swings open.

Then things really kicked into high gear when she appeared as pickpocket Constance in 2018sOceans Eightalongside Sandra Bullock andRihanna.

The bullet train hasnt slowed down since.

Its also clear that Lum has impressed the folks at Disney.

Next, shell play Scuttle the seagull in the live-actionThe Little Mermaid.

Her rise has coincided with a time of crucial racial and gender reckoning in the entertainment industry.

It was perhaps inevitable that Lum would come to epitomize a new wave of representation.

We couldnt even be in movies, so we had to have white actors play us, says Lum.

But she sees how todays increased visibility can help shape culture.

Its an especially poignant point right now.

Lum and I are talking at a painful time in Asian American history.

But she didnt process it until that night.

I came home and I lay awake in bed and I just started crying, she says.

Her gravelly voice cracks.

She looks toward the wall.

Yeah, it makes me emotional right now.

This specific tragedy hit her hard because she saw herself and her loved ones in the story.

My dad commutes into work and I worry about him and…its that powerlessness.

Because, well,how could you help them?

We have to think about their safety as well.

Even growing up in New York City around so much diversity, Lum often felt othered.

Racial issues can be complicated and difficult to discuss, especially in these tense, politically polarized times.

I was just a hurricane everywhere I went.

Hair always messed up.

Always really looking for company and a good time."

Losing her mom at such a young age left an open wound.

She remembers knowing that her mom was sick for a few months but not truly understanding.

And seeing his mom.

Its a credit to the simple emotional brilliance of those Disney classics, she says.

The loneliness of being an only child led to creativity and a search for camaraderie.

I had imaginary friends, Lum says.

Memories of early childhood can be notoriously foggy, but echoes of Lums very Korean mom occasionally surface.

So I relearned a lot from them.

Its weird working out an Asian identity, especially when you are half Korean, half Chinese.

You dont feel often of either.

And then you search for them, I think.

I climbed to insane heights.

One time her father came outside to find her way up in a tree.

He was horrified, she says.

(Dad had to get her down with a ladder.)

Lum is, by nature, an immensely visual storyteller.

I was just a hurricane everywhere I went.

Hair always messed up.

Always really looking for company and a good time.

Ever the entertainer, she frequently got in trouble at school for class-clown behavior.

Her free spirit put her in other risky situations too.

Though shes made it this far with- out a broken bone, she has amassed some scars.

But there was no slowing down young Nora.

There was fun to be found.

I loved to just zoom around, she says.

She took that Tasmanian Devil energy with her to filmShang-Chi.

Theres something just so awesome about entering that [Marvel] universe, she says.

There is an electricity on set.

Im really excited for it.

Its like, We wanna slingshot you… Youre in a harness.

I love being thrown.

But its usually a lot of dangling, which I dont love because thats more of a core thing.

At the end of the day, its back to home or hotel.

Ive always had insomniac aspects, Lum says.

When I come home from a long day at work, it extrovert, right?

Then Im filled with those thoughts of, Did I say that?

And Ill be up for, like, a whole other workday.

Recently, she says, shes been getting really into her Myers-Briggs personality throw in.

For the record, shes an ENFP (Extroverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceiving).

They tend to be highly creative and social but also disorganized and prone to overthinking.

Theyre not necessarily hams, but theyre, like, Hey, whats up?

You got my email?

she purrs, putting on a slick, used-car salesmans voice.

Also, I do have a very strong empath quality I want to make people comfortable.

Perhaps her ENFP status helps to explain the duality that often comes up when discussing her personality.

According to Lums self-analysis, shes split precisely in half: the extroverted good-time-seeker next to the introspective brooder.

Either quality can easily show on her face at any given time.

I ask how Lum would describe it.

Its expressive to the point where I almost sometimes dont want it to be, she says.

I think my face muscles are the hardest-working muscles in my entire body.

That toggle between moods is a trait her loved ones know well.

Neither of them had seen it in years.

Like, we could just run away, you know?

Until recently, Lum had updated her dad and grandma on practically every detail of her life.

But traveling to different time zones has made it increasingly difficult to connect as frequently.

Shes fortunate to have confidantes in the industry, though, who will still tell her the hard truth.

You need people that are, like, straight up, That is horrible.

So I feel myself clinging to those people more and more.

What sparked that reticence?

Then there are other boundaries that I naturally set when I knew that I was going into this.

I want to protect the people that I love.

In general, personal relationships are intensely important to Lum.

Her most gratifying career moment, for instance, isnt getting an award or even a performance.

Im just still blown away that this is a thing.

You know what I mean?

Its hard for me to process.

Now her goal is to pull others up with her.

And she can be sentimental.

Her most treasured possession, something truly priceless, is socked away in a safe.

My moms vision was bad.

She needed huge glasses.

She had these big, 90s glasses that, ironically, came back into trend, she says.

[People have been] like, Yo, we can take the lenses out.

I didnt want to take the lenses out.

Because you could see howshesaw with the lenses in.

But her flashy bag has become more of an art object.

And its a routine that helps my peace of mind now.

Its nearly 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and were wrapping up our final interview.

Traffic is heavy in NYC today and she needs to get back to the set.

If I see one more pina colada…

We say our goodbyes.

And like that, she zooms off again.

Those boxes on her calendar beckon.