Photo by Ricky Middlesworth ©2025 Netflix
Audio By Carbonatix
An actor born in Colorado may bask in the golden glow of an Academy Award after this weekend.
This Sunday’s Oscar broadcast looks to become a landmark event for Asian Americans because KPop Demon Hunters and the hit single from the film, “Golden” are by far the leading contenders for two Oscar categories, Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song.
The movie and its music have been inescapable since its release last summer. KPop Demon Hunters is still in Netflix’s Top 10 list and has become – by a long shot – the most watched film in the history of the streaming service. Since it dropped on June 20, 2025, the film has passed 540 million views around the world as of last month. In second place on the platform is the action thriller Red Notice, released in 2021, with a paltry 230.9 million views.
Other reasons to expect KDH to snag the Oscar includes the fact that it became the first-ever Netflix film to reach #1 at the U.S. Box Office during a special limited – one weekend only – “sing-along” theatrical release. The film also won Best Animated Feature at both the 2026 Golden Globes and the 31st Critics’ Choice Awards. The song “Golden” has also been ubiquitous. It made history by making it to the Top 10 of the Billboard charts last summer alongside three other tracks from the soundtrack, and “Golden” was at number one for seven consecutive weeks.
The oddsmakers are betting on KDH to take home those two statues. And, Coloradans can claim a bit of glory for the Best Animated Feature Oscar because of Ji-young Yoo, the actor who voiced the character of Zoey, one of the three women in the superstar K-pop group Huntrix who spend their time offstage as superheroes hunting down demons.
©2025 Netflix
Yoo has lots of fans here, including Governor Jared Polis. He’s name-checked her in two State of the State speeches as an example of the state’s excellence in the arts. In 2024, he mentioned her for her role in the Prime Video series Expats starring Nicole Kidman. And on January 15, during his final State of the State address, Polis cited her again, as a reflection of Colorado’s “Creative Economy.”
“Ji-young Yoo… is the voice of the powerhouse rapper Zoey in the global hit KPop Demon Hunters,” Polis praised. “From the halls of Colorado Academy to the top of the global charts and the Oscars, she is a reminder that in the free state of Colorado, our students are limited only by their own imagination.”
“I found out about it the day of the State of the State,” Yoo acknowledges. “Of all the things in my acting career, I did not think that I would be in a major speech given by the governor of Colorado.”
She’s a role model for Coloradans who dream big.
Yoo was born in 1999 and raised in Highlands Ranch, where she attended Thunder Ridge High School for a year, then transferred to Colorado Academy in Denver. There, she groomed her artistic ambitions.
“First, I wanted to be a dancer — that was my main focus — but then I took an acting class, and I fell in love with it, and have been on that track since,” she says. “So basically, I had plenty of people tell me that it was a crazy life choice, which I don’t disagree with, even now, but I have the type of personality where I kind of just got even more determined, the more people told me that.”
Her parents didn’t dissuade her… much. “I mean, I think they were a little relieved that I said I wanted to be an actor, because when I wanted to be a dancer, they were just very concerned about the physical longevity of that career. When I said I wanted to be an actor, pretty much their only rule was just go to college, except then I didn’t graduate college,” she says.
The stereotype of Asian parents is that they want their kids to grow up to be lawyers, engineers or doctors (Yoo’s dad is an attorney), but her folks were much more accepting of her artistic passions. “They care much less about that, honestly, than I care about it. I’m a little annoyed I didn’t finish college, but I think they enjoy the college dropout jokes they get to make now,” she says.
And she accepts their teasing. “I mean, my parents were raised with that kind of ethos,” she chuckles. “My dad used to whisper into my mother’s pregnant stomach, ‘1600 SAT, MIT,’ that kind of thing. But it was all in jest. I think they would have supported me no matter what I chose. Their cardinal rule for me in general was, as long as I was doing the best I could, they were going to be happy with it.”
She attended USC and studied film, but she had already been hooked by Hollywood. In fact, she’s a certifiable film nerd. In conversation about her favorite movies, she cites The English Patient from 1996, a fine, award-winning movie, but not exactly box office candy. “I think I caught the bug long before I ever moved to LA. What really ended up happening was that I started working as an actor midway through college, far earlier than I expected to start working, and then it just kind of kept taking off, and I took a leave of absence. And I’m pretty sure I’m still on a leave of absence.”
Fans will be ecstatic to learn that a sequel of KDH has been green-lit (not too surprising given its popularity), but they’ll have to be patient, since it might not drop until 2029. It’ll take time to produce, even if the rumored storylines have already been swirling for months.
Meanwhile, Yoo is staying busy. She was in last year’s horror movie Until Dawn, and she’s been cast in Presumed Innocent on Apple TV+. “We’re shooting it right now,” she says, though she can’t give out many details. “It’s the second season, brand new story, really cool cast, some really incredible actors I’ve gotten to work with. And it’s produced by David D Kelly and JJ Abrams and a lot of other really incredible producers. So whenever the creative team is at that caliber, I have a very fun day at work. It’s very easy when your coworkers are amazing at what they do.”
Watch the Oscars at 5 p.m. Sunday, March 15, on ABC and Hulu. KPop Demon Hunters can be streamed on Netflix.
