{"id":47864,"date":"2016-06-21T19:57:09","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T19:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=47864"},"modified":"2016-06-21T20:14:09","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T20:14:09","slug":"merle-dandridge-on-blasian-identity-and-oprah-winfrey-networks-new-summer-original-series-greenleaf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=47864","title":{"rendered":"Merle Dandridge on \u201cBlasian\u201d Identity and Oprah Winfrey Network\u2019s new summer original series \u201cGreenleaf\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Merle Dandridge on \u201cBlasian\u201d Identity and Oprah Winfrey Network\u2019s new summer original series \u201cGreenleaf\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

CAAM: Center of Asian American Media<\/a>
\n2016-06-20<\/p>\n

Mitzi Uehara Carter<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Merle Dandridge<\/a> started her career on Broadway<\/a> with leading roles in Spamalot<\/em><\/a>, Aida<\/em><\/a>, Rent<\/em><\/a>, Tarzan<\/em><\/a>, and Jesus Christ Superstar<\/em><\/a>. Not only does she have singing chops, she shines on screen. Dandridge has been cast in recurring roles on television shows including The Night Shift<\/em><\/a>, CSI: Miami<\/em><\/a> and Stalker<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dandridge has also broken into a field that is gaining more serious attention from actors \u2014 video games. Female actors can often find well developed, complex characters in narrative-led gaming roles. This year, she won BAFTA\u2019 best performer<\/a> for her role in the popular post-apocalyptic Playstation<\/a> game, \u201cEverybody\u2019s Gone to the Rapture<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

I spoke with Dandridge about her starring role in the upcoming original drama series, Greenleaf<\/em><\/a>, on the Oprah Winfrey Network<\/a> (OWN), which debuts June 21, 2016. This is her first lead role on a television series<\/a>. Dandridge talked to me via phone from Los Angeles<\/a> about this new summer drama that is chock-full of award-winning actors and writers. We also squealed about being Black and Asian and she hinted at a possible \u201cKimchi and Collards\u201d project…<\/p>\n

…Ok, Merle. I\u2019m Black and Asian and I have to tell you I did a little happy dance when I learned your mother is Asian and your dad is Black American right? And you were born in Okinawa<\/a> where my mom is from. Seriously now. I\u2019m so psyched you\u2019re Black Asian. Can you tell me a little about growing up with this very particular mixed background?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your kidding me? I don\u2019t know others of that mix. How interesting! My mother is half Japanese and Korean. And I have older siblings who are mostly Korean, 1\/4 Japanese, because of my mom\u2019s first marriage to a Korean man. I was born in Okinawa but most of my time in Asia was in Seoul<\/a>. My mother belongs to two cultures that didn\u2019t really accept her 100 percent. So she had this understanding of rejection based on her own experiences. She would look at me and say, \u201cYou are of different ethnicities and you might not always be accepted so go into the world knowing that and know that you are more than that. You are beautiful.\u201d And in many ways she instilled a sense of who I was and gave me ways to encounter fears of not being fully accepted. And in Nebraska as one of the only ones [mixed Asians], I think it was a good exercise in becoming a good person because I think I had to be above the confusion, the potential rejections…<\/p>\n

Read the entire interview here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Merle Dandridge on \u201cBlasian\u201d Identity and Oprah Winfrey Network\u2019s new summer original series \u201cGreenleaf\u201d CAAM: Center of Asian American Media 2016-06-20 Mitzi Uehara Carter Merle Dandridge started her career on Broadway with leading roles in Spamalot, Aida, Rent, Tarzan, and Jesus Christ Superstar. Not only does she have singing chops, she shines on screen. Dandridge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,16,125,13743,8,20],"tags":[17752,24249,24250,24253,24251,586,24252],"class_list":["post-47864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-asia","category-identitydevelopment","category-interviews","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-caam","tag-caam-center-of-asian-american-media","tag-center-of-asian-american-media","tag-greenleaf","tag-merle-dandridge","tag-mitzi-uehara-carter","tag-oprah-winfrey-network"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47864"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47870,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47864\/revisions\/47870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}