Tony Toka (Hoang)

Born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1982, Tony Hoang (aka Tony Toka) moved to Los Angeles, California when he was four. He went to work with his parents every day for 14 years. Being one of the few Asian Americans at school and work, he was surrounded and influenced by Latino culture, and that propelled him to avoid Asian and Asian American culture. Tony went on to UC Santa Barbara were he was forced to live on the Asian Interest Floor his freshman year. He was confused and turned off by the whole situation, but slowly identified and became friends with many of them. That led him to take classes within the Asian American Studies department, which opened his eyes to many Asian American issues. His main focus was Asian Americans in American media. He graduated with Bachelor’s degrees in Film Studies and Asian American Studies. Since then, Tony has become a poet, actor, writer, director, cameraman, editor, TV host. He has been working in the Vietnamese entertainment industry and aims to bring culture, poems, and stories about Asian Americans into film and American media.