Walking Dead's Steven Yeun Is On a Mission to Create Better Roles for Asian Actors

Steven Yeun may be one of the leads on the biggest show on television, The Walking Dead, but that doesn’t mean he’s getting tons of roles in other projects now.

“People ask, ‘So, how are the roles now? You must be getting so many.’ And it’s like, I don’t know if you know, but I’m Asian still,” the 30-year-old actor told TheWrap.

“It’s not a complaint, that’s just how it is now, and I have to forge my own path through it and see that through,” Steven added. “I think that if I had not been Asian, I probably would have a whole plethora of roles, at least to audition for, but it’s just not what has been written.”

So how is Steven fixing that problem? Writing and producing his own projects! He is the executive producer and star of the upcoming movie The Aquariums of Pyongyang, which follows a man whose childhood years are spent in a North Korean concentration camp.

Steven also has several other projects that are early in development. “We’ve been working on some comedy stuff and in cartoon form, as well,” he revealed. “And then there are some film ideas that have always been batting around my head. I just want to definitely stretch that muscle, because you can’t just wait for other people to give it to you.”