Event Details - BD Wong, Lecture: "All the World's a Stage: From Exclusion to Inclusion"

BD Wong is an actor and activist known for his roles in such movies as Jurassic World, Jurassic Park, and Father of the Bride; and TV shows like Mr. Robot, Gotham, Law and Order: SVU, and Oz. The lessons BD Wong has learned in order to survive and excel in a vocation fraught with rejection, stereotyping and racism have given him a keen perspective on the subject of diversity and forced him to empower himself. In this presentation, infused with humor, storytelling and the passion of a world class artist, BD addresses the issues of racial self-image, race-based rejection, Asian-American parental pressure and the "model minority myth," and he describes his journey as a gay man in the entertainment industry. Retracing his path from adolescent racial self-hatred to eventual self-acceptance, from struggling with inequity to breaking down barriers in his personal and professional lives and embracing his multiple identities, including fatherhood, BD reveals the man behind the roles.