Crazy Rich Asians inspired a career ‘renaissance’: Sandra Yi Sencindiver, Apple TV+ and Amazon actress, has a message for her country, Denmark, about on-screen representation

Sandra Yi Sencindiver, an American-Danish-Korean actress seen in Foundation and The Wheel of Time, felt let down by the screen parts offered her in Denmark

It was not until Crazy Rich Asians that Sencindiver saw a global market for East and Southeast Asian representation existed – and seized the chance to break out

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Sandra Yi Sencindiver in a still from season two of “Foundation”, now streaming on Apple TV+. Sencindiver has a message for her country, Denmark, on the representation of East and Southeast Asian people on the screen. Photo: Apple TV+

Published: 12:45pm, 23 Aug 2023

Since her international breakthrough on Apple TV+ and Amazon shows, American-Danish-Korean actress Sandra Yi Sencindiver has taken her career’s “second renaissance” as a call to redress what she says is Denmark’s lack of diversity and representation in the arts.

Sencindiver has had a prolific career in Danish theatre since being cast at the age of 20 in a production of Miss Saigon, Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil’s formerly acclaimed stage musical.

She has appeared in the Scandinavian noir dramas The Bridge and Backstrom and wrote and directed her own short film, 2023’s Watch, which depicts two women sharing a childhood secret.

Alongside her extensive advocacy works, she has – as artistic director of theatre company Danskdansk (“Danish Danish”) – sought to challenge conceptions of what being Danish means and looks like.

Speaking before the Hollywood actors’ strike, Sencindiver said her international success illustrates how structural racism and discrimination – rather than a lack of talent or opportunity – are behind the myth of the on-screen white, homogenous Denmark.

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