Conrad Ricamora Paves Way for Future Asian American Actors with The Right To Be There Fund

Ricamora has launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for a scholarship for Asian American male actors pursuing BFA or MFA acting degrees—to help plant seeds of hope for the next generation.

Conrad Ricamora, nominated for the Featured Actor Tony for his work in “Oh, Mary!,” creates a legacy through this fund. The new program empowers AAPI male youth because, as Ricamora so empathetically states, “no young actor should grow up feeling like their presence is conditional. Not in their training, and not on the stage.”

The news comes with interesting timing as Andrew Barth Feldman was cast as the lead in “Maybe Happy Ending,” after Darren Criss received a Tony award for the same role. The casting announcement has brought debates online because of Feldman’s role of Asian erasure on Broadway, with the original story being from South Korea. While the musical is centered around two “helperbots,” many feel like the role should be kept within the Asian community. Feldman is talented and known on Broadway for his work in Dear Evan Hansen, but there are plenty of talented AAPI performers who are completely capable of filling the role – like Zachary Noah Piser, known for his own work in Dear Evan Hansen. The casting announcement in and of itself is proof that grants like this matter and that encouraging AAPI talent to pursue the creative field is a societal necessity!

The Hollywood Diversity Report for 2025 by the UCLA Entertainment & Media Research Initiative shows that leads in film are about two out of ten actors are BIPOC, the AAPI leads statistics showcase numbers that say we’re practically nonexistent in the grand scheme of Hollywood. While we’ve seen great strides in recent times, like the phenomenal amount of Emmys won by AAPI actors during the 2024 Emmys and this year’s Tony Awards, there is still a long way to go. Ricamora’s new scholarship program is one of the things that can help bring change. Conrad shared, “Progress in our industry can be real and inspiring—but it’s often fragile. Even after decades of work and some recent wins, Asian American men still face enormous barriers in the world of acting—especially in roles that are complex, leading, and human. And especially on stage.”

When male Asian American actors see the possibility of receiving the scholarship, the opportunity alone proves that people do care and do support their dreams. They will see somebody who looks like them and see that they, too, can make a difference. They will see that somebody who looks like them can make it, and they will know that their dreams can become a reality.