AP Breakthrough Entertainer: Arden Cho seizes her golden moment after Hollywood heartbreak

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three years ago, Arden Cho was ready to walk away from acting. She'd landed her first lead role in the Netflix series “Partner Track,” only to see it canceled after one season. She was heartbroken.

Her agent wouldn't let her go. “She refused to say ‘You’re done.’ She just kept sending me things,” Cho said. “She just keep being like, 'Look, I know you’re not auditioning. I know you're done, but I think you’d like this.'”

Now, Cho is juggling multiple projects after voicing the lead character Rumi in Netflix’s animated summertime sensation “KPop Demon Hunters,” which has become the all-time most-streamed movie on the platform — and spawned inescapable earworms “Golden” and “Soda Pop” as its soundtrack dominated pop charts.

“I am so ready,” Cho said. “It feels like it is my golden moment.”

Now, Cho is among The Associated Press' Breakthrough Entertainers of 2025. The timing feels almost cosmic. Netflix announced that “KPop Demon Hunters” was its most-watched movie on Aug. 26 — exactly three years after it began streaming “Partner Track.” “It was kind of like a gift from God of, hey, you lost something, but I’ve given you something better,” Cho said.

Cho — who doesn't sing in the movie — says she sees her own insecurities in the character, a K-pop idol and demon hunter who loses her voice. And she's ready to join in more stories in the world created by Maggie Kang.

“I hope there are sequels, I hope there’s prequels, I hope that every little Asian girl and boy feels so seen and feels like they deserve to be the main character. I hope this opens doors for more Korean and American collaborated projects,” she says. “I hope that ... Rumi gets to find out a little bit more about her mom and dad. I hope to know how HUNTR/X became HUNTR/X. And I kind of hope to go save Jinu.”

The movie has led a fresh wave of worldwide interest in Korean food, culture and K-pop idol life, which Cho, her co-stars and the singer-songwriters behind HUNTR/X have leaned into as the film's publicity tour grinds into Hollywood's awards season.

“I just feel so blessed to be able to have these conversations because I am so proud to be, obviously, to be American, but at the same time, I’m also so proud to be Korean,” Cho said.

Growing up in Texas and Minnesota, she hadn't thought much about racial identity. But while attending college at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, something shifted. “I realized that was the first time when I was like, oh, people look at me and don’t think that I’m an American,” she recalled. “And it was interesting because I realized at that time, there are two ways to look at it. You can just be mad and say, ‘Oh, I hate that we don’t have representation, I hate people that don’t see us, I hate that people don't see our stories,’ or you can say, ‘I’m going to try.’”

So she tried. In 2007, she moved to Los Angeles. “It was tough to leave my friends and family behind, it was tough to stay positive and to have thick skin. I still don’t have thick skin,” she said.

She found success as superpowered Kira Yukimura on MTV's “Teen Wolf” series starting in 2014 but otherwise struggled to find meaty roles before “Partner Track.”

For the legal drama, she was finally No. 1 on the call sheet. But she says, “I blinked and it was done and I was devastated.”

“I’m such a ‘I want to take care of everything and everyone’ type of personality. And I want to do it all. And so I think that whole experience sort of went by in a way where it was over before it began,” Cho said. “I missed my moment because I was so busy trying to make it perfect, trying to fix it all by myself. And in a weird way, like, it reminds me so much of Rumi.”

Then “KPop Demon Hunters” came her way. The film's producer Michelle Wong said she and other filmmakers narrowed finalists down to six actors, then did a blind “listen test” to pick the voice of Rumi. Cho was the unanimous choice.

“Our movie is dramatic, it’s action, it’s comedy, it’s everything. The talent needs to be at the highest level, which you know, Arden obviously encapsulates all of that. She has a great range,” Wong said. “I hope this opens doors for her because she deserves it.”

Cho celebrated her 40th birthday in August as “Demon Hunters” was peaking in popularity.

“I think for women, sometimes people get shy to say that because they kind of think 40 is old,” she said. “But I have never felt younger and better about myself. I’ve never felt more comfortable in my skin. And I kind of want to run around and tell everyone that because I hope that it gives people hope that age is really just a number.”

For more on AP’s 2025 class of Breakthrough Entertainers, visit https://apnews.com/hub/ap-breakthrough-entertainers.

Actor Arden Cho poses for a portrait in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Actor Arden Cho poses for a portrait in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Actor Arden Cho poses for a portrait in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Actor Arden Cho poses for a portrait in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Actor Arden Cho poses for a portrait in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado appeared in public for the first time in 11 months early Thursday morning, when she waved to supporters from a hotel balcony in Norway’s capital hours after her daughter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.

Machado and her supporters then sang Venezuela's national anthem before she left the hotel to shake their hands. People erupted in cheers and began chanting, “Freedom! Freedom!” and “Thank you! Thank you!”

Machado, dressed in jeans and a puffer jacket, spent several minutes outside the hotel, where she was joined by members of her family and several of her closest aides. She hugged many in the crowd amid chants of “President! President!”

“I want you all back in Venezuela,” Machado said as people lifted their cellphones to take pictures.

Machado had been in hiding since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in a protest in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. She had been expected to attend the award ceremony Wednesday in Oslo, where heads of state and her family were among those waiting to see her.

Machado said in an audio recording of a phone call published on the Nobel website that she wouldn’t be able to arrive in time for the ceremony but that many people had “risked their lives” for her to arrive in Oslo.

Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the prize in her place.

“She wants to live in a free Venezuela, and she will never give up on that purpose,” Sosa said. “That is why we all know, and I know, that she will be back in Venezuela very soon.”

Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, told the award ceremony that “María Corina Machado has done everything in her power to be able to attend the ceremony here today — a journey in a situation of extreme danger.”

“Although she will not be able to reach this ceremony and today's events, we are profoundly happy to confirm that she is safe, and that she will be with us here in Oslo,” he said to applause.

Machado said in an audio recording of a phone call published on the Nobel website that she would not be able to arrive in time for the ceremony but that many people had “risked their lives” for her to arrive in Oslo.

“I am very grateful to them, and this is a measure of what this recognition means to the Venezuelan people,” she said, before indicating that she was about to board a plane.

Machado said that "since this is a prize for all Venezuelans, I believe that it will be received by them. And as soon as I arrive, I will be able to embrace all my family and my children that I’ve have not seen for two years and so many Venezuelans, Norwegians that I know that share our struggle and our fight.”

Prominent Latin American figures attended Wednesday in a signal of solidarity with Machado, including Argentine President Javier Milei, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino and Paraguayan President Santiago Peña.

The 58-year-old Machado’s win for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in her South American nation was announced on Oct. 10. Watne Frydnes said that “Venezuela has evolved into a brutal authoritarian state,” and he described Machado as “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in recent Latin American history.”

Machado won an opposition primary election and intended to challenge President Nicolás Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. Retired diplomat Edmundo González took her place.

The lead-up to the election on July 28, 2024, saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. That increased after the country’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared the incumbent the winner.

González, who sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest, attended Wednesday’s ceremony.

U.N. human rights officials and many independent rights groups have expressed concerns about the situation in Venezuela, and called for Maduro to be held accountable for the crackdown on dissent.

“More than anything, what we Venezuelans can offer the world is the lesson forged through this long and difficult journey — that to have democracy, we must be willing to fight for freedom,” Sosa said as she delivered the lecture written for the occasion by her mother.

The speech didn't refer to the current tensions between Washington and Caracas, as U.S. President Donald Trump continues a military operation in the Caribbean that has killed Venezuelans in international waters and threatens to strike Venezuela. Machado has consistently endorsed Trump’s strategy toward Venezuela.

Among many “heroes of this journey” honored in the lecture, Sosa mentioned “the leaders around the world who joined us and defended our cause,” but didn't elaborate.

Watne Frydnes said of authoritarian leaders like Maduro that “your power is not permanent. Your violence will not prevail over people who rise and resist."

"Mr. Maduro, accept the election result and step down,” he said.

Five past Nobel Peace Prize laureates were detained or imprisoned at the time of the award, according to the prize's official website, most recently Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi in 2023 and Belarusian human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski in 2022.

The others were Liu Xiaobo of China in 2010, Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar in 1991 and Carl von Ossietzky of Germany in 1935.

Gustavo Tovar-Arroyo, a Venezuelan human rights activist who was forced to flee into exile in 2012, said that Machado's supporters “did the best for her to be here as she deserves. But we knew the risk.”

He added that they are “disappointed that she cannot be in the ceremony, but this is part of what we do when we fight against a dictatorship, a tyranny or a criminal regime. So we are used to it."

Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela. Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin, and Jamey Keaten in Geneva, contributed to this report.

People wait to see Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado outside the Grand Hotel, in Oslo, Norway, early Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Jonas Been Henriksen/NTB Scanpix via AP)

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado waves at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway, early Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Lise Åserud/NTB Scanpix via AP)

The daughter of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ana Corina Sosa, accepts the award on behalf of her mother, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, Wednesday Dec. 10, 2025. (Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB Scanpix, Pool via AP)

The daughter of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ana Corina Sosa, accepts the award on behalf of her mother, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, Wednesday Dec. 10, 2025. (Stian Lysberg Solum/NTB Scanpix via AP)

Argentine's President Javier Milei arrives at Oslo City Hall before the award ceremony of the Nobel Peace Prize, in Oslo, Norway, Wednesday Dec. 10, 2025. (Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB Scanpix via AP)

The daughter of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ana Corina Sosa, who will accept the award on behalf of her mother, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, arrives for the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony, in Oslo, Norway, Wednesday Dec. 10, 2025. (Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB Scanpix, Pool via AP)

A picture of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado during the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony at Oslo City Hall, in Oslo, Norway, Wednesday Dec. 10, 2025. (Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB Scanpix, Pool via AP)

Ana Corina Sosa, center, daughter of Nobel peace prize laureate Maria Machados, arrives at the Grand Hotel in Oslo on Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (Lise Aserud/NTB via AP)

FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado greets supporters during a protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, file)

From left: Colombia's former vice president Marta Lucía Ramírez, Pedro Urruchurtu Noselli and Magalli Meda, who are collaborators with the Nobel Prize winner, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, are seen at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Tuesday Dec. 9, 2025. (Cornelius Poppe/NTB Scanpix via AP)

FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado displays vote tally sheets during a protest against the reelection of President Nicolas Maduro one month after the disputed presidential vote which she says the opposition won by a landslide, in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)