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

LOS ANGELES — 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.''

''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.''

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.''

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