Actors Priyanka Chopra, Charles Melton thank fellow Asians for creating better world for their kids

LOS ANGELES – At an event celebrating Asian talent, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Charles Melton credited Asian artistes and leaders with uplifting the entire community – and creating a better world for their children to live in.

Held in Los Angeles on May 9, the 2026 Gold Gala – hosted annually by the United States-based non-profit Gold House – honoured Asian and Pacific Islander leaders in industries such as entertainment, sports, fashion and technology.

Indian actress Chopra Jonas received the Global Vanguard Honor, an award for her decades-long career bridging Bollywood and Hollywood, while Korean-American actor Melton was recognised for his performance in Season 2 of the Netflix comedy-drama anthology Beef (2023 to present).

Also honoured were Chinese-American Olympic skier Eileen Gu, Chinese action star Jet Li and Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu.

In her acceptance speech, Chopra Jonas, 43, singled out her mother – 73-year-old medical doctor Madhu Chopra – who accompanied her to the event.

The actress – who has a four-year-old daughter with her husband, American singer-actor Nick Jonas, 33 – thanked her for being “the kind of mother who is taking care of my child while I go filming for three weeks – the kind of grandmother that my grandmother was”.

“I was raised with a lineage of very strong women who stood for each other and their achievements,” adds the star, who plays the heroine in the globe-trotting spy show Citadel, the second season of which is available on Prime Video.

Her mother played a formative role in her education, says Chopra Jonas, who starred in Bollywood hits such as the Krrish (2006 to 2013) and Don (2006 to 2011) action films before making her Hollywood debut with thriller series Quantico (2015 to 2018).

“So, thank you for being the foundation of who I am and for always being a student of life. Happy Mother’s Day.”

The actress also spoke of the importance of celebrating Asian representation and excellence.

“Seeing such a large and amazing community celebrate and champion each other, and seeing them not just survive but actually thrive, is the dream.

“That’s the world my daughter’s going to grow up in,” says Chopra Jonas, who will star in the 2027 Telugu-language epic Varanasi, poised to be one of the most expensive Indian films ever made.

Melton, 35, echoes that sentiment as he receives the Gold Artistic Achievement Honor, praising the Asian trailblazers who inspired him.

“These are the artistes who loudly celebrate their faith and culture. The artistes who return to their own language, only to come back more powerful,” says the star, who appeared in the mystery series Riverdale (2017 and 2023) and psychological drama May December (2023).

Noting that he recently became a father to a baby girl with fiancee Camille Summers-Valli, a 34-year-old French-Australian photographer, he says: “I want to thank everyone in this room for making the world a better place for my baby girl, and giving her a place to belong and thrive.”

He had a profound connection with the Korean-American character he plays on Beef 2, which was one of the most-watched shows on Netflix when it debuted in April.

“Yes, he is something of a Korean himbo, which I’m fine with,” jokes Melton, whose South Korean mother and American father met when the latter was stationed with the United States army in South Korea.

“I like that. Koreans can be sex symbols. We’re hot.”

But what Melton identified with most was how the character – a people-pleasing physical trainer at a California country club – struggles with his identity.

“I’ve been like (him) at times – many of us have. He’s lost, looking for purpose. He hides his Korean-ness. He hides behind his own masks because he thinks that’s the best way to survive. But he eventually learns that he can’t hide his Korean-ness very long,” he says.

“You are who you are. Your culture finds you – and that resonates deeply with me.”