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Mia Park

Mia Park is an American TV show host, actress, drummer, and yoga instructor based in Chicago. She is the long-time host of the children's dance show Chic-a-Go-Go, and co-founder[1] of Chicago's A-Squared Theatre Workshop.

Early life and education

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Mia Chan Mi Park was born in Philadelphia.[2] She attended Shimer College, graduating with distinction in 1995.[3][4] Then located in Waukegan, Illinois and currently located in Chicago, Shimer is a Great Books college with a four-year core curriculum.[5]

Performance career

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Park is the host of the Chicago underground children's show Chic-a-Go-Go, "a dance show for kids of all ages".[6] Lonely Planet described the show as "a kiddie version of Soul Train."[7] Reviews of the show frequently focus on Park's "deliriously chipper"[8] style or "always-up rock-n-roll demeanor".[9] She has hosted Chic-A-Go-Go since 1998.[9] Her connection to Chic-a-Go-Go actually goes back to the very first show in 1996, when her then-boyfriend's band performed as the show's first musical guest, and she appeared as a dancer.[9][10] Park, who typically moves rapidly from one project to another, has described the show as "the longest thing I've ever done in my life."[10]

As the host (or co-host, as the host is nominally hosted by the rat puppet Ratso), Park interviews the guest musical groups after their performances. In a 2012 Chicago Reader feature, she complained about having missed the opportunity to interview Duran Duran due to a scheduling mixup;[11] In August of the same year, however, Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran made good on their original promise.[12]

A drummer and percussionist, Park began performing in bands in 1995. Many of the bands in which she performs are all-female and/or all-Asian, including Kim (which she described as a "pop-rock, punk-out, all-female Asian band")[13] and Pook Nury (a Korean female drum group).[13] As of 2012, she was a percussionist for the all-female pop orchestra Girl Group Chicago.[12]

In 2001, she wrote of the challenges facing rock groups of this kind:

When I tell people that I am the drummer for an all-Asian American female rock band, I don't expect to be taken seriously. There aren't any other bands like Kim in Chicago, let along in america, so I don't expect the masses to comprehend that, YES, women rock, and that, YES, Asian American women also rock ... and we rock hard, dammit![13]

Park organizes an annual event of one-night-only female cover bands performing to benefit the homeless, called "Covers for Cover."[14]

Park is a co-founder of Chicago's A-Squared Theatre Workshop, the city's only pan-Asian theater troupe.[4] She conceived of and appeared in the company's highly successful 2012 production My Asian Mom, a series of eight short one-person plays by Asian performers about their mothers.[15] Park's contribution, which dealt with her grandmother's escape from North Korea and also involved a lengthy handstand, attracted particular attention.[16]

Park is an advocate for Asian American representation in theatre. From the Chicago Sun-Times:[17] "For decades, “Chicago Med” regular Mia Park has seen race used as an excuse for lazy or uninformed casting. On the one side, she constantly hears the refrain that Asian-American actors — whether their roots are in Hawaii or India or China or Pakistan — are hard to find. On the other edge, there’s the belief that they simply aren’t right for shows that don’t deal specifically with Asian storylines or characters. Park has a succinct response: “It’s all bulls—,” she said. “The talent base in Chicago alone is huge. And unless ethnicity or culture is specifically written into a character to help drive a story? There’s no reason you can’t cast someone who looks like me.” [18]

In 2006, Mia co-founded the Asian American theater company, A-Squared Theatre Workshop and ran the Chicago Asian American Acting Industry Group which hosted educational acting workshops and supported local Asian American talent. She currently runs the Our Perspective: Asian American Plays program.[19]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role Notes Ref.
2006 The Lake House Receptionist
2007 The Minx Linnea Chiang [20]
2017 Signature Move Bookstore Customer

Television

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Year Title Role Notes
2008 Pancake Mountain Miss Mia 2 episodes
2011 Boss Clinic Volunteer 4 episodes
2012 Shameless Korean Liquor Store Wife Episode: Just Like the Pilgrims Intended
2013–16 Chicago Fire Nurse 4 episodes
2016 Chicago P.D. Nurse Beth Episode: She's Got Us
2016–19 Chicago Med 28 episodes
2017 APB Korean Woman Episode: Fueling Fires
2018 Empire Nurse Episode: Sweet Sorrow
2019 Code-Switched Kevin's Mom

Shorts

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Year Title Role Notes
2009 At Last, Okemah! Record Store Owner
2011 Instant Slapping
The Catastrophe Mrs. Kimballton
2013 4 Seconds: Ricky Hustile's Last Shot at the NBA Yoga Instructor

Other activities

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Park has worked as a yoga instructor since 2006.[21]

Works cited

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  • Park, Mia Chan Mi (2001). "Waving Fans". In Vickie Nam (ed.). Yell-Oh Girls!: Emerging Voices Explore Culture, Identity, and Growing Up Asian American. Harper Collins. pp. 269–270. ISBN 0060959444.

References

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  1. ^ "Cast Bios and Photos". A-Squared Theatre Workshop. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
  2. ^ Sharon Steffensen (January 2012). "Mia Park: Yoga Teacher, Actress, and Great Organizer". Yoga Chicago.
  3. ^ "IMDb Resume for Mia Park". Archived from the original on 2013-06-19. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
  4. ^ a b "Alumni Make News". Shimer College. 2012-04-20. Archived from the original on 2012-12-15. Retrieved 2013-06-17.
  5. ^ "Curriculum". Shimer College. Archived from the original on 2013-06-19. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
  6. ^ "Chic-A-Go-Go!". Roctober.com. Archived from the original on 2013-06-01. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
  7. ^ Jeff Campbell (2008). Lonely Planet USA. Lonely Planet. p. 563. ISBN 9781741046755.
  8. ^ Karla Zimmermann (2010). "Cinema & Television". Lonely Planet Chicago (City Travel Guide). Lonely Planet. p. 35. ISBN 978-1741794120.
  9. ^ a b c Karl Klockars (2007-12-21). "Interview: "Miss Mia" Park, Chic-a-go-go!". Chicagoist. Archived from the original on 2014-07-01. Retrieved 2013-06-17.
  10. ^ a b Bradley Adita (Winter 2004). "Mia Park". A Day in the Air. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
  11. ^ Anne Ford (2012-03-20). "This Weeks' Chicagoan: Mia Park, Kids' Show Host". Chicago Reader.
  12. ^ a b Miles Raymer; Mia Park (2012-08-21). "Artist on Artist: Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran talks to Mia Park". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2013-06-17.
  13. ^ a b c Park 2001, p. 269.
  14. ^ "Local Ladies Perform Covers for CAWC". Chicagoist. 2009-12-11. Archived from the original on 2010-10-19. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
  15. ^ Emily Gordon (2012-05-17). "My Asian Mom at A-Squared Theatre Workshop | Theater review". Time Out Chicago. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
  16. ^ Julia Thiel (2012-07-08). "My Asian Mom". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
  17. ^ https://chicago.suntimes.com/2018/8/12/18327162/theater-pros-gather-in-chicago-to-promote-more-asian-representation
  18. ^ "Mia Park". Mia Park. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
  19. ^ "Mia Park Acting". Mia Park. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
  20. ^ "Michael Smith premieres debut feature "The Minx" before Echelon Entertainment May 15 DVD release". Reel Chicago News. 2007-04-16. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  21. ^ Mia Park. "Yoga Resume". Yoga With Mia Park. Archived from the original on 2013-07-22. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
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