Fact Sheet

Hosts
George Takei from the famed “Star Trek” series will host the first four shows of the eight hour series due out in May 2006 for Asian Pacific American Heritage month.   Comedienne/Writer Margaret Cho will host the final four hours of Crossing East. 

George Takei, best known for his portrayal of Mr. Sulu in the acclaimed television and film series Star Trek, has more than 30 feature films and hundreds of television guest-starring roles to his credit. Widely recognized for his vocal talents, Takei has been a guest narrator for several symphony orchestras throughout the country. With the outbreak of World War II, Takei and his family together with 120,000 other Japanese Americans were placed behind the barbed-wire enclosures of United States internment camps. 

Margaret Cho won the American Comedy Award for Best Female Comedian in 1994. She made television history that year by being the first female Asian American to have a television series based around her.  Since then, Cho has had several successful one-woman shows.  In 2005, Cho released her second book I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight, a compilation of essays and prose about global politics, human rights, and other topical issues.

Producers
Dmae Roberts, Executive Producer has produced more than 400 features, audio arts pieces and documentaries for NPR and PRI programs. In 1990, she received the prestigious George Foster Peabody award for her autobiographical radio documentary "Mei Mei, A Daughter's Song." Other awards include the Corporation for Public Broadcasting awards, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism award, the Casey Medal, Clarion award and the Asian American Journalists Association award. She is the executive producer of the Portland-based, non-profit, MediaRites Productions.

Associate Producer: Sara Caswell Kolbet
Marketing and Outreach Director: Ping Khaw-Sutherland
Managing Editor: Catherine Stifter
Technical Advisor: Michael Johnson
Master Engineer: Clark Salisbury
Segment Producers: Ruby deLuna, Catrin Einhorn, Reese Erlich, Stephanie Loleng, Ginger Miles, Nguyen Qui Duc, Deepa Raganathan, Mary Stucky, Robynn Takayama, Rainjita Yang-Geesler
Assistant Producers: Jennifer Dunn, Anne Morin, Dhevi Natarajan
Contributing Producer: Miae Kim

Scholars
Consulting Scholars have overseen the process of writing and producing Crossing East to be sure of its historical accuracy and place in American society today.

Judy Yung, Lead Scholar, is professor of American studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Publications include, most recently, Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (1995) and Unbound Voices: A Documentary History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (1999), Chinese Women of America: A Pictorial History (University of Washington Press, 1986). And Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940 (University of Washington Press, 1980, 1991).

Other Consulting Scholars: 
Jeffrey Barlow - Pacific University, Oregon 
Dia Cha - St. Cloud State University, Minnesota 
Catherine Ceniza Choy - University of California, Berkeley 
Bill Ong Hing - University of California, Davis 
Franklin Odo – Smithsonian 
Gary Okihiro - Columbia University 
Jaideep Singh - University of California, Berkeley 
Ron Takaki - Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley 
Linda Trinh Vo - University of California, Irvine 
Ji-Yeon Yuh - University of Pennsylvania 
Benjamin Zulueta - University of Southern California