Awkwafina, history-making 2020 Golden Globes best actress winner, was born on LI

Actress-rapper Awkwafina, who on Sunday became the first person of Asian heritage to win the Golden Globe Award for best performance by an actress in a motion picture musical or comedy, recently revealed that she was born on Long Island.

Raised when she was very young in Forest Hills, Queens, by a first-generation Chinese father and a South Korean immigrant mother, the 31-year-old Awkwafina, born Nora Lum, recently clarified on The Hollywood Reporter's "Awards Chatter" podcast that despite claims otherwise, "I was born in Stony Brook, Long Island."

An only child, she returned to Long Island after her mother's death, sent by her father to live with her paternal grandmother and some cousins who ran a Chinese restaurant there. "I lived for one year in Long Island when I was in second grade since my mom had passed when I was five, so I went to go live with my grandma," she told Brooklyn Magazine in 2015. "But it was [expletive] for me to move and not really be somewhere permanent, so then my grandma just moved back to Forest Hills, and I lived there with my dad and my grandma."

Her father had "always stayed in Queens. He had an apartment there," she told The Hollywood Reporter podcast. "And then my grandma's — well, my grandma had a restaurant that ended up kind of going out of business so she moved to Queens from Long Island."

She mentioned her family Sunday when accepting her Golden Globe from actors Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson, for her role in "The Farewell." "If anything, if I fall upon hard times, I can sell this, so that's good," she joked. She dedicated the award "to my dad, Wally. I told you I'd get a job, Dad. And to my grandma, my best friend, the woman who raised me. And to my mother, Tia, who I always hoped was watching from somewhere above and I hope that she's watching now."

At a reception at The Beverly Hilton after the awards ceremony, Awkwafina posted a candid Instagram photo of herself holding her award and FaceTiming with someone. "Tonight," she wrote simply. In a post Monday, she wrote, "No words to explain. But Here’s to everyone next. I need to thank my amazing team, who has been with me on this journey from day one," followed by a list of stylists, hair and makeup people, a creative agency, and the clothing, jewelry, footwear and accessories brands she wore.

Congratulatory comments to the two posts came in from stars including Jericho-raised Oscar-winner Natalie Portman, Nesconset Instagram star Tank Sinatra and model Ireland Baldwin, daughter of Massapequa's Alec Baldwin, as well as from Awkwafina's movie co-stars Constance Wu ("Crazy Rich Asians") and Mindy Kaling ("Ocean's 8"), among others. 

According to CNN, Awkwafina is the sixth woman of Asian heritage to be nominated for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Golden Globe Award in this category, following Machiko Kyo (1956's "The Teahouse of the August Moon"), Miyoshi Umeki (1961's "Flower Drum Song"), Yvonne Elliman (1973's "Jesus Christ Superstar"), Hailee Steinfeld, whose mother is of Filipino descent (2016's "The Edge of Seventeen”), and Constance Wu (2018's "Crazy Rich Asians").

Awkwafina's spokeswoman did not respond to a Newsday request for comment.