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LOS ANGELES<\/strong> \u2013 Three years ago, Arden Cho was ready to walk away from acting. She’d landed her first lead role in the Netflix series \u201cPartner Track,\u201d<\/a> only to see it canceled after one season. She was heartbroken.<\/p>\n Her agent wouldn’t let her go. \u201cShe refused to say \u2018You\u2019re done.\u2019 She just kept sending me things,\u201d Cho said. \u201cShe just keep being like, ‘Look, I know you\u2019re not auditioning. I know you’re done, but I think you\u2019d like this.’\u201d<\/p>\n Now, Cho is juggling multiple projects after voicing the lead character Rumi in Netflix\u2019s animated summertime sensation \u201cKPop Demon Hunters,\u201d which has become the all-time most-streamed movie on the platform<\/a> \u2014 and spawned inescapable earworms \u201cGolden\u201d and \u201cSoda Pop\u201d as its soundtrack dominated pop charts.<\/p>\n \u201cI am so ready,\u201d Cho said. \u201cIt feels like it is my golden moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, Cho is among The Associated Press’ Breakthrough Entertainers of 2025.<\/a> The timing feels almost cosmic. Netflix announced that \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d was its most-watched movie on Aug. 26 \u2014 exactly three years after it began streaming \u201cPartner Track.\u201d \u201cIt was kind of like a gift from God of, hey, you lost something, but I\u2019ve given you something better,\u201d Cho said.<\/p>\n Cho \u2014 who doesn’t sing in the movie \u2014 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. <\/p>\n \u201cI hope there are sequels, I hope there\u2019s 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,\u201d she says. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n The movie has led a fresh wave of worldwide interest in Korean food, culture and K-pop idol life, which Cho, her co-stars and the singer-songwriters behind HUNTR\/X have leaned into as the film’s publicity tour grinds into Hollywood’s awards season. <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI 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\u2019m also so proud to be Korean,\u201d Cho said. <\/p>\n Growing up in Texas and Minnesota,<\/a> she hadn’t thought much about racial identity. But while attending college at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, something shifted. \u201cI realized that was the first time when I was like, oh, people look at me and don\u2019t think that I\u2019m an American,\u201d she recalled. \u201cAnd it was interesting because I realized at that time, there are two ways to look at it. You can just be mad and say, \u2018Oh, I hate that we don\u2019t have representation, I hate people that don\u2019t see us, I hate that people don’t see our stories,\u2019 or you can say, \u2018I\u2019m going to try.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n So she tried. In 2007, she moved to Los Angeles. \u201cIt was tough to leave my friends and family behind, it was tough to stay positive and to have thick skin. I still don\u2019t have thick skin,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She found success as superpowered Kira Yukimura on MTV’s \u201cTeen Wolf\u201d series starting in 2014 but otherwise struggled to find meaty roles before \u201cPartner Track.\u201d<\/p>\n For the legal drama, she was finally No. 1 on the call sheet. But she says, \u201cI blinked and it was done and I was devastated.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m such a \u2018I want to take care of everything and everyone\u2019 type of personality. And I want to do it all. And so I think that whole experience sort of went by in a way where it was over before it began,\u201d Cho said. \u201cI missed my moment because I was so busy trying to make it perfect, trying to fix it all by myself. And in a weird way, like, it reminds me so much of Rumi.\u201d<\/p>\n Then \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d came her way. The film’s producer Michelle Wong said she and other filmmakers narrowed finalists down to six actors, then did a blind \u201clisten test\u201d to pick the voice of Rumi. Cho was the unanimous choice.<\/p>\n \u201cOur movie is dramatic, it\u2019s action, it\u2019s comedy, it\u2019s everything. The talent needs to be at the highest level, which you know, Arden obviously encapsulates all of that. She has a great range,\u201d Wong said. \u201cI hope this opens doors for her because she deserves it.\u201d<\/p>\n