Raya Star Kelly Marie Tran on Lessons Learned From Achieving Many “Firsts“ in the Industry

Kelly Marie Tran first burst onto the scene in 2017 with the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Even though she’s still only at the beginning of what’s proving to be a very promising run in film and television, she’s already achieved some significant (and long overdue) “firsts” that are changing the industry for the better. With her work as Rose Tico in The Last Jedi, Tran became the first woman of color to play a lead character in a Star Wars film. Now she’s voicing Disney’s first Southeast Asian princess in Raya and the Last Dragon. The movie takes place in a fantasy land called Kumandra, a place overrun with a plague called the Druun. The humans of Kumandra do have what they need to defeat the Druun, but it requires them to unite as one when they’re insistent on staying divided into five lands - Heart, Talon, Tail, Spine and Fang. However, that’s where Raya comes in. Her mission is to find the last dragon (voiced by Awkwafina), bring the five pieces of the dragon gem back together and create one K