Common Campus Read

Reshma Saujani is the founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, ran for Congress in 2010 as the first Indian-American woman to do so, and is the proud daughter of refugees. She is the author of Women Who Don’t Wait in Line and the New York Times bestseller Girls Who Code: Learn to Code and Change the World.

Comedian, actor, and writer best known as the Latino correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He stars in the movie Night School and is a series regular and writer on Showtime’s I’m Dying Up Here. He is also the founder of the All Things Comedy podcast network.

Jenny Zhang is the author of the poetry collection Dear Jenny, We Are All Find and the story collection Sour Heart, which won the 2018 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize. She was born in Shanghai and grew up in Queens.

Bambadjan Bamba is an actor, filmmaker, and immigrant activist. He is the proud son of Ivorian immigrants.

Padma Lakshmi is a New York Times bestselling author, the host and an executive producer of Bravo’s Top Chef, and an ambassador for immigration/women’s reproductive health for the ACLU. She lives in New York with her daughter.

Randall Park is an American actor, comedian, writer, and director. He was born in Los Angeles to Korean Parents. He has appeared in numerous films and television projects.

Roxanne Gay is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women, and the New York Times bestselling Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel and the editor of Best American Short Stories 2018. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and a 2018 recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship.

Carmen Perez is the executive director of The Gathering for Justice and has dedicated twenty years to advocating for many of today’s important civil rights issues, including gender equity, violence prevention, racial healing, community policing, and ending mass incarceration. She co-chaired the 2017 Women's March on Washington.

Issa Rae first received attention for her award-winning web series and the accompanying New York Times bestseller The Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl, a collection of essays. She also created and starred in the HBO series Insecure.

Dianne Guerrero is an actress, activist, and author known for her roles in Orange Is the New Black, Jane the Virgin, and Superior Donuts. Her memoir, In the Country We Love, details her life as a citizen daughter of undocumented parents and highlights the consequences of our broken immigration system.

Joy Cho is the founder and creative directory of Oh Joy!--a lifestyle brand focused on injecting happiness into every day through joyful products and creative editorial content. She is a first-generation Thai-American living the American dream. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Los Angeles.

Liza Koshy, actress and entertainer, is most well-known for creating comedy skits and characters within her social network of more than forty million fans. She is the star of the YouTube original Liza on Demand, Hulu's Freakish, and host of MTV's reboot of TRL. Raised in Houston, Texas, as the youngest of three daughters, Liza is a dedicated sister, daughter, friend, and advocate for mental health.

Pakistani-born American actor and comedian best known for his work on Silicon Valley, Marvel’s The Eternals, and his nomination for an Academy Award for his screenplay, The Big Sick.

Michelle Kwan is the most decorated figure skater in US history. She is two-time Olympic medalist, a five-time world champion, and a nine-time US champion. She is a former senior advisor/envoy for the US Department of State and serves in the board of directors of Special Olympics International.

Geena Rocero, born and raised in Manila, Philippines, is a model, host, producer, and trans rights advocate. She came out as transgender at the 2014 TED Conference. Her talk is available on ted.com. Geena is the founder of Gender Proud, an award-winning media production company that tells stories to elevate justice and equality for the transgender community.

Frank Waln is an award-winning Lakota hip-hop artist, producer, and audio engineer for the Rosebud Rez in South Dakota. A winner of three Native American Music Awards and recipient of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation 2018 National Artist Fellowship for Artistic Innovation, he travels the world sharing his story through music and presentations focusing on finding our truth and reconnecting our roots.

Auli'i Cravalho is a singer and actress. She is of proud Hawaiian, Puerto Rican, Portuguese, Chinese, and Irish heritage.

A Palo Alto native, Jeremy Lin is a guard for the Brooklyn Nets and is the NBA's first American-born player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent. He became an overnight sensation in 2012 for his performance with the Knicks, commonly known as "Linsanity." Lin has played with the Warriors, Knicks, Rockets, Lakers, and Hornets, and most recently signed with the Nets as a free agent in 2016.

Ravi Patel is an actor, director, writer, and entrepreneur. He coedited the Emmy-nominated documentary Meet the Patels. Ravi has also appeared on numerous popular shows over the course of his career, including but not limited to Master of None, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Scrubs, Hawaii Five-0, and Grey's Anatomy.

Lin-Manuel Miranda is a composer, lyricist, and performer. He is the proud son of a Puerto Rican dad and a Puerto Rican/Mexican mom.

Tanaya Winder is a poet vocalist, writer, educator, and motivational speaker from the Southern Ute, Duckwater Shoshone, and Pyramid Lake Paiute Nations. She is the founder of Dream Warriors, an indigenous artists management company and collective.

Wilmer Valderrama is an actor (best known for his work on That '70s Show), producer, and activist raised in Venezuela. He, along with America Ferrera and Ryan Piers William, founded Harness, a group dedicated to connecting communities through conversation to inspire action and power change.

Anna Akana is an actress, producer, director, and comedian. She is the proud daughter of Japanese and Filipino immigrants.

Laurie Hernandez is an American-born, second-generation Puerto Rican gymnast, an Olympic gold medalist, and the youngest-ever champion on Dancing with the Stars. At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero, Laurie won silver in the individual balance beam competition and gold in the team final.

Kal Penn is an actor, producer, and former White House aide. He has appeared in a number of productions, including the Harold and Kumar franchise, The Namesake, How I Met Your Mother, and Designated Survivor. In 2020 he published the memoir You Can't Be Serious. Follow him @kalpenn for updates.

Anjelah Johnson-Reyes is a comedian, actress, music artist, and author of Who Do I Think I Am? Stories of Chola Wishes and Caviar Dreams. She hails from San Jose, California, and lives with her husband in Los Angeles, where they sit on the board of the anti-human trafficking organization Unlikely Heroes.

Martin Sensmeier is an American actor of Tlingit, Koyukon-Athabascan, and Irish descent. He has appeared in several film and television projects, including Westworld and The Magnificent Seven. He will star in Bright Path: The Jim Thorpe Story, a biopic on legendary Native American athlete Jim Thrope. He is also an ambassador for the Native Wellness Institute and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

Carmen Carrera is a mother, an actor, a model an advocate, and one of the world's highest-profile transgender women. As an actor, she has appeared in HBO's Outpost, Jane the Virgin, The Bold and the Beautiful, and Ricki and the Flash. Carmen is a dedicated international human rights and HIV prevention advocate. She has lectured around the world and works with organizations like SUENOS LGBT to fight discrimination against young transgender women.

Uzo Aduba is an award-winning American actress whose work spans television, film, and theater. Aduba is best known for her work on Orange is the New Black.

Linda Sarsour is an award-winning racial justice and civil rights activist, seasoned community organizer, and mother of three. She is most known for her intersectional coalition work and for building bridges across issues and racial, ethnic, and faith communities.

Congressman Joaquin Castro is a native of San Antonio and represents Texas's Twentieth Congressional District, serving in both the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. His twin brother, Julian, served in President Barak Obama's cabinet and as a mayor of San Antonio. Congressman Castro and his wife, Anna Castro, have two children, Andrea and Roman.

You may know these contributors as world-famous actors, comedians, athletes, politicians, artists, and writers, but can you recognize them as children?
*Quiz and photo by Lauren Diaz on getliterary.com