Half-Thai creators: authors, cooks, musicians, podcasts

These are people who write, record and post about being Thai by family. They might be half Thai, Thai-American, or grew up between Bangkok and somewhere else. Every person here has said so publicly, in their own words, and we link that next to their name.

How this list works. Adults only, with a public profession (published books, released music, established podcasts, public sport), and each one has described their Thai family in their own content or in a reputable interview. No follower counts and no ranking: groups are by format and names are alphabetical. Mainstream stars are on our famous luk khrueng page instead.

Books and poetry

• Adam Aitken is a poet and memoirist in Sydney. His site describes him as “born in London in 1960 to an Anglo-Australian father and a Thai mother”; his book One Hundred Letters Home is about his mixed heritage. Site and source: adamaitken.wordpress.com.
• Pintip Dunn writes young adult novels. “A first-generation Thai American, I grew up in a tiny town in Kansas.” Site and source: pintipdunn.com.
• Sunisa Manning is the author of A Good True Thai, a novel set during Thailand’s student movements of the 1970s. She was born and raised in Bangkok to Thai and American parents: “I pass very well in America, but I was born and raised in Bangkok.” Site: sunisamanning.com. Source: Guernica interview, 2020.
• Mai Nardone is the author of the story collection Welcome Me to the Kingdom, set in Bangkok. He describes himself as “a mixed race person who grew up in Thailand, rather than America”, and his mother as Thai Chinese. Source: The Brooklyn Review interview, 2023.
• Christina Soontornvat writes children’s and middle-grade books. She “grew up behind the counter of her parents’ Thai restaurant in a small Texas town” and is “very proud of both her Thai and her Texan roots”. Site and source: soontornvat.com.
• Ira Sukrungruang writes memoir and essays, including Talk Thai: The Adventures of Buddhist Boy, about growing up in a Thai immigrant family in the US. He has said he wrote the memoir to empathise with his family’s struggles, dreams and fears as immigrants. Source: USC Dornsife, 2010.
• Pimone Triplett is a poet who teaches at the University of Washington. Her mother is Thai and her father is from Oregon. “It never occurred to me that I could write about Thailand, or my mother’s background,” she said. Profile: poets.org. Source: USC Dornsife, 2010.

Food

• Jet Tila is a Los Angeles chef. “I think about the plight of Thai Americans and the hardship my parents endured to create a life for us. But mostly I feel pride, pride to have a hand in creating Thai Town.” Source: NBC News, 2014.
• Dominique Woolf is a food writer and the founder of a sauce brand. “I’m Dominique, half-Thai food writer, Sunday Times bestselling author and founder of Woolf’s Kitchen.” Site and source: thewoolfskitchen.com.

Music and sport

• Nabil Anane is a Muay Thai fighter based in Thailand. “I am Algerian by my father who is French of Algerian origin and Thai by my mother who is Thai.” Source: Siam Fight Mag interview, 2023.
• Thaiboy Digital is a rapper in the Stockholm collective Drain Gang. He grew up in Thailand before moving with his parents to Stockholm. “I like to curse in Swedish. And when its some real shit, I think in Thai.” Source: The Fader, 2018.

Podcasts

• More Than A Noodle is an interview podcast that describes itself as “by a Thai American for the purpose of amplifying the voices of the Thai diaspora”, hosted by Jeremy Lee. Episodes include one on growing up luk khrueng (November 2020) and one on passing Thai culture on to your children (October 2020). The latest episode we found is from August 2021. Listen: Apple Podcasts.

Ask to be listed, suggest a creator, or ask to be removed

Ask to be listed. Write a newsletter, a blog or a channel about being Thai by family? We’d love to include you, and for smaller creators we only do it when you ask. Send us a link through our corrections page, with where you describe your Thai family.

We’re adding creators as we verify them, especially YouTube, TikTok and Instagram creators. Several we found are left out for now because we couldn’t yet read their own words about their Thai family. If you make things about being Thai by family, or know someone who does, send us a link through our corrections page. Please include where they describe their Thai family themselves. We list adults only.

If you’re on this page and would like a detail changed or your entry removed, tell us the same way. We’ll do it without asking why.

Want the bigger picture? Our Thai by family, in numbers page has the official figures.