Time to Shine
Life is good for Hualālai Chung as he makes a name for himself in the entertainment industry and celebrates his Native Hawaiian culture. | Photo by Lawrence Tabudlo
You can say Hualālai Chung was destined for a life in the spotlight.
At just 7 years old, he was already entering fire-knife competitions and then, as he got older, he started dancing Tahitian and hula. After high school, he decided to pursue his passion for music and was part of the reggae band HiRemedy before making his solo artist debut late last year with his single Love to Love, followed by his newest song, the recently released Let Go.
In recent years, he started exploring the world of acting and landed the role of Moni in Disney’s animated feature Moana 2, which will be available to stream on Disney+ starting March 12. His other film credits include appearances in NCIS: Hawai‘i, Rescue: HI-Surf, Mad Men and Sesame Street. Coming up, you can catch him in the live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch (scheduled for release May 23), where he’ll play one of the iconic animal shelter workers.
Being on a stage and in front of the camera seems to come naturally to Chung, who was raised in a family of entertainers. As a kid, he spent much of his childhood running around various showrooms of Waikīkī, where his parents were seasoned performers. His dad, Esmond Chung, was a veteran Hawai‘i actor, musician and lūʻau emcee. Mom Auliʻi Stone was Mrs. Hawaiʻi 1997 and a dancer for shows like Magic of Polynesia, Don Ho and Tihati Productions.
“We were always exposed to it growing up and always encouraged to represent our family and our culture through performing arts because it’s something so integral to who we are,” says Chung, adding that his brother Landon Chung is a music artist in Los Angeles and his other brother Roderick Graf is a software engineer designing video games. “As a kid, I fell in love with fire-knife dance. I would sit in the crowd with my family and watch my dad emcee the show and it was something I would look forward to seeing at the end of the show.”
Now, life has come full circle for Chung as he takes to the stages of Waikīkī himself, performing at some of the same hotels that were his old stomping grounds.
“My dad was the emcee of The Royal Hawaiian resort lūʻau for about 30 years … now I’m the male dancer lead and lead fire-knife dancer of the lūʻau here (renamed Ahaaina, A Royal Celebration),” says Chung, noting that the show shares the history of Waikīkī, from the legend of Helumoa to military expansion in the islands, and the story of Olympians Duke Kahanamoku and Carissa Moore. “The fire-knife dancing is obviously my favorite part, but also being able to share these stories that people didn’t know and didn’t understand is one of the things that I love the most about this show. In particular, sharing information through our pre-show segment, which is when we do a series of activities where people can kind of witness things like how to make kapa …
“Our Polynesian people, our culture and our upbringing is so unique to the rest of the world. That’s why I think when people see a film like Moana 2, there was so much more investment into portraying the cultural sense of things that it gives an opportunity for people to see themselves in their own culture and how we represent ourselves. It’s the same thing when people come to the lūʻau. They’re able to see a sense of authenticity and how they view themselves and how we view and project ourselves.”
A 2012 graduate of Kamehameha Schools, Chung (known as Keenan by family and friends) was raised in East O‘ahu (Hawai‘i Kai, Paikō and Kaimukī), before moving to Kāne‘ohe, where he currently resides.
He earned a marketing degree from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Shidler College of Business, and is currently working toward a master’s degree in digital media management through an online accelerated program at University of Southern California.
In addition to his work in showbiz, Chung is also owner and founder of The Siva Afi, a company that manufactures fire knives for fire-knife dancing, as well as other supplies. He also created Wā Digital Media, a small mixed-media marketing company aimed at helping mom-and-pop shops in Hawai‘i stay relevant and “up with the times.”
“Every single experience I’ve had has been definitely one for the books, but if there’s any one momentous, highlighted experience that is in the back of my head every day before I go to sleep or every morning when I wake up, it’s at our world premiere of Moana 2 (which took place last November),” says Chung. “When we came up to the scene where the entire village sends off Moana and her crew on the canoe, we’re all sitting in this theater in Lanikūhonua (in Ko ‘Olina) that I feel like is so different. You have the star constellations that the Polynesians followed that Moana talks about in voyaging right above us. You have the waves crashing behind us and yet the sound was incredible like it was in a theater.
“It was such a surreal moment and during the scene, I remember stopping and looking around and seeing all these random people — Polynesians and not Polynesians — just jaw-dropped at the beauty of what that scene was and what that scene represented in theme, in heart and mood, and I can’t get over that. I remember breaking down at that point, like holy moly, this is what the world needs right now.”
When he’s not acting, dancing or making music, Chung enjoys woodworking and the “typical local boy things — paddling, surfing, diving, fishing and driving around in a lifted Yota.” But most of all, he just wants to connect with people by sharing stories about his culture with the world.
“That’s the thing that brings me the most joy — being able to make people feel seen in one way or another,” says Chung. “People have high times and people have low times, and through music, film, TV, movies, if there’s an opportunity for some random person to watch it or listen to it and feel understood or feel seen, that’s a happy day for me.”
