Summary

Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with KPop Demon Hunters star Arden Cho.

During her Ladies Night conversation with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Cho looked back on her experience “breaking out” via Teen Wolf and how she coped with the cancellation of her Netflix series Partner Track.

She also explained how she found the right voice for Rumi in KPop Demon Hunters, which scenes proved most challenging, and what she hopes to learn about the character in the sequel.

Career ups and downs are inevitable. Arden Cho just took 20 years’ worth of acting highs and lows, funneled them all into a powerhouse voice performance, and churned out one of the very best cinematic characters of 2025, a Netflix character who well-aligns with her own personal creative goals as an actor and is also proving to be a character who can inspire anyone. Cho leads the voice cast of one of the biggest hits of 2025, and one of the greatest pop culture sensations of recent years, Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters. Cho does the speaking voice while Ejae delivers the incredible vocals for Rumi, one of three members of the K-pop group Huntr/x. While the world sees a trio delivering catchy hit after hit, what the average person doesn’t know is that Huntr/x’s music also charges the Honmoon, a magical barrier that keeps demons from the human world. When a demonic K-pop boy band called the Saja Boys enter the picture, they threaten Huntr/x’s ability to remain at the top of the charts and turn the Honmoon gold. The situation also runs the risk of exposing Rumi’s greatest secret. With KPop Demon Hunters continuing to dominate the Netflix charts, striking gold at the box office with wildly popular sing-along screenings, and starting to build some serious awards season buzz, Cho swung by the Collider Ladies Night studio for a chat about her journey to the film, a journey that included a number of experiences that had Cho consider leaving the industry.
It Took Seven Years of Auditions for Arden Cho to Book ‘Teen Wolf’

“I quit acting, and then I book Teen Wolf.”

Shelley Henning, Tyler Posey, and Arden Cho in Teen Wolf
Image via MTV

It took time for Arden Cho to get her Hollywood “breakout role.” After seven years of auditions, selling her car, selling her cello, and coming to the conclusion that it was time to quit acting, it finally happened. Cho scored the role of Kira in the hugely popular MTV series, Teen Wolf. It was a trying experience for Cho, but now it’s one she happily shares with aspiring actors as a source of motivation. She recalled:
“I just met a young actor last night who was like, ‘I have a question. I’ve been auditioning for a year and I haven’t booked anything. Do you think I should quit?’ And I was like, ‘Alright, let me just tell you. I auditioned for, like, the first five years and had, I don’t know, maybe one co-star, maybe one guest star.’ It took me seven years, and then selling my car and my cello and every expensive possession I had to make more art. I made my first album like that. And then the second, I was like, ‘I retired from acting.’ Or, ‘I quit acting.’ I can’t retire if I haven’t started. [Laughs] I quit acting, and then I book Teen Wolf. So I’m like, ‘Bro, it took me seven years.’ So I said, ‘You keep auditioning. This is a tough time in the business right now. Keep auditioning.’ I’ve got friends who shot, like, 100 episodes of TV and they’re saying the same thing, so I’m like, ‘Do not be discouraged.’ We just keep going. I was like, ‘If in five years, nothing, seriously, call me and we’ll have another conversation.’”
Booking Teen Wolf was an undeniable game changer for Cho, but that doesn’t mean it was smooth sailing from there. In fact, one of the highest highs and lowest lows one can experience as an actor was right around the corner.
Arden Cho Nearly Quit Acting After Her Netflix Show Was Canceled

“I told my whole team, ‘I’m sorry. I think this is as far as I can go. I don’t think I can take it anymore.'”

Arden Cho in ‘Partner Track’
Image via Netflix

In 2021, Cho began working on Partner Track, a Netflix legal drama inspired by Helen Wan’s novel that would mark Cho’s very first time at the top of the call sheet. Cho headlined as Ingrid, a mergers and acquisitions lawyer vying to make partner at her firm, a pursuit that would test her principles and the lengths she’s willing to go to in order to successfully navigate such a cutthroat work environment. Cho cared deeply about the material and was also immensely grateful for the opportunity, so when the streamer opted to ax the series after a single season, it hurt. “I won’t lie, I literally went off the grid for three months.” She added, “I think I mourned the show for, minimum, three months before I could even talk about it.” While Cho is very much able to talk about it now, she speaks of the experience in an extremely forthcoming manner. Again, sharing her truth in a way that could inspire others.
“I actually got pretty sick after that show. I started losing chunks of hair. I was not doing well, but because I just loved the show so much, and I wanted everyone to be happy, I wanted every actor to feel safe and seen, I wanted every creative to be friends, and so I wanted a big, happy family. In my mind, I’m like, ‘We’re gonna do this for, like, seven years, so let’s all be a happy family!’ And I think when it didn’t work out, yes, I was devastated, but because I took a very big, long break, I remember, I did kind of quit. I took a break, and then I told my whole team, ‘I’m sorry. I think this is as far as I can go. I don’t think I can take it anymore.’”
Cho didn’t audition for a full year after Partner Track was canceled. But, then something came along that Cho couldn’t brush off. It was Avatar: The Last Airbender. “I’m like, ‘Oh my god, all the leads are Asian? They’re kids? And it’s Avatar: The Last Airbender?’ It’s like, ‘Yes, I have to do this.’” And that’s exactly what would define Cho’s approach to continuing her career as an actor.
“I think losing Partner Track and being able to be like, ‘Okay, I can retire. I can step away from this and I’m fine,’ allowed me to then say, ‘I’m really only gonna choose the things that have the same purpose and vision that I have,’ which is the reason I started acting.” She further explained, “I wanted us, as Asian Americans or Asian girls or as women, to be seen just as people, like as a real girl. [Laughs] I’m like Pinocchio. But I just felt like I didn’t know who I was until I was 30. I was always trying to be someone else. I was trying to be cool, trying to be liked, trying to be perfect, didn’t know who I was. I learned a lot in my 30s working in this business.”

Arden Cho as June in ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’.
Image via Netflix

Cho further noted:
“I just want our stories to be told. I don’t need anything else. I just want our stories to be told. I want young people growing up to be like, ‘Oh yeah, Asian people belong.’ I just don’t want to feel like I can’t be here. I was born in America. Yes, I definitely am so Korean in ways, but that’s something that started as an adult. My first 20 years of life, if anybody asked me what I was, I said I was American. If anybody asked me where I was from, I said Texas. I didn’t understand what it meant. ‘Oh, my mom and dad? Yeah, they’re Korean, but I’m American,’ right? That was me as a child. Now, I understand, ‘Oh, I’m Korean American. I’m Asian American.’”
One of the next projects that would align with Cho’s acting goals? KPop Demon Hunters.
‘KPop Demon Hunters’s Rumi Is a Combination of Cho’s Experiences & Past Characters

“I feel like I had this 20 years of baggage in this career that I kind of just put there in that moment.”

All roads undeniably led Cho straight to KPop Demon Hunters, a project that would wind up giving her the opportunity to funnel all of her experiences and hopes into one character. When explaining how she found Rumi’s voice for the movie, Cho began:
“When it came to Rumi, when I auditioned, I really just did me. But I thought of a lot of my friends who are singers in Korea. I thought of Kira at moments. I thought of how I feel about all my little sisters and my friends. Like, yes, I’m not a K-pop star, but being in this business, I feel like I have so many little sisters and brothers, and I want to take care of all of them. And, in a way, the way she’s trying to seal this Honmoon and save the world, I feel like I want us to be proud of who we are and be out there and not hide our culture, not hide the food we eat, or the music we hear, or the clothes we wear.”
While zeroing in on select scenes, Cho explained that, more often than not, the toughest of the bunch weren’t the ones one might expect. “All the easy scenes for me were the dramatic, big scenes.” For example? Cho files the “I want you to love me” conversation with Celine (Yunjin Kim) into the “easy to perform” category, partly because she had a wealth of personal experience to pull from.
“I feel like I had this 20 years of baggage in this career that I kind of just put there in that moment of like, ‘No more lies. No more hiding. Just me. Accept me.’ I think so much of my career, it was always like, I just want to look the way I’m supposed to look, or talk the way I’m supposed to talk, or do what I’m supposed to do. I mean, yes, I have always still been true to who I am and want to represent me in the way that is the most true to me, but I think I didn’t know who I was, if that makes sense. I’m still always beating myself up, or judging myself. And I think as people, we just do that, right? I have a complex about all these weird things that people are always like, ‘What? Why?’ I used to literally have a complex about my legs so much that I would never wear shorts. Even in the summer, I would just wear pants because I hated my legs so much, or my arms. Whatever weird body dysmorphia that every girl experiences, or every guy, or any person. I think, for Rumi, those are really easy for me.”

Celine with Rumi and her demon markings 
Image via Sony Pictures Animation 

However, there was one emotional beat that put Cho to the test as an actor delivering her very first voice performance in an animated feature. She began:
“The one really emotional scene that was hard was her on the rooftop, when Rumi falls to her knees, and is like, ‘How can I fix this? How can I save the world if I don’t have my voice?’ I remember that was so hard because at that moment, I don’t think I had heard the song yet. I’m such a feeler, emotional, like I need to see the whole picture, see the room, be in the set. I think those things were hard for me. I always tell people, unless I’m in wardrobe, hair, makeup, the shoes are on, I never feel like the girl. So with Rumi, I had this huge impostor syndrome where I just never felt like I was the girl.”
Even after doing a few sessions, Cho wasn’t quite sure she was nailing the character. She continued:
“I remember once telling my agent, I was like, ‘Do you think they think I’m doing this right? Am I okay? Did they say anything? Is everybody happy?’ And she’s like, ‘Why?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know. I just feel like I don’t really know how voiceover acting works. We kind of got stuck on a few lines a lot. I don’t know if I’m doing it right. I love this movie so much. Let them know, I won’t be offended if they need to recast me because I can’t get it.’ And then she’s like, ‘No, no, no. I think everything’s fine. I’ll call in and check.’ It was funny because she’s like, ‘No, no, everything’s fine. It’s art. There are so many pieces. Everything’s fine.’ But I remember being like, ‘Oh, okay.’ I was always nervous and scared because I wanted to make Rumi as perfect as she is. And of course, the animators make her the most gorgeous in the world, and she’s perfect, and the writing and the narrative and KPop Demon Hunters is just next level.”
While Cho may not have fully felt it at the time, she and Ejae were in the process of crafting one of the most beloved characters of 2025, a character who’s not only inspired countless “Golden” covers and loads of Rumi cosplay, but also emphasized the importance of seeing the “beauty in the broken glass” and sharing one’s full truth with the world. Looking for even more from Cho on her experience working on KPop Demon Hunters, Teen Wolf, Partner Track, and more? Be sure to watch her full Collider Ladies Night interview in the video at the top of this article!

KPop Demon Hunters

Release Date

June 20, 2025

Runtime

96 minutes

Director

Chris Appelhans, Maggie Kang

Writers

Hannah McMechan, Chris Appelhans, Maggie Kang, Danya Jimenez

Producers

Aron Warner

KPop Demon Hunters is available to stream on Netflix. Watch Here