Since last year, AUDREY NUNA has been inescapable.
For one, the Korean-American rapper and singer stars in an omnipresent Coach ad, set to Leikeli47’s “Jay Walk,” where she props open a venue door with a Soho sneaker. It’s so pervasive, I’m beginning to think there’s one lurking behind every YouTube ad break, just waiting to pounce.
NUNA also had a viral cameo on the Season 51 premiere of SNL, where she appeared (live) inside a Bad Bunny thought bubble. She even made Forbes’ Most Powerful Women in the World list for 2025 and spoke at the United Nations about the global advancement of women and girls.
But even if you haven't seen her, you’ve most certainly heard AUDREY NUNA as one-third of HUNTER/X, the chart-topping, culture-shifting animated heroines of Netflix’s single biggest movie of all time, KPop Demon Hunters.
While NUNA currently finds herself at the intersection of two of the most powerful forces in the zeitgeist (Netflix and K-pop), this is far from where her story begins.
A new wave of Asian artists
In 2018, New Jersey native and aspiring musician Audrey Chu changed her stage surname to Nuna, then went all caps. Her 2019 breakout single, “Comic Sans,” featured a voyeuristic verse from the then-relatively-unknown Kentucky rapper Jack Harlow. The song, which showcased NUNA’s cleverness, Busta Rhymes-inspired breakdowns and hypnotic “Robitussin flow,” made its way onto the artist’s debut album, a liquid breakfast, in 2021. Songs from that project remain in NUNA’s set to this day, especially “damn Right,” which has become a fan fave, even earning itself a remix from DJ Snake, of “Turn Down For What” fame.
During the same late 2010s and early '20s period, 88rising, a hip-hop focused label that was fast assembling an all star roster of Asian artists from around the globe, was gaining serious steam. It was a special moment when Asian and Asian-American artists from all over the diaspora, including Rich Brian, Joji, NIKI and The Higher Brothers were being heavily recruited and promoted. As she pursued her own career in music, NUNA drew inspiration from 88rising’s parallel successes, especially Joji and his twisted music videos.
“When I was making my first album, I remember being aware of 88rising,” said NUNA, “And they had really started popping off during the process of me making my first album. It's really just like a community thing, a support thing. They'd always been super supportive of everything I was doing from the very beginning. I feel like they've done some amazing things culturally.”
While not a signee, NUNA is a friend of the label. She's been tapped twice by 88rising to perform at their Head in the Clouds festival, an annual, one-day, nearly all Asian and Asian-American artist affair in California. For her second year rocking the festival, NUNA teamed up with fellow Korean-American genre tweaker Deb Never for a collab set where they performed their own individual songs as well as their shared two-song project Chump Change, which features tracks “sardines” and “multigrain.”
“I remember for rehearsals," said NUNA, "that was probably one of the most fun rehearsal weeks I'd ever had because her team is so fun and she's just such a lovely person. I feel like she's the easiest person to be around, but also just a genius. My Aries queen.”
In addition to HITC appearances, 88rising also helped bag NUNA her very first soundtrack gig. Around 2020, the label was tasked with producing music for Disney and Marvel’s first predominantly Asian, live action superhero flick, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. At the time, NUNA was in the studio with famed producers The Stereotypes, who had a hand in Bruno Mars’ 2017 smash album 24K Magic, until the fast-paced, ghoulish track was realized.
“When [88rising CEO] Sean [Miyashiro] hit me about being a part of this soundtrack, I was like, ‘I have this song that might work for that,’” said NUNA of “Clocked Out!.” “I don't know whose idea it was, but they got NIKI on it and I loved it. Loved what she did.”
Shang-Chi’s motion picture soundtrack, which also features Rick Ross, 21 Savage, Swae Lee and Jhene Aiko, helped prepare NUNA for an even bigger film opportunity that was headed her way.
KPop Demon Hunters
In our windshield-shattered media environment, the monoculture is all but dead. But every now and then, something like KPop Demon Hunters captures the world’s attention.
Even if you don’t have kids, a Netflix login or an affinity for K-pop, you've probably still heard “Golden” by HUNTER/X, which plays a key role in the film’s climax. In fact, managing to get a year past the film's release without having heard “Golden” seems nearly impossible — like dodging raindrops or surviving Holi in a plain white tee. It was in cars, stores, homes — anywhere there were people. The song broke through so hard it felt like commercial pop and Top 40 radio stations were playing it every hour, on the hour.
The film’s Oscar and Grammy-winning lead single isn’t so much an ear worm as it is a snake coiling itself around the brain until no oxygen remains, only that song. It’s the first song by a 'girl group' to top the Billboard Top 100 (as well as Global 200) since Destiny's Child’s “Bootylicious” in 2001, and is approaching 2 billion streams on Spotify alone.
NUNA provides the singing voice for Mira — the self-assured, deadpan, glaive-wielding alto of the group. The character, much like her voice actor, is fiercely individual, unafraid to be silly and definitely alternative.
“I love when younger girls especially are like, ‘Mira is my favorite,’” gushed NUNA. “I'm like, okayyy! Okay, you alt all around girlie! I think it just means that you are okay to stand out and not care if you're not accepted by other people sometimes. And I see that in some young kids, and I'm like, go off.”
Similar to what she saw with 88rising, Asian art and artists were being uplifted in a major way following the Netflix premiere of KPop Demon Hunters in June 2025. It’s been so indisputably successful that HUNTER/X, the once fictional group of three pop idols, is now a real thing, with NUNA and Korean vocalists EJAE (Rumi) and Rei Ami (Zoey) occasionally performing their beloved songs IRL for adoring fans.
Even if she wasn’t a part of the movie, and it hadn’t changed her life forever, NUNA says she’d still probably cry watching it, as she does to this day.
“For me, being an Asian person,” said NUNA, “You don't see yourself represented in that way a lot. And when you do, it hits somewhere, some childlike part of you that never got to get that validation. That movie always makes me cry.”
Hinterland / New single “superHuman”
Somewhere between David Byrne's Stop Making Sense era suit and Kanye West & Lil Pump’s “I Love It” music video sits AUDREY NUNA's festival fit. With her hulking shoulder pads, NUNA and her four acrobatic, rubber-limbed dancers popped and locked to thousands of screaming fans on Hinterland’s first night. The dancers, mirroring NUNA, dressed in all white down to their toe shoes.
NUNA’s parents even flew out to Saint Charles to watch their daughter tackle the Main Stage at Hinterland, one of the “Dance Dance Dance” singer’s highest billings to date. She performed highlights from her latest 2024 album, TRENCH, including “Dance,” “Me & My Baby,” “Baby OG” and her bouncy R&B track “Mine,” which samples Brandy and Monica’s classic “The Boy Is Mine.”
To the delight of countless kids in attendance, NUNA performed a solo rendition of HUNTER/X’s “How It’s Done.” The crowd, in exchange, generated a wall of sound, projecting the lyrics right back at NUNA as if they’d been waiting over a year to finally scream-sing to their favorite song from their favorite movie. The squeals following the song’s bass drop were deafening.
NUNA ended her Hinterland set with a special preview of her then-unreleased single, “superHuman,” which sees the recent Republic Records signee “go bionic." The song is produced by Canadian hitmaker Cirkut, who's behind contemporary pop anthems like Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" and The Weeknd's "Starboy," and is NUNA's second collaboration with the popular first-person shooter Valorant. NUNA wouldn’t comment on whether “superHuman” was a part of a larger, third solo project, but we hope such an album is on the way.
KPop Demon Hunters fans, on the other hand, will have to wait until 2029 for a sequel.
