![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekpro\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/03\/mw-cover-030525-hualalai-chung-lt002.jpg\")
Life is good for Hual\u0101lai Chung as he makes a name for himself in the entertainment industry and celebrates his Native Hawaiian culture. | Photo by Lawrence Tabudlo<\/p><\/div>
\nYou can say Hual\u0101lai Chung was destined for a life in the spotlight.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In recent years, he started exploring the world of acting and landed the role of Moni in Disney\u2019s animated feature Moana 2, which will be available to stream on Disney+ starting March 12. His other film credits include appearances in NCIS: Hawai\u2018i, 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\u2019ll play one of the iconic animal shelter workers.<\/p>\n
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 Waik\u012bk\u012b, where his parents were seasoned performers. His dad, Esmond Chung, was a veteran Hawai\u2018i actor, musician and l\u016b\u02bbau emcee. Mom Auli\u02bbi Stone was Mrs. Hawai\u02bbi 1997 and a dancer for shows like Magic of Polynesia, Don Ho and Tihati Productions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were always exposed to it growing up and always encouraged to represent our family and our culture through performing arts because it\u2019s something so integral to who we are,\u201d 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. \u201cAs 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, life has come full circle for Chung as he takes to the stages of Waik\u012bk\u012b himself, performing at some of the same hotels that were his old stomping grounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad was the emcee of The Royal Hawaiian resort l\u016b\u02bbau for about 30 years \u2026 now I\u2019m the male dancer lead and lead fire-knife dancer of the l\u016b\u02bbau here (renamed Ahaaina, A Royal Celebration),\u201d says Chung, noting that the show shares the history of Waik\u012bk\u012b, from the legend of Helumoa to military expansion in the islands, and the story of Olympians Duke Kahanamoku and Carissa Moore. \u201cThe fire-knife dancing is obviously my favorite part, but also being able to share these stories that people didn\u2019t know and didn\u2019t 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 \u2026
\n\u201cOur Polynesian people, our culture and our upbringing is so unique to the rest of the world. That\u2019s 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\u2019s the same thing when people come to the l\u016b\u02bbau. They\u2019re able to see a sense of authenticity and how they view themselves and how we view and project ourselves.\u201d
\nA 2012 graduate of Kamehameha Schools, Chung (known as Keenan by family and friends) was raised in East O\u2018ahu (Hawai\u2018i Kai, Paik\u014d and Kaimuk\u012b), before moving to K\u0101ne\u2018ohe, where he currently resides. <\/p>\n
He earned a marketing degree from the University of Hawai\u2018i at M\u0101noa Shidler College of Business, and is currently working toward a master\u2019s degree in digital media management through an online accelerated program at University of Southern California.<\/p>\n
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 W\u0101 Digital Media, a small mixed-media marketing company aimed at helping mom-and-pop shops in Hawai\u2018i stay relevant and \u201cup with the times.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single experience I\u2019ve had has been definitely one for the books, but if there\u2019s 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\u2019s at our world premiere of Moana 2 (which took place last November),\u201d says Chung. \u201cWhen we came up to the scene where the entire village sends off Moana and her crew on the canoe, we\u2019re all sitting in this theater in Lanik\u016bhonua (in Ko \u2018Olina) 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was such a surreal moment and during the scene, I remember stopping and looking around and seeing all these random people \u2014 Polynesians and not Polynesians \u2014 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\u2019t get over that. I remember breaking down at that point, like holy moly, this is what the world needs right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he\u2019s not acting, dancing or making music, Chung enjoys woodworking and the \u201ctypical local boy things \u2014 paddling, surfing, diving, fishing and driving around in a lifted Yota.\u201d But most of all, he just wants to connect with people by sharing stories about his culture with the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the thing that brings me the most joy \u2014 being able to make people feel seen in one way or another,\u201d says Chung. \u201cPeople have high times and people have low times, and through music, film, TV, movies, if there\u2019s an opportunity for some random person to watch it or listen to it and feel understood or feel seen, that\u2019s a happy day for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You can say Hual\u0101lai Chung was destined for a life in the spotlight. At just 7 years old, he was..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":99657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover-story"],"yoast_head":"\n
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