Awkwafina sometimes calls herself Michelle Pfeiffer.
The 31-year-old comedic actress – whose real name is Nora Lum – already goes by an alias which she adopted as a teenager, but has said she sometimes takes on the name of fellow Hollywood star Michelle, as she likes to confuse people in Starbucks when it comes to writing her name on her cup.
Explaining her Awkwafina moniker, she said: "When I was 15 or 16, I thought the name ‘Awkwafina’ was great, hilarious. I never thought anyone would ever call me that. Cut to now, where everyone calls me that. So that’s good.
"[In Starbucks] I like putting ‘Michelle Pfeiffer’. All ‘F’s in the ‘Pfeiffer,’ throws them off a little bit."
The ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ star has always loved making people laugh, and says she first discovered her talent for comedy at the age of four, when she used humour as a "defence mechanism" following the tragic death of her mother.
She explained: "I developed humour as a defence mechanism when I was like, four. Actually, after the passing of my mom. I wanted to be an emblem of joy and not an emblem of sorrow."
Awkwafina also discussed the difficulties of being a woman in comedy, as she says she strives to "empower" and "encourage" other women through her performances.
Speaking to Vogue’s ’73 Questions’ series on YouTube, she said: "I think being a woman in comedy means kind of building up that collective camaraderie with the truths, the sometimes sad and funny truths of being a woman. But also using it to empower, using it to encourage, using it to laugh, to further improve womanhood in general."
Meanwhile, the ‘Ocean’s 8’ actress recently said she had "difficulty believing" in herself as a child.
She admitted: "Anxiety was one of the first emotions that I learned. A feeling of not being secure. When I was young I often had difficulty believing in myself and feeling confident in certain things. And I think that I had to really find it. I remember feeling that, always, as a young kid."
Awkwafina calls herself Michelle Pfeiffer
