By Lizzie Hyman

Well-known celebrities and activists alongside unsung members of the Asian community are sharing their experiences, offering stories of tragedy and triumph, and revealing the joy and the pain at the roots of their identity.

In the upcoming HBO Max documentary The A List: 15 Stories from Asian and Pacific Diasporas, debuting May 13, Sandra Oh, Bowen Yang, Kumail Nanjiani and 12 others from Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities across the United States deliver first-person accounts, reflecting on their childhoods, life experiences and what it means to be Asian in America.

The trailer, shared exclusively with PEOPLE, opens with questions from Oh: “Who are you? What is your identity?”

It continues with clips from each of the 15 interviews. “I think identity is like a slippery slope,” musician DJ Rekha says. Cliff Kapono, a surfer, scientist and Native Hawaiian, adds, “I don’t understand why ‘Asian Pacific Islander’ is a thing.” Alongside a childhood photo, Nanjiani, who is Pakistani-American, reflects, “A lot of America is never going to see me as American.”

Chef Yia Vang, who is Hmong-American, describes how his experience navigating identity was shaped by family: “My father didn’t want us to have that Hmong or Asian accent,” he says. Japanese-American activist Kathy Masaoka adds, “All of us were going through trying to be American.” For U.S. Army helicopter pilot-turned-senator Tammy Duckworth, her progression to self-acceptance was rooted in location: “Hawaii, that’s really the first place where I sort of grew into my identity.”

To read the entire article: https://people.com/sandra-oh-bowen-yang-kumail-nanjiani-and-others-reflect-asian-experience-in-new-doc-11960771

To watch the HBO trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6Zsu7F5gFM&t=10s

Photo credit: HBO/Instagram