Meet Cathy Ang, Filipino-Chinese lead star of new animated film ‘Over the Moon’

A new animated musical adventure called “Over the Moon” is premiering on Netflix this month, and the singer-actress voicing the lead character is Pinay!

Everybody, meet Cathy Ang.

She’s the Chinese-Filipina who breathes life to Fei Fei, a passionate young girl whose creativity and determination to prove what she believes in literally takes her to the moon and back.

“Over the Moon,” directed by Oscar-winning animator Glen Keane, follows Fei Fei as she builds a rocket ship to the moon to prove the existence of the a Moon Goddess and discovers a whimsical land of fantastical creatures.

Cathy joins the film’s All-Asian star-studded cast, which also includes “Hamilton” star Philippa Soo who voices the goddess Chung’e, Ken Jeong, John Cho, Ruthie Ann Miles, Sandra Oh, Robert G. Chiu, Margaret Cho, and Kimiko Glenn.

She lends her voice to many of the film’s original songs, including one of the biggest musical numbers, “Rocket to the Moon.”

Cathy may be a newcomer, but she graduated from NYU Steinhart and has been part of some renowned stage productions, including “Maybe Happy Ending” and “American Dream Story.”

The young performer is currently based in the US, but her parents, who are both part-Chinese and part-Filipino, hail from the Philippines. They also speak Tagalog at home.

Cheerfully greeting the Philippine press in a virtual roundtable on Friday, Cathy talked about how proud she was of her Filipino and Chinese heritage.

“Fei Fei is Asian, and I am Asian, so I felt like I was just being myself a lot of the time, but [there were] instances in the movie that made me really happy and [were] like a callback to my childhood,” she said.

The Chinese-Filipina also shared how excited she was for audiences all around the world to see the upcoming animated musical adventure which celebrates Asian culture and values.

“There’s so much about Fei Fei that has to do with really taking care of people,” Cathy said.

“She is so motivated by love, but the way she expresses that is by doing, and never giving up on things, which I’ve just seen in my parents and my sisters, so ... I felt like I was bringing my family to her character all the time,” she added.

“Over the Moon” premieres October 23 on Netflix. – RC, GMA News