By Brian Jules Campued
“Tayo ay Pilipino, kahit anong kulay ng balat isasapuso.” — Indeed, the lyrics of rapper Ez Mil’s song, “Panalo”, rings true as Filipinos continue to make their mark on the global stage and keep on winning!
Featuring 300 young entrepreneurs, artists, and changemakers under the age of 30 across the Asia-Pacific, this year’s Forbes ‘30 Under 30’ Asia listees were chosen from thousands of candidates and evaluated by the Forbes Asia team as well as a panel of independent judges on various factors, such as funding and revenue, social impact, scale, inventiveness, and potential.
The list includes 30 honorees each in 10 categories: Entertainment and Sports; Finance and Venture Capital; Enterprise Technology; Media, Marketing, and Advertising; Consumer Technology; Industry, Manufacturing, and Energy; Arts; Social Impact; Retail and E-Commerce; and Healthcare and Science.
Meet the seven Pinoy trailblazers who have made significant contributions to their fields and are still inspiring their generation in this year’s list:
Ezekiel Miller
Popularly known as Ez Mil, the Olongapo-born and Las Vegas-based rapper’s refreshing take on Philippine nationalism in the track “Panalo” went viral in 2021.
However, it was his 2022 song, “Up Down” that caught the attention of rap legends Dr. Dre and Eminem — even if they could not understand Filipino, Forbes said in its write-up about Miller.
Abigail Marquez
Crowned as the “Lumpia Queen” for her obsession with every Pinoy’s favorite party food, Marquez is known to promote Filipino cuisine and culture through her cooking channel in TikTok, boasting more than 3 million followers.
According to Forbes, Marquez’ passion for food since the age of 4 made her train as a chef before moving into videography. After less than two years on the video-sharing platform, she bagged TikTok’s Creator of the Year for Food award in 2023.
Ramon Christian Larga
Another popular content creator who goes by Arshie Larga on TikTok, Larga teaches the public about safe medicine use through comical skits. Arshie is a licensed pharmacist who works in his family’s pharmacy in Marinduque.
With nearly 4 million followers on TikTok, Forbes noted that Arshie goes beyond the fun skits and uses his impact to initiate fundraising efforts to pay the pharmaceutical bills of underprivileged customers.
In 2023, he was awarded by TikTok Philippines as best educational content creator.
Joshua Serafin
Based in Brussels, Belgium, Serafin is a contemporary artist who combines dance, music, and theater with live performance which delves into the concepts of cultural identity, transmigration, and queer representation.
“A permanent house artist at the Viernulvier arts center in Belgium, Serafin has also performed internationally, including at the ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival in Finland, TONO Festival in Mexico and the HAU Hebbel am User in Berlin,” Forbes said.
The Filipino artist was also recently invited to participate in the 60th Venice Biennale, an international cultural exhibition.
Chia Amisola
Another win for the arts, as Filipino internet artist Chia Amisola was honored for founding Developh — a nonprofit that aims to use “technology as a tool for liberation rather than oppression”.
Amisola established Developh in 2016 to preserve digital work and art, which then got recognized by numerous publications and exhibitions.
“One of Amisola’s recent website art projects, Ang Bantayog, commemorates victims of human rights abuses in the 1970s when the Philippines was under Martial Law,” Forbes added.
Mikaela Helene Reyes
Mikaela Reyes co-founded Parallax, a cross-border payment startup that makes remittances “easier and cheaper” using cryptocurrency and blockchain.
Launched in 2023, Parallax initially targeted users from the Philippines and now has customers from over 150 countries. Reyes founded the startup when she was a freelancer who experienced the struggle of getting paid from another country.
Amanda Cua
Amanda Cua is the founder of Backscoop, a newsletter that focuses on the startup scene in Southeast Asia and its accompanying podcast called One More Scoop. Cua said her ventures have helped startup founders find investors.
With tens of thousands of followers, Cua has interviewed investors and founders, and herself has been interviewed by an international news channel. – avds