Since the mega success of the inescapable Kpop Demon Hunters, the voice of Rumi, Korean American actress Arden Cho has been keeping very, very busy

With its eye-popping colours and characters, pop bangers and contagious dynamism, KPop Demon Hunters has turned out to be 2025&rsquo;s runaway smash. Last month, it became the most-watched Netflix title in history. And while Netflix did not report grosses, the film&rsquo;s theatrical release went on to become the platform&rsquo;s best performing one ever. Its soundtrack has also shattered records, hitting number one on the Billboard 200 in its 12th week, and generating four top ten singles, including the US Billboard Hot 100 number one, &ldquo;Golden&rdquo;. The voice of KPop Demon Hunters&rsquo; Rumi, Arden Cho says that the project has been nothing short of &ldquo;a defining moment&rdquo; for her. &ldquo;Little Arden would never have believed she&rsquo;d one day get the chance to bring a fierce, talented, and powerful lead to life in one of the biggest animated films of all time,&rdquo; the Korean American actress tells us.
Also well-known for her role in 2011&rsquo;s MTV series, Teen Wolf, Cho has gotten a lot more occupied since the triumphs of KPop Demon Hunters, naturally. She tells L&rsquo;OFFICIEL SINGAPORE that she currently has three movie projects lined up. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m in Seattle filming a romantic comedy, which has been so much fun to work on&hellip; Towards the end of the year, I&rsquo;ll be filming Perfect Girl, a really fun horror-thriller set in the world of K-pop. It&rsquo;s such a unique mix of genres, and I can&rsquo;t wait for everyone to see it,&rdquo; says Cho.

Hi Arden! Congratulations on the incredible success of KPop Demon Hunters. Did you ever think that the show would get this much love? 
Thank you so much! Honestly, I don&rsquo;t think anyone could have predicted just how successful KPop Demon Hunters would be. Of course, a part of me believed in this project and hoped the world would love it, but I never imagined it would resonate on this scale. The way it&rsquo;s taken off around the world has been beyond my wildest dreams. Every day feels like we&rsquo;re hitting a new milestone &mdash; number one movie, number one soundtrack &mdash; it&rsquo;s surreal. Things have been non-stop since the release, so I&rsquo;m just doing my best to soak it all in, appreciate the love, and truly celebrate this incredible journey every step of the way!
What has voicing Rumi meant to you? 
Voicing Rumi means everything to me. It feels like such a defining moment in my career &mdash; little Arden would never have believed she&rsquo;d one day get the chance to bring a fierce, talented, and powerful lead to life in one of the biggest animated films of all time. It&rsquo;s been such a joyful experience, but also deeply healing. Rumi reminds me so much of my younger self, and she makes me so proud to be Korean American. In many ways, it feels like my entire journey has been leading to this moment&hellip; and it just feels right.

What is the biggest similarity between Arden and Rumi? And what&rsquo;s the biggest difference? 
I think the biggest similarity Rumi and I share is how deeply we care about our friends and the people around us &mdash; we&rsquo;re both protectors at heart. We&rsquo;re also perfectionists, hardworking, and resilient, which makes me connect to her on such a personal level. But Rumi is also just such a fun character; like me, she loves to eat, she&rsquo;s silly, and I like to think we both have a little sense of humour. Where we differ, though, is that she&rsquo;s the ultimate K-pop idol, slaying demons with perfect purple hair &mdash; I can&rsquo;t quite compete with that!
I adore Rumi because she embodies parts of me&hellip; and also parts of who I dreamt of being growing up. Rumi inspires people to embrace who they are &mdash; to be confident, to believe in themselves, and to stop hiding the things they see as flaws or insecurities. Sometimes, the very things that make us different are what make us most beautiful, and I think Rumi embodies that so perfectly. &ldquo;Rumi inspires us to see our differences as our greatest strengths.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s a message I carry with me and one I often share with the young people I mentor. The fact that Rumi&rsquo;s journey mirrors a lesson I had to learn myself makes this film so meaningful to me. It&rsquo;s a beautiful reminder to embrace who we are.
The show and its soundtrack have been slaying it also in terms of getting approval from members of the biggest K-Pop acts: BTS, Cha Eunwoo, ENHYPEN, IVE and more. Which covers or challenges have been the most memorable for you? 
Covering "Free" with Cha Eunwoo was so special to me. He&rsquo;s a dear friend, and it was the last bit of music he shared before leaving for the army, which made it even more meaningful. I&rsquo;m so grateful he took time out of his busy schedule to record it with me. Having a friend who&rsquo;s such a successful idol not only support me but also show so much love for this movie truly meant the world.

You were also busy filming content recently with ITZY, Hearts2Hearts, ILLIT and LE SSERAFIM. What has that been like for you? 
The collabs with ITZY, Hearts2Hearts, ILLIT, and LE SSERAFIM were honestly such a blast! There were actually so many more groups who wanted to work together, but we just ran out of time while I was in Korea. One of the most fun parts of this whole experience has been meeting so many incredibly talented artists who not only loved the movie but were genuinely excited to meet me! It was so shocking and touching to find out that so many of the girls had grown up watching me on Teen Wolf or had seen my previous work. I felt like a big sister to them all! I&rsquo;m filming a movie right now and have two more back-to-back after this, so I won&rsquo;t get to do as many fun collabs for a bit. But trust me, there&rsquo;s a long list we&rsquo;re excited about. Once my schedule opens up, we&rsquo;re definitely planning to make more of them happen.
What are some of your favourite stops for food and beauty in Seoul? 
I love going to Skinstar in Korea for the best face massages &mdash; it&rsquo;s honestly my little self- care haven whenever I&rsquo;m there. And don&rsquo;t even get me started on the food! Korea has the most amazing fried chicken and samgyupsal. I&rsquo;m getting hungry just talking about it. Some of my favorites are Jamsugyo-jip (잠수교집), Kyochon (교촌), Palsikdang (팔식당), Wooga Cheongdam (우가 청담), Dosan Butchers, and Apgujeong Myeonok (압구정면옥) for the best cold buckwheat noodles (물냉). Should I keep going? Because honestly, the list could get very, very long!

What&rsquo;s next for Arden Cho? 
I&rsquo;m currently in Seattle filming a romantic comedy, which has been so much fun to work on. I also have a lot of new music and music videos in the works &mdash; we shot some in Malaysia earlier this year &mdash; and I&rsquo;m especially excited because a lot of this music was written five years ago. I&rsquo;ve been holding onto it for so long, and it feels amazing to finally be able to release it and share it with the world. Towards the end of the year, I&rsquo;ll be filming Perfect Girl, a really fun horror-thriller set in the world of K-pop. It&rsquo;s such a unique mix of genres, and I can&rsquo;t wait for everyone to see it.

Editor-in-Chief IAN LEE Photography SSAM KIM Styling AMANDA LIM / THE ONLY Hair ANH CO TRAN / THE WALL GROUP Makeup ARCHANGELA CHELSEA / TMG LA Videography LUMAN KIM Production CM AGENCY Photography assistant TONI NORDONE Styling assistant IAN MARTIN Additional reporting TIM NGAU Location HANOK K-BEAUTY and CHRISTOPHER LEE

Digital Cover: Arden Cho is Shining Like She's Born To Be

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