Filipino-American CEO and producer Jeremiah Abraham has been advocating to uplift the representation of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community in entertainment in the US. 

Abraham is the founder and CEO of Tremendous Communications, which provides help to entertainment studios to be more inclusive of the AAPI community in their projects and help spotlight AAPI talent from production to release. 

Ahead of the celebration of the Filipino American History Month in the US in October, the Manila Bulletin interviewed Abraham about his work and his company’s advocacy. 

Tremendous Communications CEO and founder Jeremiah Abraham (Photos courtesy of Bianca Catbagan)

Abraham was recently chosen as one of Variety magazine and Gold House’s “Top 8 API’s Up Next in Entertainment 2024.” 

He co-produced the 2024 Tony nominated Broadway musical “Here Lies Love.” 

Based on data from the US Census Bureau, there are more than 24 million Asian-Americans in the US as of 2022, according to the Pew Research Center, or about seven percent of the total US population, “the fastest-growing major racial or ethnic group in the country.”

Of the total, 4.1 million are Filipino-Americans or 17 percent of the Asian-American population. 

"Here Lies Love" (Photo from "Here Lies Love" Instagram account) 

"Here Lies Love" received four Tony nominations (Instagram) 

Jeremiah Abraham with Tony Award winner Lea Salonga (Instagram)  

Philippines 

Abraham was born in the Philippines and moved to Los Angeles when he was five.  

“I was born in Manila. So my dad's side is from Quezon City and my mom's side is from San Pablo City and so I moved to Los Angeles when I was five years old but I've been going back and forth to the Philippines at least once a year. I love the Philippines,” he said. 

He is thankful to have been chosen in the inaugural list of the “Top 8 API’s Up Next in Entertainment 2024” 

Bing Chen, co-founder and CEO of Gold House, said, “From filmmakers to executives to augmenters, the eight APIs Up Next in Entertainment are redefining their roles and creating a more excellent and equitable future for creativity,” according to Variety. 

“I think it's a really great honor. I've been working in entertainment for about 20 years now so being recognized by such a premier media outlet like Variety was such a great experience, such a great recognition, and especially because they recognized a lot of the work that Tremendous Communications has done,” said Abraham. 

Tremendous Communications 

Through Tremendous Communications, Abraham said, “we're doing a lot of uplifting of multicultural and Asian-American communities and filmmakers and movies so just the fact that it wasn't just Variety but it was also uplifting our work in entertainment as it pertains to Asian-Americans, I thought was really great.” 

Tremendous Communications team (from left) Gabriella David, Casie Nguyen, Jeremiah Abraham, Ashley Rapuano and Joey Garalde (Photo courtesy of Andrew Ge)

(Instagram) 

(From left) Dolly de Leon, Bretman Rock and Kathryn Bernardo on the red carpet at the "A Very Good Girl" premiere (Photo courtesy of Sthanlee Mirador, SIPA USA)

“We're a PR and marketing agency that steered toward uplifting multicultural and Asian-Americans in media and entertainment so whether that means figuring out different brand partnerships or getting or securing coverage for our projects or our talents. But lately we've also been working with studios to start  doing cultural consulting very early on in a project so not just not just at the point where it's about to be released,” he added. 

He cited “Joy Ride” as an example where Tremendous started working about two years before its release including helping to retitle the movie. 

“So just the fact that a large studio has come to us to ask for this to help them figure out a new title for their film. I thought it was such a great challenge, such a great opportunity.  So that's who we are and it's interesting because we are a for-profit company but there's a lot of things that we do that are essentially like nonprofits. Like we want to help provide opportunities to organizations and people,” said Abraham. 

He is also a member of the board of directors for the Filipino-American nonprofit called FACE or Filipinos Advancing Creative Education. 

“The board is composed of all these big  leaders in various Industries and we come together to try to figure out how to really advance Filipinos and Filipino-Americans in this whole landscape,” he said of FACE.  

From Disney to Tremendous

Abraham’s first job in the US entertainment industry started at Disney 20 years ago. 

“So I was working on things like ‘Hannah Montana’ and ‘Cars’ and a bunch of the Pixar movies and Disney Channel. So I just, you know, I've loved entertainment since I was a kid so that's why I wanted to eventually, once I figured out what I wanted to do. That's where I felt comfortable and that's where I felt like I really wanted to really grow and thrive. So that's kind of how I got my start in entertainment and then I just kept on, you know, progressing,” he said. 

He worked at Warner Bros for a while working on a film and video games. 

Jeremiah Abraham with actress Awkwafina (Instagram)  

Jeremiah Abraham (right) with Jo Koy (Instagram)  

“Then, you know, eventually I wanted to start Tremendous because well, one, I wanted to start building my own legacy, right? So I wanted to support studios but I wanted to also have my own perspective and my own ideas and insights and hopefully that would be valued by Hollywood,” he said. 

He added, “But I started it also because I felt that there was a need for  more representation for Asian-Americans and Filipino and Filipino-Americans in entertainment. So that's been our mission…to amplify these moments where we could really celebrate Asian-Americans and Filipinos.” 

“You know we've been lucky enough to work with a lot of really great Filipino releases.  We did ‘Easter Sunday’ with Jo Koy. So that was the first Filipino-American produced film from a major movie studio that was Universal Pictures,” he said.  

In addition, Tremendous did the first Filipino Hollywood premiere last year with ABS-CBN. 

“We did ‘A Very Good Girl’ with Dolly de Leon and Kathryn Bernardo so I thought that was really great and I'm also a co-producer on ‘Here Lies Love’ which is the first Filipino-American all Broadway cast. So you know these moments where I can celebrate our people and our culture and, you know, try to build a bridge from the Philippines over here and like provide opportunities, I think is such a passion of mine and so that's why I really like the work that we do at Tremendous because we were able to do that on on a daily basis,” he said. 

Recent projects 

Tremendous Communications was behind the film ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once,’ working with “A24 to do all the Asian-American outreach for that movie.” 

“We also did ‘Joy Ride’ last year with Lionsgate. We just finished a series called ‘Expats’ with Amazon Prime Video. So now we're working on a couple different projects we're working on ‘Smile 2’ with Paramount Pictures as well as ‘Interior Chinatown’ with Hulu. I think people are really seeing the work that we've done with these other projects and are really wanting to collaborate with us because we are the experts in this field,” said Abraham.  

Asian-Americans in US entertainment 

Abraham said there has been a big change for Asian-American representation in the US entertainment industry in the last few years. 

“I mean back in 2018, ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ came out and, you know, before that, the other example that people were using was 25 years prior. which was ‘Joy Luck Club.’ But in between that, you know, there was a bunch of API and Asian-American films. There were like Filipino American films like ‘The Debut,’ for example, with Dante Basco. But I think, with ‘Crazy Rich Asians,’ it was one example that people always kind of look back to say like ‘Hey this is what we strive to be,’ like throughout for the next few years or whatever for other projects,” he said. 

He added, “And now there's so many examples of really, really awesome and tremendous like projects like ‘Joy Ride,’ for example that we can refer back to and say like it's not just one, it's so many more now that we can use as examples to provide our value to Hollywood and it's not just now a select number of actors or even filmmakers and directors like there's so many more examples that we can just  fire off and support so I think that's that's that's a huge change in the last few years.” 

According to him, there has been a gradual shift from the model minority stereotype, which, according to the Pew Research Center, “often paints Asian Americans as intellectually and financially successful, deferential to authority, and competent but robotic or unemotional, especially in comparison with other racial and ethnic groups.”

“There was a New York Times article recently about Asian men and how, like, Hollywood is shifting the definition of what sexy is or like what these Hollywood hunks are and a bunch of Filipinos like Manny Jacinto is in it and you know I thought that was really cool. So like we are gradually breaking out of this model minority, this very narrow lens of what people think we are and just showing them so much more,” he said. 

Jacinto, a Filipino-Canadian, starred as Qimir in the Star Wars’ “The Acolyte,” which premiered on Disney+. 

Abraham said he wants to see Jacinto’s character, Qimir, in “The Acolyte” in another Star Wars project. Disney canceled “The Acolyte,” scrapping any plans for season 2. 

“I like ‘The Acolyte.’ I like the characters. I don't know what the cancellation is or the reasons why but I would love to see more of these characters that they portrayed like even if there was no season 2 of ‘The Acolyte.’ I would still love to see Manny's character maybe appear in, like, the larger Star Wars Universe, you know, sometimes like characters from different things kind of cross over, right? So even if they don't renew, which I believe that they announced, I don't believe that this would be the end of Manny's character because everyone just loved seeing him on screen you know,” he said. 

Manny Jacinto at the launch event for "The Acolyte" at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on May 23 (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)

Manny Jacinto in "The Acolyte" (Disney+)

Achievements 

Abraham said his move from Los Angeles to New York eight years ago helped to “expand my perception of the world and different people.  I got to travel a lot. Education, obviously, was a big personal thing for me. Just getting married, you know, I thought that was a huge, huge step.”

He started Tremendous Communications in 2019 but the Covid-19 pandemic hit. 

“Nobody was hiring for projects so we had to pivot to try to figure out what else we can do to uplift in a similar way. So we were part of the Stop API Hate movement. We're supporting that, we're trying to figure out all these other things and we really honed into what we were good at and it's been, I want to say, like 4ish years, around approximately four years. and like we've really been able to grow and gain the trust of these big studios and these executives and filmmakers,” he said.  

He said it’s an achievement that Tremendous Communications does not “just represent Studios but we represent communities and everyone trusts us to do such a good job because they know who we are,  why we exist and what we're fighting for and that's very important to me.”  

Jeremiah Abraham (right) with Jo Koy (Instagram)  

“And I think another big thing, I mean, obviously I think we're very proud of our work with ‘Everything Everywhere At Once,’ That was one of the crowning kind of projects that we've had.  It was so fun to work with or to work on A24 was great. We get to say now that we worked on the winner for best picture and not everyone gets to say that so I thought that was pretty cool,” he said. 

Abraham has worked on other campaigns for films and franchises such as “Harry Potter,” “Star Wars,” Marvel, DC Entertainment, and “Crazy Rich Asians.” 

Through his company, he also worked on Lionsgate’s “The Protege,” Hulu’s “Hit Monkey,” Universal Pictures’ “Fast and Furious 9,” and “Shortcomings” directed by Randall Park.

"Expats" (Prime Video)

He is also a co-producer of breakthrough films in the AAPI community such as Sony Pictures’ “Yellow Rose” and “Lingua Franca,” which was distributed by Ava DuVernay’s Array Now. 

He is a producer on the upcoming ABS-CBN series “Concepción.”  He currently serves on the board of advisors for FilAm Arts and the board of directors for The Peace Studio. 

Tremendous Communications, on the other hand, won the Davey Awards Gold Award for the “Joy Ride” campaign titled “AAPIs Go On A Joy Ride” in collaboration with Lionsgate. It was honored as a finalist for the 2023 Shorty Impact Awards and was a Gold Winner at the 43rd Annual Telly Awards. 

"Yellow Rose" (Facebook)

Plans 

Abraham’s plans include having an office for Tremendous Communications. 

“We're 100 percent remote now so hopefully we will have an office in the next like year or two that's probably going to be in Los Angeles somewhere. But I think you know we're definitely expanding. I would love to grow the team expand to different Industries, different types of clients.  Right now we are primarily in entertainment but I think our work really expands across all businesses, all needs all different types so I think there's a lot of opportunities there so I'm looking into that right now,” he said. 

Opportunities in the Philippines 

He is also looking into opportunities in the Philippines and is planning to visit the Philippines soon as his grandmother is turning 95 next month. 

“I definitely want to see her very soon but I think also in the last few years, I've been trying to establish more of a personal relationship with the Philippines and also Manila and whatever else because growing up, I always came there with family and and they were it be family trips with my parents and my sister so a lot of times we would always be like or it would always be like an itinerary of like vacation or you know like we'd always just be at the mall,” he said. 

“But I think now I would love to be there for an extended period of time just to see also, just figuring out, like, what it's like to actually live there for I don't know like a month or two or three. Also I think there's a lot of opportunities for Tremendous to help uplift in the Philippines, too, so right now we're working with ABS-CBN and also, in addition to Tremendous, I’m producing a bunch of like films and shows so that might be an opportunity. So I think there's a lot that I want to do,” he said.