As the first Asian and only South Asian actress to be nominated for a best actress Oscar,

Merle Oberon's place in the pantheon of cinema is historic, but it came with enormous sacrifice.

For decades, Oberon had to hide her race to stay working in film.

I recently spoke with writer Mayok Sen, whose new book book Love Queenie, Merle Oberon, Hollywood's

first South Asian star, chronicles Oberon's rise to fame, her groundbreaking career, and

eventual fate from the spotlight. It's part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Myuk, welcome to the News Hour. Thanks for being here.

Thank you for having me, Omna.

So before we dive into the details of Merle Oberon's life, tell me how the book came to be.

I mean, what was it about her and her story that made you want to dig in?

So I have always been fascinated by Merle Oberon ever since I first encountered her, which was all the way back in the summer of 2009. I was a rising senior

in high school, and I was obsessed with the Oscars, and I learned that she had been the first Asian

actress who was nominated for an Academy Award for acting all the way back in 1936. And then I

learned that she had grown up in the city of Kolkata, which is where my father was from. And so ever

since then, I've really wanted to tell her story,

and there hasn't been a proper biography of her in over 40 years.

So I told myself, you know what,

I think it's time for me to just take this project on

and try to do her story justice.

And the story that most people knew about her,

as she was making her way through Hollywood

was that she was a British actress, that she was born in Tasmania, that she was raised in India,

...