Leyna Nguyen

Leyna Nguyen (1969-     ) is a Vietnamese-American television news anchor and reporter based in Los Angeles, California.

She was born on December 13, 1969 in Quang Tri province located in Central Vietnam.  Upon the Fall of Saigon in 1975, Leyna and her family fled their homeland for the United States where they resettled in Minnesota.  In 1987, 17-year-old Leyna Nguyen became the first Vietnamese-American contestant to take home the crown in the Miss Asia - USA beauty pageant.  Following her win as Miss Asia - USA, Leyna embarked on a brief stint as a Vietnamese singer.  Known then in Vietnamese communities as Leyna Phuong Nguyen, she sang professionally throughout her college years to earn money to help with the costs of her tuition and books.  Taken under the wings of musician and producer Anh Tai along with two other revered Vietnamese-American dance music starlets who each had similar stage names, Lynda Trang Dai and Trizzie Phuong Trinh, Leyna Phuong Nguyen performed and recorded covers of songs of a particular genre in dance music known as either Euro New Wave or Italo Disco, which was widely popular among the younger generation of Vietnamese-Americans during the 1980s.  Blessed with good looks, stage presence and a pleasant singing voice, Leyna showed strong potential in becoming a major star in the Vietnamese music industry.  But at age 22, Leyna Nguyen left all that behind her when she graduated from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri with a bachelor's degree in mass communications.  She then went on to pursue a career in journalism which had been her dream ever since she was just seven years old.

Prior to joining the KCAL-TV news staff as weekend anchor and reporter in 1997, Leyna had worked for NBC-affiliate KCRA in Sacramento, California and CBS-affiliate WRDW-TV in Augusta, Georgia.  Leyna Nguyen made history when she became the first to simultaneously anchor news for two different stations within the same market region when she joined the news team at KCBS while during her tenure at KCAL-TV.  For her work as television news anchor and reporter, she has been awarded with three Emmys.  In addition to being a newscaster, Leyna Nguyen has also appeared in over thirty films and television shows including Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) and a total of six episodes of Boston Legal from 2005 until 2008.

Despite Leyna's achievements as a successful television news anchor in mainstream America, she has not forgotten her Vietnamese heritage and remains active in the Vietnamese-American community.  During the 2000s decade, she co-hosted several volumes of the popular overseas Vietnamese live show music video series produced by Asia Entertainment alongside other prominent Vietnamese-American media personalities such as Viet Dzung, Nam Loc and Trinh Hoi.  In 2007, Leyna Nguyen co-hosted the Miss Universe Beauty Pageant held in Nha Trang, Vietnam.  As a philanthropist, Leyna Nguyen is founder of Love Across the Ocean, a non-profit charity organization to aide less fortunate school children of Vietnam and Vietnamese refugees in Southern California.  She was honored by the California State Legislature in 2011 as Woman of the Year for her humanitarian efforts.  Married since 2005 to husband Michael Muriano, Leyna Nguyen is a mother of two children.

Link(s):

30 Most Beautiful Viet Celebs of 2015
50 Most Beautiful Vietnamese Women of All Time
Love Across the Ocean Website