Chasing Amy

From comedy clubs to soundstages, Amy Hill brings one-of-a-kind presence to every role, whether as a formidable matriarch, a sharp-edged corporate enforcer, or even a supernatural overlord.

(All photos by Adam Jung. Hair and makeup by Risa Hoshino.)

When fans approach actor Amy Hill, she can usually guess where they recognize her from.

Teenage girls will know her from Amazon Prime’s Just Add Magic, where she played the cunning Mama P, former keeper of a magic cookbook. Grown-ups may recognize her as Teuila Tuileta, cultural curator and unofficial matriarch of Robin’s Nest in the Magnum P.I. reboot. “But they’ll always say Hawai‘i Five-0, “Hill laughs. “I have to say Magnum. Then they’ll go, ‘Oh yeah, that’s what I meant.’” For kama‘āina, it’s often Lilo & Stitch; Hill voiced a friendly fruit vendor in the original animated film and later appeared as David’s supportive Tūtū in the 2025 live action version.

Almost everyone recognizes Hill from 50 First Dates. More often than not, they’ll ask: Do you really own the Hukilau Café in the movie?

No, Hill explains. That wasn’t a real Café at all, just a set built at Kualoa Ranch for the film. “They tell me there’s a real Hukilau Café now though, in Lā‘ie,” Hill says. “But I haven’t been. North Shore traffic can be terrible.”

The truth is, Hill might be spotted for any of her 200-plus roles in film and television. She’s made a career out of turning supporting roles—the sharp-tongued grandmother, the no-nonsense shop owner, you name it—into scene-stealing characters.

It’s a long way from her early days performing local theater and standup comedy. Longer still from her hometown of Deadwood, South Dakota.

“Deadwood is kind of in the middle of nowhere,” Hill admits. “People used to ask if it was a real place. Yes, it is. Then when Deadwood [the HBO show] came out, I was like, ‘See?’”

Deadwood was very real. Though there wasn’t much for a little girl with no real friends, just horses, pigs, and cows. “I didn’t have any people my age to interact with,” she says. With little else to occupy her, Hill watched black-and-white television and reenacted what she saw in her living room. “My Japanese mother thought that maybe I had mental issues because I was playing all the characters. Fortunately it was just my imagination,” Hill says.

Her father, a Finnish American from Deadwood, spoke Finnish at home while Japanese floated through the air from her mother and her mother’s friends. At school, it was English only. When the family moved to Seattle, Hill thought she might finally find her people. Instead, she found herself the only biracial kid in her class. Teachers scolded her for finishing assignments too quickly; classmates kept their distance.

“The whole time I was in elementary school, I literally just didn’t talk to anybody. So I was back in my imagination again.”

TIBI viscose plisse hinged short sleeve top in peapod $595, LAPIMA sunglasses $580, PLEATS PLEASE BY ISSEY MIYAKE skirt $690, all available at We Are Iconic. All jewelry, Hill’s own.

(All photos by Adam Jung. Hair and makeup by Risa Hoshino.)

In high school, Hill was brave enough to sign up for drama. “That changed my life. I was in every play, every summer program, anything I could do.” She also excelled in languages, studying Spanish, French, and Japanese. Hill dreamed of escaping to France for college and becoming a new person. “I would change my name, be all different, all French,” she says.

Mom said she could go to Japan. Dad said she could go to Finland. Hill chose Japan, intending to stay just a year. She remained for seven, doing voice acting and teaching English. “I traveled around. I even had a radio show called Amy’s Japan. I wasn’t really trained to do it, but I could make it work,” Hill remembers.

Returning to the U.S., Hill settled in San Francisco and joined the Asian American Theater Company, an incubator for the city’s sketch comedy and Asian-American storytelling scene. “I directed, I wrote, I did everything not knowing how to do any of it. That’s the most freeing thing.” Hill’s voice career was a little more lucrative. After getting a call for someone to perform a Filipino accent (Hill had just wrapped a Filipino play where she played the family matriarch), she landed a long-running role as the voice of Philippine Airlines.

“I became one of the top female voice talents. I bought a house, which is hard in the performing arts,” says Hill. “But I never expected anything and never felt entitled to anything. I just figured, I’ll work really hard. Maybe I can make a living at this.”

Transitioning to film and television in the late 1980s was tougher: “As a hapa in Hollywood, suddenly I wasn’t Asian-looking enough. They said I didn’t look Japanese.” It also meant bouncing between San Francisco and Los Angeles, where the jobs were. Early roles often relied on Hill’s ability to craft fully realized characters in small parts with few lines. She was working, but she wasn’t breaking through. She also wasn’t giving up: “Nothing stopped me. I was like a bull in a china shop. Get out of my way!”

One day, a call came from Los Angeles. Someone had heard Hill was performing a solo show. She wasn’t.

“But I said yes,” Hill says. “This was before computers and stuff. They said, ‘Do you have a copy of the script?’ And I said, ‘Well, it’s in L.A.’”

It wasn’t. Not yet. Relying on her writing and improv skills, Hill wrote a show from scratch based on her years in Japan: cultural differences, language mishaps, and existing between worlds. The show became a surprise hit. Studio executives started showing up; producers from Roseanne requested meetings. “It was crazy,” says Hill. They asked what else I had. I said nothing. I wasn’t thinking ahead.”

Not long after, while performing at a benefit for the Asian American Journalists Association, Hill ran into comedian Margaret Cho. “She said, ‘I got a deal with ABC. I’d love for you to be in it.’” The show would become 1994’s All-American Girl, the first network sitcom centered on an Asian American family. Hill played Cho’s Korean grandmother (despite not being Korean and not particularly old). She threw herself into the role anyway, working with a dialect coach and studying the culture closely.

“I learned Korean,” Hill says. “Koreans thought I was Korean!”

All-American Girl only lasted one scene but for Hill, it blew the doors open. Although for the first few years, “people just wanted me to come in and be an old Asian lady,” she says. “That happens.”

Hill was aware of the stereotypes that had long constrained Asian actors. She developed an internal rule early on: “If they were giving me a character that was one-dimensional, I’d pass on it. If I was just a joke, I’d pass. But if they had a personality, then I was fine because I could create a character.”

In Next Friday, Hill played a Korean grocery store owner opposite Ice Cube. There was little in the script beyond the basics: She’s the neighbor, she owns the store. Hill filled in the rest, imagining a woman who had built a life in Los Angeles. “I tried to be a real person,” says Hall. “My idea was that a lot of the English she learned was from the hood because her grocery store was in the hood, so she said stuff like ‘peace out.’ Ice Cube was like, improvise if you want. I didn’t know any of these words.”

From comedy clubs to soundstages, Amy Hill brings unmistakable presence to every role, whether as a formidable matriarch, a sharp-edged corporate enforcer or even a supernatural overlord. Now based in Kaka‘ako, she splits her time between her condo in Honolulu and Los Angeles, flying up as needed to record episodes.

(All photos by Adam Jung. Hair and makeup by Risa Hoshino.)

By the early 2000s, Hill was working constantly. She played the drowsy babysitter Mrs. Kwan opposite Mike Myers’ Cat in the Hat. And Sue, the Hukilau Café owner who explains amnesia to Adam Sandler in 50 First Dates. On television, she jumped from one memorable role to another: The owner of Frasier’s favorite café. A stone-faced head of HR opposite Laura Dern in HBO’s Enlightened. The needling tenant sparring with Allison Janney on Mom. Josh’s formidable mother, Lourdes Chan, on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. A literal warden of Hell on AMC’s Preacher. Hill’s voice carried just as much authority in animation, as everything from a demon-fighting grandmother in The Life and Times of Juniper Lee to the razor-sharp mother-in-law on American Dad!

Alongside a busy acting career, Hill pursued another lifelong dream: becoming a mother. Single at the time, she navigated the L.A. County adoption process and, in 2000, welcomed a daughter—just a week old—into her life. “I just really want to be a mom,” says Hill, recalling the long wait and the unexpected joy when her child arrived. Now 25, Hill’s daughter Penelope has grown into a creative force of her own, charting a path outside the entertainment industry.

Meanwhile, mom keeps working. Hill returned to theatre in recent years, appearing in an all-Asian women production of Cymbeline last January. She currently stars on Amazon Prime’s Ballard, a spinoff of Bosch, dispensing advice as Maggie Q’s grandmother. She bought a condo in Kaka‘ako and flies to L.A. when she needs to record episodes.

Even after decades in the business, she’s still in love with entertaining. Almost as much as the little girl from Deadwood who used to perform every character in her living room.

“It’s always weird when people ask me if I’m gonna retire. Would an artist retire? You just do it until you keel over, right?” Hill laughs. “I do this for fun. That’s pretty good.”