For some Asian-Americans in the highly competitive world of the performing arts, their nationality may be seen as a challenge. For the New York-based actor and producer Ariel Estrada, it has become his fuel.

Estrada is the founder and executive director of the New York City-based Leviathan Lab, a theater and film venue specifically created for Asian-American artists.

Last week, in an exclusive interview with KpopStarz, Ariel opened up about the K-pop movement, an international phenomenon that has blown the doors off what it means to be an Asian performer.

"It's been a phenomenon," Estrada said, regarding the Hallyu wave. "People just sort of love it for what it has to say."

As many have observed, some of the biggest pop acts in Asia such as Girls' Generation, Wonder Girls, BoA, Se7en and Utada have attempted to crossover into the American music industry and struggled to gain a foothold. A phenomenon that Estrada admits could have racial ramifications.

"We're xenophobic here," he said. "The whole melting pot of United States, it has its dark side. It doesn't really accept a lot of change, [and] white Euro-centric culture is considered normative."

With his work at Leviathan Lab, Estrada hopes to expand the reach of Asian American artistic voices and tell stories to communities who haven't yet had the joy of experiencing them.

"[Leviathan] was formed in response to a need in the Asian-American acting community, which is specifically to provide work for emerging Asian American artists, to find a home," he said.

"We're still underrepresented on stage and on screen. It's been very heartening for me to be doing this kind of work. It's really important I think to create opportunities where people can make mistakes."

Now, with more and more artists like Psy creating inroads in the arts and entertainment industry, perhaps the work done by organizations like Leviathan will be what's considered normative.

Estrada, who is currently starring in the critically acclaimed off-Broadway show The Imbible, believes America has a long way to go before the dream of equality is realized across all races in all professions, including entertainment. 

"It's a cross we have to bear. This is United States. We're hung up on race. It's one of our driving questions in our national identity and it will probably never go away," he said.

"But I would like us to get to a point where we don't have to constantly ask those questions. We're finally starting to see some strides, but we still have a long way to go."