Actor, filmmaker, and lifelong martial artist Michael Jai White was recently honored with the Bruce Lee Award at the 2025 Asian World Film Festival, making him the first non-Asian to receive the award from the Bruce Lee Foundation.
The moment was even made more powerful as Bruce Lee’s daughter and Foundation president, Shannon Lee, presented the award and celebrated White as both an artist and a martial arts ambassador.
With nearly 80 films, including Spawn to Undisputed 2, Blood and Bone, Black Dynamite, and Falcon Rising, he is recognized as one of Hollywood’s most respected physical performers. Besides taking roles as fighters in his movies, White is also a fighter in real life. He is a trained martial artist with black belts in Shotokan, Goju-ryu, Taekwondo, Wushu, and more.
He grew up admiring Bruce Lee and even studied martial arts as a teen with Bruce Lee posters on his wall.
Thus, it was an emotional moment for him when Bruce Lee’s daughter — who is also White’s longtime friend and former Wushu classmate — presented him with the award.
“Last night I was honored to receive the prestigious Bruce Lee Award at the AWFF! This honor is the most heartfelt award I could ever receive! I don’t know who ‘Tony, Emmy, or Oscar’ were, but I damn sure know Bruce Lee!” he wrote on Instagram, sharing a childhood photo of himself standing next to a Bruce Lee poster.
READ ALSO: To be made chief in Ghana is more relevant than to be knighted by the Queen – Jai White
The Bruce Lee award celebrates individuals who embody the legacy of the Hong Kong actor, including his commitment to martial arts values, discipline, philosophy, and integrity.
White, who described the award as one of the most personal honors of his life, continues to be active in action cinema as he currently stars opposite Dolph Lundgren in an assassin thriller known as Exit Protocol.
His action-comedy Hostile Takeover also debuted at No. 2 on STARZ earlier this year, with White’s performance as hitman Pete Strykyr being praised by many viewers.
White, who traces his roots to Akwamu in Ghana, was enstooled as a chief in the Akwamu Traditional Area.
Bestowed the name Nana Akoto III, Odopon, which means “The tree with strong roots that does not fear the storm”, the actor was made a chief when he visited the country in December 2018 for the Full Circle Festival.
White’s visit to Ghana and enstoolment received some backlash from his fans in the black American community.
The actor and martial expert went on to respond to the negative reactions, saying that it is ideal to be made a chief in Akwamu where he traces his roots than to be made a knight by the queen of England.
“For me to be enstooled by the King Odeneho Kwafo Akoto III of Akwamu is far more relevant than if I were knighted by Queen Elizabeth who’s royal bloodline doesn’t go back as far. Ghana has been the 8th African country I’ve visited. They’ve all been astoundingly beautiful, with classy and very educated people who speak more languages than we do.
“Those of us that felt ‘some kind of way’ maybe you can begin to direct that anger toward those orchestrators that made you hate who you are- those who’d find comfort in you hating your own people, and those who’d find it threatening for you to unite with your people in solidarity,” he said in a statement.
