Her father, Munhwan “Steven” Oh, became pastor of Cherry Hill Korean Baptist Church in Beavercreek. He came to the United States to get his PhD in ministry.
“I looked like the perfect first born immigrant Christian kid,” Oh said. “I got involved in dance teams and cheerleading.”
When Oh was a fifth grader, her family moved to Beavercreek. There she fell in love with singing and performing.
Credit: Apple Photos Clean Up
Credit: Apple Photos Clean Up
“I was trying to find my identity,” Oh said. “I looked different than my peers but that gave me an advantage in a way.”
She felt encouraged to explore her identity and she dove headfirst into performing and music. As a senior at Beavercreek High School, she loved the idea of becoming involved in the United Nations and knew that music can bring people together.
“I was a quiet kid my whole life,” Oh said. “But I got the courage to approach the jazz band director to ask if he needed a vocalist.”
She became a vocalist for the band, and her mom encouraged her to audition for the Berklee College of Music in Boston. She said her time in Boston changed how she felt about what was possible.
Oh decided to switch gears, thinking she’d eventually work for a streaming platform like Spotify or Apple Music. And during that time, she also fell in love with the importance of community.
“As a second-generation Asian immigrant, I felt like I was not quite Asian enough or American enough,” Oh said. “I met a lot of others like me in Boston and that’s when I began to feel empowered about Asian Americans in entertainment.”
Oh graduated a semester early and returned home to Ohio in 2018. She connected with other Asian Americans in the entertainment world through social media. She travelled to meet her new friends and connections.
“This is when I started diving more into my faith in God,” Oh said.
Oh applied for graduate school at Berklee’s campus in Spain to study music production. She met more people and this time selling herself as a song writer. While she was in Spain, the COVID-19 pandemic began, and she released her first song in June of 2020.
“I was locked down in Spain,” Oh said. “This was the year that people started doing whatever their hearts yearned for.”
After meeting a man who would become her producer in 2021, Oh’s life changed again. Luke Helder, who was British, became a bigger part of her journey when they also began dating.
“Luke is the most gifted person I’ve ever met,” Oh said. “We collaborated creatively and personally.”
But by December, Oh said she felt like she was at a fork in her personal journey road. She was living in London, had a business, great friends and a romantic relationship. But she couldn’t stop thinking “what if?”
She decided at age 25 to break up with Luke and move back home to Ohio, determined to find out who she was apart from Helder. Returning to Dayton helped her relearn her voice.
In 2022, Oh took a job as a digital media specialist at the Dayton Art Institute. After 18 months, she left that job to move to Cincinnati at the beginning of 2024.
“I moved to get plugged into the music community in Cincinnati,” Oh said. “I started doing weddings and live performances.”
She also played at local venues, inspired by her time in Dayton and hosting songwriter gatherings at the Arcade downtown. She was energized by bringing people together through her song writing.
In 2024, Oh moved to Dallas, invited by a professor from Dallas Baptist University and played music there for weddings and festivals. While there, the professor encouraged her to pursue a master’s degree in worship studies, and she was placed in a Dallas church as a worship resident.
In early 2025, Oh returned home to Dayton. She had been offered a full-time position in the Dallas church, but declined. When she was back home, she applied for jobs, not only in Ohio but in London and even in New Jersey.
“I didn’t really want to leave Ohio,” Oh said. “I kept feeling drawn to return home everywhere I went.”
Today, Oh continues working on her music and is involved with Fairhaven Church. She said her heart is yearning to stay in Ohio and work on songwriting, content creation and worship.
She is now part of the Asian American Activist Collective — a group that uses songwriting to help bring people together around social issues and to fight the loneliness epidemic.
“I am falling back on my love of bringing people together and helping people learn that we all have a purpose in life,” Oh said. “I see songwriting as the solution.”
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PERSONAL JOURNEY
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