From the outside, Philly based Korean American adoptee and fitness model Kevin Tae-jin Kreider seems to have it all, Looks, Muscles, Chutzpah, Confidence and Charisma. He has a popular Instagram and vlog and has modeled around the world for the likes of Men's Health, Gillette and Abercrombie and Fitch. Yet since childhood, he has always felt ugly and second best as an Asian male in America. THE UGLY MODEL examines the paradox of a handsome male model who feels ashamed, ugly and emasculated because of his Asian ethnicity in America. Why does Kevin still choose to be a male model where validation is based on physical appearance and his ethnicity defines his marketability? Is he a masochist for beating his head against the glass ceiling or is Beauty truly in the eye of the Beholder?

In an increasingly economically polarized and virtually connected 24 hour Asia, a poor Beijing taxi driver, a pregnant Hong Kong trophy wife and a Jakarta slum kid struggle to connect despite the constraints of their social class.