On the night of February 1, 2026, inside the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, a woman from Surabaya sat among the biggest names in the global music industry — not as a fan, but as a nominee. Theresa Kusumadjaja had just become the first Indonesian woman in history to receive a Grammy nomination.

Theresa Kusumadjaja is an Indonesian-born video producer based in New York who received a nomination at the 68th Grammy Awards for Best Music Video. She produced the music video for "So Be It" — a track by legendary American hip-hop duo Clipse, comprised of Pusha T and Malice — released on July 17, 2025. The nomination was announced as part of the Grammy Awards held on February 1, 2026, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California.

How Did Theresa Kusumadjaja Get a Grammy Nomination ?

Her path here is genuinely surprising. Theresa didn't come up through a film school or an arts program. She studied biochemistry and applied statistics at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, and spent years working as a lab technician at a biopharmaceutical company outside Atlanta. Then she quit, moved to New York, and started producing music videos.

Over six years, she built a roster that reads like a playlist you'd make to impress someone: A$AP Rocky, Frank Ocean, and campaigns for Nike, Adidas, and Apple. The Grammy nomination came through her collaboration with director Hannan Hussain on Clipse's "So Be It" — a video that also won a 2026 Grand Clio Music Award in the Music Film & Video Craft category.

She competed in the Best Music Video category against Sabrina Carpenter ("Manchild"), Doechii ("Anxiety"), OK Go ("Love"), and Sade ("Young Lion"). The award went to Doechii — but the nomination itself was historic.

Why This Matters Beyond the Nomination

The last Indonesian name on a Grammy ballot was Joey Alexander, the jazz prodigy who was nominated in 2016 and 2017. Theresa's presence marks something different: she represents the creative people behind the camera, the producers and directors who shape how music is seen, not just heard.

Here's the counterintuitive part — Theresa wasn't originally added to the "So Be It" nomination. The Recording Academy's official update log shows she replaced another producer on the ballot on December 9, 2025. She almost didn't make it onto the list at all. The fact that she did, and that she attended Grammy events in New York before the ceremony, makes the whole story more improbable and more remarkable.

At the ceremony, Theresa also used her platform to support the ICE OUT solidarity movement — a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement policies — signaling that her appearance wasn't just personal. It was political, and deliberate.

For Indonesia's creative industry, the takeaway is clear: the people building global culture aren't always the ones on stage. Sometimes they're the ones making sure the stage looks right.