Hong Chau

Hong Chau (Vietnamese: Hồng Châu; born June 25, 1979) is an American actress whose breakthrough was her supporting role in the 2017 film Downsizing as the fictional character Ngoc Lan Tran. For her performance, she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role, and several other awards. Variety wrote in 2022 that Chau had "been prolific in recent years" and that she had "an acclaimed turn" in the TV series Watchmen (2019) and Homecoming (2018-2020).Before Downsizing, she appeared in the television series Treme (2010–2013) and the film Inherent Vice (2014). In 2018, following Downsizing, she appeared as a guest star in several TV series. In 2019, she played a supporting role in the limited series Watchmen. She also had leading roles in the 2019 films American Woman and Driveways, and for the latter, she was nominated for Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. In 2020, she had a starring role in the second season of the TV series Homecoming, having had a supporting role in its first season in 2018. In 2022, she appeared in supporting roles for the films Showing Up, The Whale, and The Menu.Chau was born to Vietnamese parents who lived in a refugee camp in Thailand after fleeing Vietnam in the late 1970s. A Vietnamese Catholic church in New Orleans, Louisiana in the United States arranged for a family to sponsor Chau and her family. After growing up in New Orleans, Chau majored in film studies at Boston University and pursued an acting career.