Hong Chau

In a mere eight years of feature film acting credits, Hong Chau has already collaborated with filmmakers Kelly Reichardt (Showing Up), Paul Thomas Anderson (Inherent Vice), Alexander Payne (Downsizing), Darren Aronofsky (The Whale), Mark Mylod and Adam McKay (The Menu), Miguel Arteta (Duck Butter) and Kenneth Branagh (Artemis Fowl).

Add to this an impressive roster of TV and streaming credits (most notably three lauded HBO series, Big Little Lies, with Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon; Treme, with Khandi Alexander, Wendell Pierce, and Melissa Leo; and Watchmen, with Regina King, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Jeremy Irons), and Chau can claim to have one of the great American refugee success stories of our time.

The child of Vietnamese “boat people” who became an in-demand actor by America’s top filmmakers, Chau has been part of a new wave of younger Asian actors in Hollywood at a time when Asian roles are finally if gradually, becoming possible. 

Hong Chau’s feature debut was in Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel, Inherent Vice (2014), with Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, and Owen Wilson. After a period of busy television work (including Treme and a lead in NBC’s sitcom A to Z), Chau landed her most eye-catching role as a Vietnamese political activist in Payne’s Downsizing (2017), with Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig, earning her several award nominations.

In 2018, Chau joined the cast of Arteta’s Duck Butter, including Alia Shawkat and Laia Costa, and then was cast in the acclaimed final film starring the late Brian Dennehy, Driveways (2019). In 2020, Chau did an uncredited voice performance in Branagh’s Artemis Fowl for a role that was ultimately deleted. In 2021, Chau enjoyed a wave of new castings, including with Reichardt on Showing Up with Michelle Williams, Aronofsky’s The Whale with Brendan Fraser and Samantha Morton, and opposite Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult in the Mark Mylod/Adam McKay production, The Menu.