Gemma Chan
Gemma Chan (born November 29, 1982, London, England) is a British stage and screen actress who is perhaps best known for her supporting role in Crazy Rich Asians (2018), the first Hollywood production in 25 years to feature an all-Asian cast in a modern narrative. In addition to acting, Chan advocates for many causes, including championing more roles for Asian actors and more Asian stories for the screen.
Early life and education
Chan was born in London to Chinese immigrants who raised her and her younger sister, Helen, in Kent, England. Her mother, who grew up in Scotland, was a pharmacist, and her father, who grew up in Hong Kong and worked in the merchant navy before studying at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, was an engineer. They fostered in Chan an interest in the arts by enrolling her in violin, piano, and dancing lessons, encouraging her to participate in local theater, and taking her to London’s West End to see musicals. Chan attended the Newstead Wood School for girls in Orpington, southeast of London, where she excelled in the classroom and honed her artistic skills. Chan’s parents, however, expected her to pursue a stable career. Chan thus studied law at the University of Oxford, and, after receiving her degree in 2001, she was offered a position at the prestigious law firm Slaughter and May in London. She believed, however, that her real passion was in the performing arts, and she turned down the job. Instead, Chan applied to the Drama Centre London and broke the news to her family only after she had been accepted.
Early roles on television, stage, and film
To fund her drama education, Chan worked as a model, appearing in campaigns for Nivea Visage, Nokia, and Selfridges as well as in a number of magazines including Elle, Cosmopolitan, and The Sunday Times Style. In 2006 she was a model on Project Catwalk, the United Kingdom’s version of the U.S. reality television competition series Project Runway. That same year she appeared in the horror television miniseries When Evil Calls. She made her professional stage debut two years later with a part in Bertolt Brecht’s play Turandot at the Hampstead Theatre in London. Her first major break was playing geologist Mia Bennett in the 2009 Doctor Who episode “The Waters of Mars.” The episode was awarded the 2010 Hugo Award for best short-form dramatic presentation. Roles on popular British television series soon followed, including appearances on The IT Crowd and Sherlock (both in 2010) and recurring parts on Secret Diary of a Call Girl and Fresh Meat (both in 2011). She was also cast in such movies as Exam (2009) and Submarine (2010).
In the early 2010s Chan performed in a string of productions in London, including Anders Lustgarten’s The Sugar-Coated Bullets of the Bourgeoisie (2012) at the Finborough Theatre; Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Ajax (2013) at the Southwark Playhouse; David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face (2013 at the Park Theatre and in 2014 at the National Theatre); and Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming (2015), at Trafalgar Studios. Chan also continued to land roles on television and film, including in the miniseries True Love (2012), the second season (2012) of the supernatural series Bedlam, the spy miniseries The Game (2014), and the action movie Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014).
Humans, Fantastic Beasts, and Transformers
Chan gained more visibility in 2015 when she was cast in the starring role as Anita/Mia in the AMC science-fiction series Humans. Her portrayal of the anthropomorphic robot earned her nominations for best actress and the Breakthrough Award from Britain’s Broadcasting Press Guild. The series ran for three seasons and concluded in 2018, solidifying Chan’s position in the industry as a versatile actress, capable of stretching beyond one genre. During the series she secured parts in such blockbusters as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), a spin-off from the Harry Potter series, and Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), the fifth installment of the franchise.
Crazy Rich Asians
In 2017 Chan was asked to audition for the lead role of Rachel Chu in the critically acclaimed film Crazy Rich Asians, but she chose to go for the role of Astrid Leong-Teo. The elegant but silently struggling character had been Chan’s favorite when she previously read the best-selling trilogy by Kevin Kwan on which the movie was based. She was nominated for a Music City Film Critics Association Award for best supporting actress and, with the film’s cast, won the National Board of Review Award for best ensemble. In addition to featuring the first all-Asian cast in a Hollywood film in 25 years, the film also represented a breakthrough in diverse storytelling by depicting contemporary Asian culture in a manner that is both accessible and extravagant and by challenging stereotypes through multidimensional, complex characters. The film’s commercial success disproved the myth that films centered on non-white narratives would not sell, paving the way for more inclusive narratives.
Parts in the late 2010s and early 2020s
Chan’s subsequent roles included Bess Hardwick, a trusted lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth I (played by Margot Robbie) in Mary, Queen of Scots (2018) and Minn-Erva in the Marvel film Captain Marvel (2019). She then garnered opportunities to act alongside Meryl Streep in Let Them All Talk (2020), playing the literary agent to Streep’s acclaimed novelist; provide the voice for the warrior princess Namaari in Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon (2021); take on her second Marvel role, starring as Sersi in Eternals (2021), which was directed by Academy Award winner Chloé Zhao; and play the wife of the head of a seemingly utopian community in Olivia Wilde’s much-anticipated Don’t Worry, Darling (2022). In 2023 she joined the star-studded cast of Extrapolations, a series that takes place in the near future as humans adjust to living on a dying planet; appeared in an episode of The Afterparty, a comedic whodunnit series; and the sci-fi film The Creator.
Advocacy
Throughout her career Chan has been an advocate for inclusion and social change. She actively participates in discussions regarding the representation of marginalized communities in the media and launched the #StopESEAHate campaign in 2021 to support organizations in the United Kingdom that assist the East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) community. Chan also contributed an essay about her father’s experience as a Chinese seaman in the merchant navy to East Side Voices: Essays Celebrating East & Southeast Asian Identity in Britain (2022), a collection of stories from creatives in the East and Southeast Asian diaspora. In 2021 she was appointed a U.K. UNICEF ambassador.