Hong Chau born June 25, is an American actress. She has received several award nominations for her film roles as Ngoc Lan Tran in Downsizing and as Liz, a nurse, in The Whale , including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the latter.
Chau was born to Vietnamese parents who lived in a refugee camp in Thailand after fleeing Vietnam in the late s. She grew up in New Orleans and majored in film studies at Boston University College of Communication before pursuing an acting career. Chau has also played leading roles in the films Driveways and American Woman , and further supporting roles in the film The Menu and the Netflix series The Night Agent.
Before Hong Chau was born, her parents and her two brothers lived in Vietnam. Chau grew up speaking Vietnamese as her first language, and later learned English in school. She said, "My whole life, I've always felt like I was the more acceptable of my parents, and they were always the people who had to stay in the background, or hide in the broom closet.
Receiving Pell Grants , [ 9 ] Chau attended Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts, [ 6 ] where she initially studied creative writing. She changed her major to film studies when her parents requested that she study something more practical. She explored acting to challenge her introversion; [ 10 ] she acted in other students' short films and was encouraged to pursue acting.
When Chau met a sitcom TV director, he encouraged her to move to Los Angeles and to get in contact with him. Chau decided to move to LA and began seeking acting opportunities there. As of May [update] , she has a dog, a Rottweiler - Australian Shepherd mix.
