Biography

Hong Chau (born June 25, 1979) is an American actress. She has received several award nominations for her film roles as Ngoc Lan Tran in Downsizing (2017) and as Liz, a nurse, in The Whale (2022), 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 1970s. A Vietnamese Catholic church in New Orleans sponsored Chau and her family to move to the United States. She grew up in New Orleans and majored in film studies at Boston University College of Communication before pursuing an acting career.