Joan Chen

Joan Chen began her film career at the age of fourteen in Shanghai. Her performance in Little Flower（小花）catapulted her to fame in China. For her performance in the title role, Chen became the youngest recipient of the Best Actress Award at the Hundred Flowers Awards.

In 1981, Chen left China to study filmmaking in the United States. She has since appeared in over forty film and television roles. The most notable include Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor, David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, and Oliver Stone’s Heaven and Earth. Chen’s memorable performance in Red Rose, White Rose（红玫瑰白玫瑰）won her the Best Actress prize at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards and the Hong Kong Critics Awards. Her leading role in the Australian film The Home Song Stories garnered Best Actress Award from the Australian Film Institute and the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards.

Chen’s work also includes starring roles in the critically acclaimed movies Lust, Caution, by director Ang Lee, Mao’s Last Dancer, by director Bruce Beresford, and director Jiang Wen’s The Sun Also Rises（太阳照常升起）for which Chen won Best Supporting Actress at the Asian Film Awards. On television, Chen starred in the Netflix epic series Marco Polo and in the forthcoming Disney series The Retreat.

Joan Chen made her directorial debut in 1997 with Xiu Xiu: The Sent-down Girl（天浴）The film won numerous awards internationally. In 2000, Chen was honored by the National Board of Review with the International Freedom of Expression Award. Her second effort behind the camera, in 2000, was MGM’s Autumn in New York, starring Richard Gere and Wynona Ryder. Chen is the first female Chinese director to direct a studio film in the U.S. In 2017, Chen wrote and directed her third feature film, based on the critically acclaimed Chinese novel English （英格力士）, by Wang Gang. Most recently, Chen wrote and directed Psalm Of Life（生命颂）a thirty-minute short about the pandemic in China, that is one third of the full-length feature Hero（世间有她）.

Chen married cardiologist Peter Hui and the couple has two children together. One of their daughters, Audrey Hui, is a rising star actress. In addition to her career in the entertainment industry, Chen is a devoted mother and has spoken about the importance of balancing her personal and professional lives.