Hong Chau
Hong Chau is an actor, born 1979.
Hong Chau spent the first half of her filmography in one-scene parts. Born in Thailand and an American actress, she appears as Linh in Treme, as Jade in Inherent Vice, and in network comedies like A to Z. Nothing about that stretch predicts what came next.
Downsizing in 2017 was the break. As Ngoc Lan Tran she took a role that could easily have been a caricature and turned it into the only fully alive person in the film, collecting a run of supporting-actress nominations along the way. Five years later she did it again in The Whale as Liz, and this time the nomination was the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The Menu arrived the same year with Elsa, an entirely different performance in an entirely different register.
The pattern in her casting is worth noticing: she is repeatedly hired to be the person who actually runs the room. Elsa in The Menu, Lady Trieu in Watchmen, Audrey Temple in Homecoming, Diane Farr in The Night Agent, Dr. Donna Rivera in The Instigators. Directors trust her with competence and quiet menace, often in the same scene.
She also holds an Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award, plays three separate parts in Kinds of Kindness, voices Pickles in BoJack Horseman, and does small, warm work in Driveways and Showing Up. Nelly in a 2026 Wuthering Heights and The Sheep Detectives are next.
Movies (11)
TV (9)
Where to start with Hong Chau
Downsizing is the one that changed her career and it remains the best argument for her, because the film around her is uneven and she is not. Start there and every casting decision that followed makes sense.
Then The Whale, the Oscar-nominated performance, where the job is to be the only person in the room telling the truth. The Menu makes a useful double bill with it: same year, same precision, no warmth whatsoever.
For television, Watchmen gives her the largest and strangest role she has had, and Homecoming the most tightly controlled. The Night Agent is the popcorn version.
If you want the quiet end, Driveways is a small, sad, excellent film almost nobody saw. Kinds of Kindness has her playing three parts, and Inherent Vice is the early cameo worth going back for.