- This is a Chinese name; the family name is Wen.
Ming-Na as ER's Dr. Deb Chen
Ming-Na Wen (Traditional Chinese: 溫明娜, Simplified Chinese: 温明娜; pinyin: Wēn Míngnuó; born November 20, 1963) is an American actress. She has been credited with and without her surname, but most credits since the late 1990s have been without her surname.
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Contents
- 1 Biography
- 1.1 Early life
- 1.2 Career
- 1.3 Personal life
- 2 Selected filmography
- 3 Trivia
- 4 External links
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Biography
Early life
She was born in Coloane, Macau (a Chinese territory under Portuguese administration at the time) and moved to the United States as a young girl with her mother (her parents divorced when she was a toddler). She attended high school in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and graduated with a BFA in Drama from Carnegie Mellon University.
Career
Playing Lien Hughes on As the World Turns, she was the first Asian-American to be a regular on a daytime soap opera. Her most prominent role may be as Dr. Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen on ER. Ming-Na appeared in the movie version of Amy Tan's novel The Joy Luck Club and played Chun-Li in Street Fighter. She also appeared in a supporting role on the comedy series The Single Guy which starred Jonathan Silverman.
Ming-Na also provided the voice for the title character in Disney's animated movie Mulan as well as reprising her role in the Square Enix/Disney videogame Kingdom Hearts II, Aki Ross in the computer animated film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and Detective Ellen Yin in the animated series The Batman.
In fall 2005, she starred on the NBC television series Inconceivable as the lead character, Rachel Lu. However, the series was cancelled after only a few episodes. Her next TV role will be an FBI agent in the forthcoming kidnap drama Vanished, which premieres in the fall of 2006.
Personal life
Her first marriage (1990 - 1993) to Kirk Aanes, a playwright, ended in divorce.
She has been married since June 16, 1995 to Eric Michael Zee, whom she met at the premiere of The Joy Luck Club. The couple have a daughter named Michaela, born November 21, 2000 and a son named Cooper Dominic, born October 12, 2005.
Selected filmography
| Year |
Title |
Role |
Other notes |
| 2005 |
The World of Mulan |
Fa Mulan (voice) |
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| 2004 |
Mulan II |
Fa Mulan (voice) |
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Mike's Super Short Show |
| Perfection |
Woman |
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| 2002 |
Teddy Bear's Picnic |
Katy Woo |
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| A Ribbon of Dreams |
Mei-Ling (voice) |
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| 2001 |
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within |
Dr. Aki Ross (voice) |
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| Aki's Dream |
Dr. Aki Ross (voice) |
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| 1999 |
Spawn 3: Ultimate Battle |
Jade/Lisa Wu (voice) |
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| 1998 |
Mulan |
Fa Mulan (voice) |
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| 12 Bucks |
Gorgeous |
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| 1997 |
One Night Stand |
Mimi Carlyle |
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| 1994 |
Street Fighter |
Chun Li Zang |
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| Hong Kong 97 |
Katie Chun |
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| Terminal Voyage |
Han |
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| 1993 |
The Joy Luck Club |
Jing-Mei "June" Woo |
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| 1992 |
Rain Without Thunder |
"Uudie" Prisoner |
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Trivia
- Ming-Na is a Star Wars superfan as revealed on VH-1's "When Star Wars Ruled the World".
- Ming-Na appears on an infomercial for Sheer Cover, a mineral base make-up product. She took off her make-up during the commercial and demonstrated the ease of using the product. The infomercial is still running regularly as of August 2006.
- Ming-Na's husband Eric Zee is a screenwriter. The couple manages an all-Asian boy band named At Last. At Last was a finalist on the reality TV show America's Got Talent.
External links
- Official site
- Ming-Na at the Internet Movie Database
- Ming-Na at the Voice Chasers Database
- Ming-Na interview
Artist and Actor alumni
Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh |
| Auberjonois • Benedicto • Bochco • Borofsky • Brammell • Cromwell •Carson • Carter• Currin • Danson • Dominczyk • Duffy • Esteban • Feldon • Foster • Gorshin • Groban • Goldsberry • Van Hansis • Hunter • Kaskey • Lander • Light • Lockhart • Manganiello • Marshall • McKean • Ming-Na • Pearlstein • Peppard • Plotkin • Price • Prince • San Giacomo• Schwartz• Tebelak• Underwood• Warhol• Wells• Wilson |
Categories: 1963 births | ER actors | American film actors | American soap opera actors | American television actors | American voice actors | Batman actors | Carnegie Mellon alumni | Chinese American actors | Final Fantasy voice actors | Kingdom Hearts voice actors | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit actors | Vanished (TV series) cast | Living people | Macanese people | Naturalized citizens of the United States | People from Pittsburgh
