Ming-Na Wen

Ming-Na Wen
Ming-Na, October 2006
Born	Ming-Na Wen (1963-11-20) November 20, 1963 Coloane Island, Macau
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1988–present
Spouse(s)	Kirk Aanes (1990–1993) (divorced) Eric Michael Zee (1995–present) 2 children
Website
Ming-Na.com

Ming-Na Wen (Chinese: 温明娜; pinyin: Wēn Míng-Nà); born November 20, 1963) is a Macanese-born American actress. She has been credited with and without her family name, but most credits since the late 1990s have been without it. She has been known by such variants of her name as Ming-Na, Ming Na, Ming Na Wen, and Ming Wen.

She is best known for voicing Fa Mulan in the Mulan movies and the Kingdom Hearts video game series, and as Dr. Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen on the NBC Medical drama series ER. She was a regular on other notable television shows such as As the World Turns, Vanished, and The Batman. After a break in 2009, the actress returned as a series regular on television in one her better known roles as Camile Wray in Stargate Universe.

She was the series lead on her own show, Inconceivable, a medical drama that was aired on NBC, but the show was short-lived and was cancelled after only two episodes. The show is one of the few American television shows with an Asian American series lead.

Besides television, she is notable for starring in the films The Joy Luck Club, Street Fighter, and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

Biography

Early life

Wen was born on Coloane Island, Macau, to Cantonese parents and lived in Hong Kong with her mother Lin (then working as a nurse) and her older brother, later moving to the United States as a child with her mother, older brother Jonathan, and stepfather first to Queens, New York, where her younger brother Lang was born and then to the Pittsburgh area.

Education

Wen attended high school in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon. During her teen years she worked at her stepfather's family's restaurant called Chinatown Inn in downtown Pittsburgh's Chinatown, which her family still runs today. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama from Carnegie Mellon University.

Career

Wen's most prominent role may be as Dr. Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen on the NBC drama series ER. She first guest starred during the first season. Five years later, she was invited back as a series regular in Season 6 and remained on the show until midway through Season 11. Wen starred 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.

Wen also provided the voice for the title character in Disney's 1998 animated movie Mulan, its direct-to-video sequel, Mulan II, and the video game Kingdom Hearts II. She also voiced Aki Ross in the computer animated film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and Detective Ellen Yin in the animated series The Batman. She was also the voice actress for Jade, a minor character in the HBO animated series Spawn.

Earlier in her career, Wen played Lien Hughes from 1988 to 1991 on the long-running series As the World Turns. In 2004, she took part in a Hollywood Home Game on the World Poker Tour, and won. In fall 2005, she starred on the NBC drama series Inconceivable as the lead character, Rachel Lu. However, the series was canceled after only a couple episodes. Her next TV role was an FBI agent in the Fox kidnap drama series Vanished, which premiered in the fall of 2006 then was canceled roughly three months later. She also has played a small role as a college professor in the comedy series George Lopez.

On October 8 through October 29, 2007, Wen (billed as Ming Wen) appeared in a four-episode arc of CBS' Two and a Half Men playing Charlie Sheen's love interest, a judge closer to his own age. In November 2008, she guest-starred on two ABC series: Private Practice and Boston Legal. On December 5–6, 2008, Wen starred in a benefit production of the musical Grease with "Stuttering" John Melendez at the Class Act Theatre.

She was cast as a regular in the Stargate Universe television series as political attaché Camile Wray; the series ran from October 2009 to May 2011. Wen made an appearance in "Disney Through the Decades", a short documentary about the history of the Walt Disney Company through to the present, as the hostess of the 1990s section. It can be found on the Diamond Edition release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

In August - September 2011, she appeared on the Syfy series "Eureka", as the inquisitive U.S. Senator Wen.

Wen has been cast as Agent Melinda May in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ABC drama, reported to run in the Fall of 2013.

Personal life

In 1990, Wen married American film writer Kirk Aanes. They divorced in 1993. On June 16, 1995, Wen married her second husband Eric Michael Zee. Together they have two children, a daughter Michaela and a son Cooper Dominic Zee, born on October 12, 2005. As of 2007, Wen and her family live in Calabasas, California.

Selected filmography

Ming-Na at the January 2009 premiere for Push

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1988	As the World Turns	Lien Hughes	Regular role (1988–1991)
1992	Rain Without Thunder	"Uudie" Prisoner
1993	The Joy Luck Club	Jing-Mei "June" Woo	Lead Role
1994	Terminal Voyage	Han
	Hong Kong 97	Katie Chun
	Street Fighter	Chun-Li Zang
	ER	Dr. Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen	Recurring role (season 1)
1995	The Single Guy	Trudy	Regular role (1995–1997)
1997	One Night Stand	Mimi Carlyle
1998	12 Bucks	Gorgeous
	Mulan	Fa Mulan	Title character; Voice only
1999	Spawn 3: Ultimate Battle	Jade/Lisa Wu	Voice only
	ER	Dr. Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen	Regular role (1999–2004)
2001	Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within	Dr. Aki Ross	Voice only
2002	A Ribbon of Dreams	Mei-Ling	Voice only
	Teddy Bears' Picnic	Katy Woo
2004	Perfection	Woman
	Mulan II	Fa Mulan	Direct-to-video; Voice only
	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Li Mei	Guest role
	The Batman	Ellen Yin	Voice only
2005	Inconceivable	Rachel Lu	Lead role
2006	Kingdom Hearts II	Fa Mulan	Video game; Voice only
	George Lopez	Professor Tracy Lim	Guest role
2007	Two and a Half Men	Linda Harris	Recurring role
2008	Prom Night	Dr. Elisha Crowe
	Boston Legal	Ming Wang Shu	Guest role
	Private Practice	Kara	Guest role
2009	Push	Emily Hu
	Stargate Universe	Camile Wray	Regular role (2009–2011)
2011	Eureka	Senator Michaela Wen	Recurring role
2012	Adventure Time	Finn's alternate universe mom	Guest Role; Voice only
2013	Nashville	Calista Reeves	Guest role
	Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.	Agent Melinda May	Regular role

External links

• Ming-Na Wen at the Internet Movie Database
• Ming-Na interview
• Ming-Na Wen at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Ming-Na in Space