Rosalind Chao

Rosalind Chao was born in Los Angeles, California,^[7] and raised in nearby Anaheim. Her parents were performers with the Peking opera^[8] before they relocated to Anaheim, where they ran a successful pancake restaurant, Chao's Chinese and American Restaurant, across the street from Disneyland. Chao worked there from an early age.^[9][10]

She attended Pomona College in Claremont, California,^[11] and then the University of Southern California, where she earned a degree in broadcast journalism in 1978.^[11] She worked at Disneyland as an international tour guide^[12] and contemplated pursuing journalism as a career.^[8]

Chao's parents were instrumental in her decision to pursue acting.^[13] She began acting at the age of five, in the California-based Peking opera traveling company with which her parents were involved. During the summer, they sent her to Taiwan for further acting study and experience.^[14]

As a child, she played the daughter of a laundry owner (played by James Hong) on a 1970 episode of Here's Lucy, "Lucy the Laundress".^[15]

Deciding not to pursue acting, Chao enrolled in the communications department at the University of Southern California where she earned her degree in journalism. However, after a year as a radio newswriting intern at the CBS-owned Hollywood radio station KNX,^[14] she returned to acting.^[16][13]

Chao's breakthrough role was that of Soon-Lee, a South Korean refugee, in the final two episodes of the TV series M*A*S*H.^[16] Soon-Lee married longtime starring character Maxwell Klinger (Jamie Farr) in the series finale "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen",^[17] which aired on February 28, 1983, and was the most-watched US sitcom television episode of all time as of 2021. Chao repeated the role in the M*A*S*H sequel series, AfterMASH (1983), her first role billed at co-star status.^[18]

During the development of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Chao was considered for the role of Enterprise security chief Tasha Yar.^[19] The role ultimately went to Denise Crosby, but Chao was later cast in a recurring role as Japanese exo-botanist Keiko O'Brien, which she reprised on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

In August 2018, Chao was cast as Mulan's mother in the 2020 live-action retelling of Mulan.^[20][21] In 2019, she was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, citing her contributions to the critically acclaimed films The Joy Luck Club and I Am Sam.^[22][23][24]

Chao met her husband Simon Templeman while they were working in theatre at the Mark Taper Forum.^[25] They have a son and a daughter.^[25][26]