Samantha Quan

Samantha Quan was born on September 2, 1975, in Vancouver.^[3] Growing up, her father owned a Chinese restaurant.^[4]

In 1998, Quan graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Arts in Theater. She graduated with an MFA from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts in 2001.^[5]

As an actress, Quan has played minor roles on various television shows. She received praise for her theatre role as Huong in the stage play Poor Yella Rednecks by Qui Nguyen.^[6][7][8] She was instrumental in providing three weeks of acting classes to Bria Vinaite prior to filming The Florida Project, owing to the latter having no prior acting experience.^[9] Quan was on set throughout filming and would work with Vinaite at the end of each shooting day.^[10] Vinaite's performance was lauded as a breakout, receiving multiple film critics nominations.^[11]

In 2025, Quan won a PGA Award for producing Anora alongside Baker and Alex Coco.^[12] All three later won the Academy Award for Best Picture,^[13] and the BAFTA Award for Best Film.^[14] Quan also won the Critics Choice Association's Celebration of Asian Pacific Cinema and Television Producer Award for her work on Anora.^[15][16]

At a press conference at Cannes Film Festival, Mikey Madison said that Baker and Quan would act out different sex positions to demonstrate what they wanted the actors to do. This led to a conversation in the press about the relevance and importance of intimacy coordinators in film that generated some controversy.^[17][18]

She is married to director Sean Baker, and produced several of his films.^[17]