Photo: LucaFazPhoto / CC BY-SA 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
What strikes me about Gemma Chan is how deliberately she has built her career. An Oxford graduate who walked away from law for acting, she chose Humans, a role where the whole performance lives in micro-expressions, and made an android feel more human than the humans around her. In Crazy Rich Asians she took what could have been a decorative part and gave Astrid genuine melancholy. She underplays everything, and in an era of loud performances that restraint reads as confidence. I trust her taste in projects more than that of almost any British actor of her generation, and I suspect her best work is still ahead.
Overview
Gemma Chan (born 29 November 1982) is a British actress and model. A graduate of Worcester College, Oxford, Chan began acting during the late 2000s, making her film debut in 2009. She rose to attention with her lead role in the Channel 4 science fiction series Humans (2015–2018), and gained prominence with her starring film roles as Astrid Leong in Crazy Rich Asians and as Elizabeth Hardwick in Mary Queen of Scots (b…
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Gemma Chan
- Name (Japanese)
- ジェンマ・チャン
- Reading
- じぇんま・ちゃん
- Born
- November 29, 1982 (age 43)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Sagittarius / Dog
- Origin
- Guy's Hospital, United Kingdom
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- 175 cm
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- actor / model / television actor / film actor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Worcester College
Awards & achievements
- 2020 Max Mara Face of the Future Award
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Actor — see all → · Model — see all → · More people from United Kingdom →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-11
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.