Ming-Na Wen, born in Coloane, Macau in 1963, is a Chinese-American actress and voice actor and one of the most internationally recognised people born in Macau. She voiced the title role in Disney's animated *Mulan*, starred in the medical drama *ER*, played Melinda May in Marvel's *Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.*, and the bounty hunter Fennec Shand in the *Star Wars* series *The Mandalorian*. She was named a Disney Legend in 2019 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2023.

From the small island of Coloane to the Hollywood Walk of Fame — Ming-Na Wen is one of the few people born in Macau to win international screen fame, and the voice and face behind Mulan, Melinda May and Fennec Shand.

Ming-Na Wen is a Chinese-American actress and voice actor, born in Coloane, Macau in 1963. Her career spans film, television and voice acting across more than four decades — she is at once the voice of Disney's Mulan and a familiar face from ER, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Star Wars universe. For Macau, she is one of the most internationally recognised names in the story of being "born in Macau, known to the world."

Profile

  • Chinese Name: 溫明娜
  • English Name: Ming-Na Wen (Wen Ming-Na)
  • Born: 20 November 1963 (Coloane, Macau)
  • Domains: Culture · Screen
  • Industry: Film · Television · Voice acting
  • Profession: Actress · Voice actor
  • Notable honours: Disney Legend (2019) · Hollywood Walk of Fame (2023)

Background

Ming-Na Wen was born in Coloane, Macau, on 20 November 1963. Her mother emigrated from Suzhou to Macau in the 1950s and her father was of Malaysian-Chinese descent; her parents separated when she was an infant. As a young child she moved with her family via Hong Kong to the United States, first living in New York and later in Pennsylvania, where she grew up and attended Catholic school, earning a BFA in theatre from Carnegie Mellon University in 1986. Born in Macau, with early years in Hong Kong and a childhood in America, her multicultural background became the distinctive ground from which she would later play Chinese and Asian-American roles in Hollywood.

Career

I. From soap opera to The Joy Luck Club (1980s–1993)

Wen's career began on American television in the 1980s. From 1988 to 1991 she played Lien Hughes on the daytime soap opera As the World Turns — reportedly the first Asian-American contract actor on a US daytime serial. In 1993 she played June Woo in , adapted from Amy Tan's novel — her feature-film debut and an important step toward wider recognition. That film, centred on the relationships between Chinese-American mothers and daughters, helped establish her among a notable generation of Asian-American actors.