Ming-Na Wen Biography

Ming-Na Wen (); born November 20, 1963) is a Macau-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 known for voicing Fa Mulan in the Mulan films and the Kingdom Hearts video game series, and as Dr. Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen on the NBC medical drama series ER.

She was a member of the cast of the 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. She is currently a cast member of the fledgling ABC show Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..

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 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 first television role was playing Lien Hughes from 1988 to 1991 on the long-running series As the World Turns.

After starring in the acclaimed 1993 film The Joy Luck Club, she landed the role of Dr. Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen on the NBC drama series ER. She first starred in a recurring role during the 1994-1995 season before returning in 1999 as a series regular, remaining on the show until midway through Season 11 in 2004. Wen also played Chun-Li in Street Fighter and co-starred on the sitcom The Single Guy from 1995 to 1997.

She 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.

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 two 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. From 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 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.

From August to September 2011, she appeared on the Syfy series Eureka as the inquisitive U.S. Senator Wen.

Wen plays Agent Melinda May in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ABC drama, premiered on September 24, 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.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Rain Without Thunder	"Uudie" prisoner
1993	Blind Spot	Mitsuko	Television film
1993	'	Jing-Mei "June" Woo
1994	Terminal Voyage	Han
1994	Vanishing Son II	Mai	Television film
1994	Vanishing Son IV	Mai	Television film
1994	Hong Kong 97	Katie Chun
1994	Street Fighter	Chun-Li Zang
1997	One Night Stand	Mimi Carlyle
1998	Tempting Fate	Ellen Moretti	Television film
1998	Mulan	Fa Mulan	Voice only
1998	12 Bucks	Gorgeous
2001	Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within	Dr. Aki Ross	Voice only
2002	'	Mei-Ling	Voice only
2002	Teddy Bears' Picnic	Katy Woo
2004	Mulan II	Fa Mulan	Direct-to-video; voice only
2005	Perfection	Woman	Short film
2008	Prom Night	Dr. Elisha Crowe
2009	Push	Emily Hu
2010	BoyBand	Judy Roberts
2012	Super Cyclone	Dr. Jenna Sparks	Direct-to-video
2013	April Rain	Hillary

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Mister Rogers' Neighborhood	Royal trumpeter	2 episodes
1988"1991	As the World Turns	Lien Hughes	Role held: February 20, 1988 " May 1991
1994	All-American Girl	Amy	Episode: "Redesigning Women"
1995, 2000"2004	ER	Dr. Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen	Recurring (season 1); main cast (seasons 6"11); 91 episodes
1995"1997	'	Trudy	Main cast
1997	Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child	Lani (voice)	Episode: "Puss in Boots"
1998"1999	Todd McFarlane's Spawn	Jade/Lisa Wu (voice)	5 episodes
2002	I Got You	Kaila	Unsold ABC pilot
2002	Disney's House of Mouse	Mulan (voice)	Episode: "Salute to Sports"
2004	'	Princess Guan Qi "Peggy" Tsu (voice)	Episode: "The Great Egg Heist/The Feud"
2004"2005	'	Detective Ellen Yin (voice)	Main cast (seasons 1"2); 16 episodes
2004	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Li Mei	Episode: "Debt"
2005	Robot Chicken	Mary-Kate Olsen (voice)	Episode: "Kiddie Pool"
2005	Inconceivable	Rachel Lu	Main cast
2006	George Lopez	Professor Tracy Lim	2 episodes
2006	Vanished	Lin Mei	Main cast
2007	American Masters	Narrator	Episode: "Novel Reflections: The American Dream"
2007, 2010	Two and a Half Men	Judge Linda Harris	5 episodes
2008, 2013	Phineas and Ferb	Dr. Hirano (voice)	2 episodes
2008	Private Practice	Kara Wei	Episode: "Let It Go"
2008	Boston Legal	Ming Wang Shu	Episode: "Roe"
2009"2011	Stargate Universe	Camile Wray	Main cast; 31 episodes
2011"2012	Eureka	Senator Michaela Wen	7 episodes
2011	Celebrity Ghost Stories	Herself	Episode: "Keshia Knight Pulliam, Ming-Na, Chi McBride, Mia Tyler"
2012	Adventure Time	Farmworld Finn's mom (voice)	Episode: "Finn the Human"
2013	Nashville	Calista Reeves	Episode: "You Win Again"
2013"present	Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.	Melinda May	Main cast

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Street Fighter: The Movie	Chun-Li
1999	Disney's Story Studio: Mulan	Mulan	Voice only
2006	Kingdom Hearts II	Fa Mulan	Voice only