Press Contacts: Donna Williams, 212-560-8030 or [email protected] Donald Lee, 212-560-3005 or [email protected] Debra Falk, 212-560-3013 or [email protected] TCA Press Tour Biographies AMERICAN MASTERS Hollywood Chinese NANCY KWAN, actor Nancy Kwan played a pivotal role in the acceptance of actors of Asian descent in major Hollywood film roles. Producer Ray Stark discovered her at the age of 19 and cast her in the starring role opposite William Holden in the film The World of Suzie Wong. Kwan was nominated as best actress and International Star of Tomorrow by the Hollywood Foreign Press. She followed up with the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical film, Flower Drum Song, and soon became one of Hollywood’s most visible Asian actresses. Kwan subsequently appeared in more than 40 films. Kwan has been a worldwide star since, with numerous film, TV and stage credits. She continues her work as an actress and producer. Over the years, Kwan has received recognition for her work. She has been honored as a Historymaker for Excellence in the Performing Arts by the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles and by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center for her work in theater and cinema. In 2002, Kwan was appointed Hong Kong’s Film ambassador. Kwan recently served as the Jury Chairperson for The Women’s International Film and Television Showcase Film Festival in Los Angeles. BD WONG, actor BD Wong is the only actor ever to have received all five major New York Theater awards for a single role. For his Broadway debut performance in M. Butterfly, he received the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Theater World Award, the Clarence Derwent Award and the Tony Award. Wong is in his ninth season on the top-rated series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, where he appears as Dr. George Huang. Wong gained notice as a cast regular on HBO’s critically acclaimed series Oz, playing the resilient prison priest Father Ray for the show’s five-season run. His other television credits include a starring role in ABC’s All- American Girl and HBO’s telefilm And the Band Played On, as well as guest-starring roles on Welcome to New York, Chicago Hope, The X-Files, Bless This House and Shannon’s Deal and the Hallmark miniseries, Marco Polo. Wong also has appeared in more than 20 feature films, including Jurassic Park, The Freshman, Father of the Bride (1 & 2), Seven Years in Tibet, Executive Decision, The Salton Sea and Stay. Wong also voiced Shang in the Disney animated films Mulan and Mulan II. Wong published his first book, Following Foo: the electronic adventures of The Chestnut Man (Harper Entertainment), which chronicles his son Jackson’s struggle for life after he was born 11 weeks premature. JAMES HONG, actor James Hong studied civil engineering at the University of Southern California, but later became interested in acting. His start came in 1953 on The Groucho Marx Show as a You Bet Your Life contestant. His first motion picture feature role was in Soldier Of Fortune in 1954, starring Clark Gable. Subsequent film credits include minor parts in Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1955) and Flower Drum Song (1961). In 1965, in response to the stereotyped caricatures in Confessions of an Opium Eater (1962), Hong organized the first Chinese- American actors’ protest in Hollywood. He also founded the Los Angeles-based East West Players, which has had thousands of members and students flowing through its doors. A veteran of more than 450 on-camera acting roles, Hong’s notable film credits include Chinatown (1974), Blade Runner (1982), and Big Trouble in Little China (1987). On television, he appeared in Hawaii Five-0 and Kung Fu (1972-1975) and starred as the obtuse maître d’ in the Seinfeld episode “The Chinese Restaurant” (1991). Hong has supplied the voices of Daolon Wong in the Jackie Chan Adventures TV series (2002-2004), Chi Fu in Disney’s Mulan (1998) and Professor Chang in Teen Titans (2004) and now is nominated for best voice in Dreamworks’ Kung Fu Panda as Mr. Ping, father of the Panda, by the Annie Awards. Close to the venerable age of 80, he is preparing to appear in several features and internet series being shot in 2009 and beyond. ARTHUR DONG, filmmaker Arthur Dong and his company, DeepFocus Productions, Inc., produce films that combine the art of the visual medium with an investigation of social issues. His early success includes an Academy Award® nomination for Sewing Woman (1982), a documentary about his mother’s immigration to American from China, and in 1984 being selected a Directing Fellow to attend the American Film Institute’s Center for Advanced Film Studies. He followed-up with Forbidden City, U.S.A. (1989, American Experience), a documentary on Chinese-American nightclubs in 1940s San Francisco, and then produced 13 documentaries for the Los Angeles PBS program on KCET-TV, Life & Times (1991-1992). For PBS’ first national series on gay and lesbian issues, The Question of Equality, Dong directed the premiere episode, Out Rage ’69 (1995). Dong’s other films include a trilogy that examines the challenges of America’s cultural wars over homosexuality, and includes Family Fundamentals (2002, P.O.V.), Licensed to Kill (1997, P.O.V.) and Coming Out Under Fire (1994, PBS). In addition to an Oscar® nomination, Dong has earned a George Foster Peabody Award, three Sundance Film Festival awards, the Berlin Film Festival’s Teddy Award, Asia’s Golden Horse Award and five Emmy nominations. SUSAN LACY, series creator and executive producer Susan Lacy, creator and executive producer of PBS’ American Masters, which has won the Primetime Emmy Award for best non-fiction series five times, has been at public television affiliate Thirteen/WNET New York since 1979. She has overseen production and national broadcast of more than 150 documentary films and has garnered multiple other Primetime Emmy Awards from 40 nominations, including a directorial award for Leonard Bernstein: Reaching for the Note (also a DGA nomination) and a writing award and directorial nomination for Judy Garland: By Myself. Lacy has earned nine Peabody Awards, two Grammys and three Oscar® nominations. She wrote, directed and produced Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind (IDA nominee for Outstanding Documentary), produced the Peabody award-winning Paul Simon: Born at the Right Time, directed and produced Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval, and directed and produced Lena Horne: In Her Own Voice, all for American Masters. Lacy is a member of the DGA, WGA, New York Women in Film & Television and an IDA trustee. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, she holds a B.A. in American Studies from the University of Virginia and an M.A. in American Studies from George Washington University. A graduate teaching fellow and Smithsonian Fellow, Lacy completed a residency at the American Academy in Rome. She received an honorary doctorate from Long Island University in 1994 and was one of the Museum of Television & Radio’s 50 “She Made It” honorees for 2005 and a 2008 Washington, D.C. Women of Vision Awards recipient. .