Hong Chau is an American actress known for her appearance in the US film Downsizing (2017) as Vietnamese amputee and political activist Ngoc Lan Tran. For her performance, she was nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role, and several other awards for best supporting actress. Before Downsizing, she appeared in the US television series Treme (2010-2013) and the US film Inherent Vice (2014). In 2018, she appeared as a guest star in several TV series. Chau was born to Vietnamese parents who lived in a refugee camp in Thailand after fleeing Vietnam in the late 1970s. A Vietnamese Catholic church in New Orleans, Louisiana arranged for a family to sponsor Chau and her family. After growing up in New Orleans, Chau majored in film studies at Boston University and pursued an acting career.