Arden Cho

Arden Lim Cho, born August 16, 1985, in Amarillo, Texas, is an American actress, singer, and model who made her Broadway debut in 2024 in Maybe Happy Ending. Raised in San Antonio and Plano, Texas, before attending high school in Apple Valley, Minnesota, Cho grew up as the child of Korean immigrant parents in areas with few ethnic minorities, an experience she described in a 2014 interview as frequently making her feel like an outsider. She was bullied during her childhood and was hospitalized twice following physical attacks. She later enrolled at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign intending to pursue a career in law, but drama classes taken there shifted her focus toward acting. The university also deepened her engagement with Asian American culture.

After graduating, Cho spent a summer on a medical missionary trip in Kenya before relocating to Los Angeles to pursue acting. Her first agent signed her based on a resume of musical and physical talents that included ballet, cello, and piano, despite her having no screen credits at the time. Her earliest roles included the grown-up lead of Hyori in the 2008 short film My First Crush, directed by Rocky Jo, and a 2011 appearance as Pru in a season one episode of the ABC Family series Pretty Little Liars. That same year she appeared in the monster film Mega Python vs. Gatoroid, directed by Mary Lambert.

Cho gained wider recognition beginning in 2014 when she joined the MTV series Teen Wolf as Kira Yukimura, entering as a recurring character in the third season before being elevated to a main cast role in the fourth. She departed the series ahead of its sixth season, announcing her exit in an April 2016 YouTube video posted before a speaking engagement at the University of Illinois at Chicago for Asian American Awareness Month. In 2017, she took on a recurring role in season three of Chicago Med as Dr. Ethan Choi's sister.

Beginning in 2022, Cho appeared in several Netflix productions. She starred as Ingrid Yun, the lead character in the legal drama series Partner Track, which ran for one season before being cancelled. She later described the cancellation as dispiriting, saying it led her to step away from the industry. She subsequently appeared as June in the 2024 live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, after which she took a hiatus of approximately a year and a half that included an extended period of travel. She returned to work to voice Rumi in the Sony Pictures Animation film KPop Demon Hunters, a Netflix animated musical released in 2025, initially intending it to be her final project. The film became Netflix's most-watched animated film of all time by July 2025 and eventually surpassed Red Notice to become Netflix's most-watched film ever, reaching 236 million views by August 2025. Cho received the Annie Award for her performance as Rumi.

Cho's modeling career began with her winning the 2004 Miss Korea Chicago competition, which brought her to the Miss Korea Pageant in Seoul. She modeled for Nike Japan in 2008 and for both Reebok Korea and Clinique in 2010, with the Clinique campaign launching in Asia in mid-November of that year. Her modeling work has also included campaigns for Apple and Alexander McQueen, and she has appeared in Vogue, Purple Fashion, and Nylon Magazine. She was at one point in discussions for a television project in Korea but withdrew due to requirements involving weight loss and plastic surgery.

As a musician, Cho released her first single, "I'm Just a Girl," on February 25, 2011, for which she served as co-writer, composer, and singer alongside co-writer and producer Ed Huang. She had plans to tour her debut EP My True Happy in 2013 before her Teen Wolf casting intervened. She released the single "Simply" in September 2019. In July 2025, she collaborated with actor and singer Cha Eun-woo on an acoustic cover of "Free" from KPop Demon Hunters. On YouTube, Cho has maintained her personal channel ardenBcho, which features vlogs, song covers, and original music videos across more than 300 videos, accumulating over 531,000 subscribers as of May 2025. She previously co-ran the joint channel "Artichoke and Peachies" with Grace Su, which has since been shut down, and appeared in the web series KTown Cowboys. In 2010, she and actor Shane Yoon served as MCs for the Korean music group JYJ's United States tour.

Outside of entertainment, Cho has been an active poker player since 2002. She competed in the 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event, finishing 662nd and earning $21,750. In January 2024, she placed second in the PGT Championship $1,000,000 freeroll, winning $200,000. On February 6, 2019, she was announced as CEO of Leonard & Church, a New York City-based watch company that closed in 2020. Cho holds a black belt in taekwondo and trained with her father, who is a grandmaster. In April 2021, she publicly described an incident in which a man directed slurs at her and threatened her life while she was walking her dog, connecting the experience to the broader rise in anti-Asian hate crimes. She announced her engagement and wedding plans to People magazine in April 2025.