Lauren Tom

Lauren Tom is an American actress born on August 4, 1961, in Highland Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. The daughter of Nancy (née Dare) and Chan Tom, Jr., she grew up alongside her brother Chip in a largely Jewish neighborhood. Her parents were Chicago-born, and their grandparents had emigrated from Kaiping, Guangdong, China.

Tom's professional career began in the theater. At seventeen, she joined a touring company of A Chorus Line, and within a year she had been cast in the Broadway production, playing the role of Connie. Her stage work between 1975 and 1984 also included Broadway productions of Hurlyburly and Doonesbury, the latter marking the beginning of her long association with the character Honey Huan, whom she has periodically voiced in Doonesbury-related media, including a series of animated shorts tied to the 2000 U.S. presidential election. Her Off-Broadway work earned her an Obie Award. She also appeared at Chicago's Goodman Theater in a production of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore.

Tom's film career includes both supporting and lead roles. She had a key part in the 1984 film Nothing Lasts Forever and went on to appear in Wall Street, See No Evil Hear No Evil, and Blue Steel. A supporting role as a waitress in Cadillac Man, starring Robin Williams and Tim Robbins, led to an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Her most prominent film role came in 1993, when she played a lead in The Joy Luck Club. She subsequently appeared in When a Man Loves a Woman, North, Bad Santa (2003), and In Good Company (2004).

On television, Tom's first role was Miko Wakamatsu on The Facts of Life. She went on to appear in numerous series, including thirtysomething, Quantum Leap, Chicago Hope, Homicide: Life on the Street, The Nanny, Grey's Anatomy, The Closer, and The Middle. She was a recurring presence on the NBC sitcom Friends during its second season in 1995–96, playing Julie, and appeared on Grace Under Fire from 1997 to 1998 and Men in Trees from 2006 to 2008. From 2012 to 2014, she appeared in the eighth and ninth seasons of Supernatural as Linda Tran, mother of the prophet Kevin Tran. She joined the cast of the Disney Channel series Andi Mack in 2017, remaining with the show through 2019, and appeared in the second season of the Amazon Prime drama Goliath in 2018.

Since the mid-1990s, Tom has worked extensively in voice acting. She began with Angela Chen on Superman: The Animated Series, then voiced Dana Tan on Batman Beyond. She became widely recognized for voicing Minh and Connie Souphanousinphone on King of the Hill and Amy and Inez Wong on Futurama, a role she reprised in the four Futurama television films: Bender's Big Score, The Beast with a Billion Backs, Bender's Game, and Into the Wild Green Yonder. Additional recurring animated roles include Numbuh 3 on Codename: Kids Next Door, Jinx and Gizmo on Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go!, Joo Dee on Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Mrs. Maybank and Dr. Jamanpour on Hamster and Gretel. She voiced Li Li Stormstout in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria and provided voices in animated films including Mulan II, Kung Fu Panda 2, and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.

Tom was previously married to Glenn Lau-Kee. In October 1999, she married actor Curt Kaplan, with whom she has two sons.