Tina Chen

Tina Chen (Chinese: 陳婷; pinyin: Chén Tíng; born November 2, 1943) is a Chinese-American actress, director, and producer whose work spans stage, film, and television. Born in Chongqing, she lived in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan before settling in the United States. Her career has earned her nominations for the Golden Globe, Emmy, and Drama Desk awards.

Chen's film work includes Alice's Restaurant (1969), The Hawaiians (1970), Three Days of the Condor (1975), and Face (2002), as well as the independent feature Almost Perfect (2011) and the short film The Potential Wives of Norman Mao (2011). Her performance in The Hawaiians brought her a Golden Globe nomination for supporting actress. On television, she received an Emmy nomination for her supporting role in the CBS Playhouse special The Final War of Olly Winter. She has also appeared in episodic television across numerous series, including Kung Fu, The Streets of San Francisco, Harry O, Airwolf, and Central Park West, among others.

Chen made her Broadway appearance in 1972 in The Love Suicide at Schofield Barracks. Her stage work extends across a wide range of theatrical productions, including The Shanghai Gesture, Family Devotions by David Henry Hwang, The Year of the Dragon by Frank Chin, Madame de Sade, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Kitchen God's Wife, among many others.

Beyond performing, Chen has directed productions at New York theaters including Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, where she directed Fairy Bones in 1992, a production that marked Lucy Liu's stage debut. Her other directing credits include Tea by Velina Hasu Houston and Kokoro/True Heart, also by Houston. As a producer, Chen co-produced the Broadway production of Passion Play, the Peter Nichols play starring Frank Langella, and served on the producing team for The Rink, the Terrence McNally musical starring Chita Rivera and Liza Minnelli, which earned her a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Production of a Musical.

Outside of her performing career, Chen worked for more than a decade as a researcher in the serology and genetics department at the New York Blood Center. She also co-founded Food Liberation, among the first health food stores in New York City. Chen developed a lecture titled "Heroes of History: Legacy of My Chinese Family," which features 158 biographical photographs documenting three generations of her mother's family and their contributions to Chinese history. The lecture has been presented at New York City's China Institute, Urban Stages, and the Mirror Repertory Co. Her recognition includes the Urban Stages 25th Anniversary Award for Artistic Brilliance, the Women's Project's Women of Achievement Award, the Girl Scouts Woman of Distinction Award, the Anna May Wong Award of Excellence, and Pan Asian Repertory Theatre's Legacy Award.