Gemma Chan
Encyclopedia
Gemma Chan is an English actress and former model
. She is best known for playing Mia Bennett in the BBC's Doctor Who
"The Waters of Mars
" with David Tennant
and Lindsay Duncan
; Soo Lin in Sherlock, the modern day adaptation of Sherlock Holmes
for BBC One
with Benedict Cumberbatch
and Martin Freeman
; and Charlotte in season four of Secret Diary of a Call Girl
.
, England
on 29 November 1982 but was brought up in Kent
in South East England
. She attended Newstead Wood School for Girls
. Her mother is of Scottish-Chinese heritage and her father grew up in Hong Kong
. She went on to study law at the constituent University of Oxford
college Worcester College
. When she graduated, she was offered a job with a leading law firm. Instead, she decided to pursue an acting career, and wound up at the prestigious and notoriously tough Drama Centre London where such actors as Paul Bettany
, Anne-Marie Duff
, Colin Firth
and Pierce Brosnan
trained. Spotted at her showcase by British film producer Damian Jones
(The History Boys
, Kidulthood
, Welcome to Sarajevo
), she then signed to acting agent Nicki van Gelder, who has guided the careers of Samantha Morton
and Helena Bonham Carter
.
, the UK version of Miramax's Project Runway
. She was one of the top three models who made it to the final competition, although her designer did not win the final challenge. Gemma has also been photographed by Rankin
for a campaign for Nivea Visage, having previously worked as a model in order to fund her studies and drama school training, appearing in campaigns for Nokia and Selfridges & Co and numerous magazines including Elle, Cosmopolitan and the Sunday Times Style.
(The Waters of Mars
) with David Tennant
and Lindsay Duncan
, which aired 15 November 2009, playing geologist Mia Bennett. She was recently cast as a new series regular in Secret Diary of a Call Girl
alongside Billie Piper
, the fourth and final series being due to air on ITV2
in the UK and Showtime in the US in early 2011. Her other recent television projects include Sherlock, a contemporary adaptation of Sherlock Holmes
for BBC One
, alongside Benedict Cumberbatch
as Holmes and Martin Freeman
as Dr. Watson which began airing on 25 July 2010 to overwhelmingly positive reviews and work on the 4th series of the BAFTA
and Emmy award-winning British sitcom
The IT Crowd
for Channel 4
. In 2010 she will be seen in the World War II drama Shanghai directed by Mikael Hafstrom
, alongside John Cusack
, Chow Yun-fat
and Gong Li
. She can also be seen in the BAFTA nominated psychological thriller Exam
directed by Stuart Hazeldine
, alongside Jimi Mistry
, Colin Salmon
and Luke Mably
. The film was nominated for the Raindance Award at the 2009 British Independent Film Awards, has been critically acclaimed in Empire Magazine and was released in UK cinemas on 8 January 2010. She was also seen in the 2011 comedy drama Submarine
directed by Richard Ayoade
, alongside Paddy Considine
and Sally Hawkins
. Gemma appeared on stage in the British Premiere of Bertolt Brecht
’s last play Turandot at the Hampstead Theatre
, London, directed by Anthony Clark. A passionate supporter of human rights, she has also made a film for Amnesty International
to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
. She is best known for playing Mia Bennett in the BBC's Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
"The Waters of Mars
The Waters of Mars
"The Waters of Mars" is the second 2009 special of British science fiction television series Doctor Who, broadcast on BBC One on 15 November 2009. It aired on BBC America on 19 December 2009 and was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on 11 January 2010 and in the US on 2 February 2010...
" with David Tennant
David Tennant
David Tennant is a Scottish actor. In addition to his work in theatre, including a widely praised Hamlet, Tennant is best known for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, along with the title role in the 2005 TV serial Casanova and as Barty Crouch, Jr...
and Lindsay Duncan
Lindsay Duncan
Lindsay Vere Duncan, CBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actress. On stage she won two Olivier Awards and a Tony Award for her performance in Les Liaisons dangereuses and Private Lives , and she starred in several plays by Harold Pinter. Her most famous roles on television include:...
; Soo Lin in Sherlock, the modern day adaptation of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
for BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
with Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch is an English film, television, and theatre actor. His most acclaimed roles include Stephen Hawking in the BBC drama Hawking ; William Pitt in the historical film Amazing Grace ; the protagonist Stephen Ezard in the miniseries thriller The Last Enemy ; Paul...
and Martin Freeman
Martin Freeman
Martin John C. Freeman is an English actor. He is known for his roles as John in Love Actually, Tim Canterbury in the BBC's Golden Globe-winning comedy The Office, Arthur Dent in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dr. John Watson in Sherlock and Mr. Madden...
; and Charlotte in season four of Secret Diary of a Call Girl
Secret Diary of a Call Girl
Secret Diary of a Call Girl is a British television drama broadcast on ITV2 from 2007-2011 based on the blog and books by the pseudonymous "Belle de Jour," starring Billie Piper as Belle, a high-class London call girl. The series was written by Lucy Prebble, who is also known as the author of The...
.
Early life
Gemma Chan was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
on 29 November 1982 but was brought up in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
in South East England
South East England
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, designated in 1994 and adopted for statistical purposes in 1999. It consists of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex...
. She attended Newstead Wood School for Girls
Newstead Wood School for Girls
Newstead Wood School for Girls is a selective girls' secondary school in Avebury Road, Orpington, London, England.-Admissions:It is an engineering and languages specialist school. The school has strong links with nearby St Olave's Grammar School. The current head teacher is Elizabeth Allen. The...
. Her mother is of Scottish-Chinese heritage and her father grew up in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. She went on to study law at the constituent University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
college Worcester College
Worcester College, Oxford
Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in the eighteenth century, but its predecessor on the same site had been an institution of learning since the late thirteenth century...
. When she graduated, she was offered a job with a leading law firm. Instead, she decided to pursue an acting career, and wound up at the prestigious and notoriously tough Drama Centre London where such actors as Paul Bettany
Paul Bettany
Paul Bettany is an English actor. He has appeared in a wide variety of films, including A Knight's Tale, A Beautiful Mind, and The Da Vinci Code...
, Anne-Marie Duff
Anne-Marie Duff
Anne-Marie Duff is an English actress best known for playing Fiona Gallagher in Shameless, and Elizabeth I in The Virgin Queen.-Early life:...
, Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
and Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
trained. Spotted at her showcase by British film producer Damian Jones
Damian Jones
Damian Jones is a BAFTA-winning English producer. Damian Jones has produced over twenty feature films including Adulthood, The History Boys, Welcome to Sarajevo, Gridlock'd, Millions, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll , and the forthcoming The Iron Lady ...
(The History Boys
The History Boys (film)
The History Boys is a 2006 British comedy-drama film adapted by Alan Bennett from his play of the same name, which won the 2005 Olivier Award for Best New Play and the 2006 Tony Award for Best Play...
, Kidulthood
Kidulthood
Kidulthood is a 2006 British drama film about the life of several teenagers in Ladbroke Grove and Latimer Road area of inner west London. It was directed by Menhaj Huda and written by Noel Clarke, who also stars in the film and directed the sequel, Adulthood...
, Welcome to Sarajevo
Welcome To Sarajevo
Welcome to Sarajevo is a British war film from 1997. It is directed by Michael Winterbottom. The screenplay is by Frank Cottrell Boyce and is based on the book Natasha's Story by Michael Nicholson.- Synopsis :...
), she then signed to acting agent Nicki van Gelder, who has guided the careers of Samantha Morton
Samantha Morton
Samantha Jane Morton is an English actress and film director. She began her performing career with guest roles in television shows such as Soldier Soldier and Boon before making her film debut in the 1997 drama film This Is the Sea, playing the character of Hazel Stokes...
and Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter is an English actress of film, stage, and television. She made her acting debut in a television adaptation of K. M. Peyton's A Pattern of Roses before winning her first film role as the titular character in Lady Jane...
.
Fashion business
In 2006, Gemma was one of the models in Season 1 of Project CatwalkProject Catwalk (Season 1)
The first season of Project Catwalk was hosted by Elizabeth Hurley and featured 12 fashion designers in a competition finding who was the most talented...
, the UK version of Miramax's Project Runway
Project Runway
Project Runway is an American reality television series on Lifetime Television, previously on the Bravo network, which focuses on fashion design and is hosted by model Heidi Klum. The contestants compete with each other to create the best clothes and are restricted in time, materials and theme...
. She was one of the top three models who made it to the final competition, although her designer did not win the final challenge. Gemma has also been photographed by Rankin
Rankin (photographer)
John Rankin Waddell, working name Rankin, born 1966, is a British portrait and fashion photographer.-Life and career:Waddell was brought up in St Albans, Hertfordshire. At the age of 21, whilst studying accounting at Brighton Polytechnic, he realized that his interests lay elsewhere and dropped...
for a campaign for Nivea Visage, having previously worked as a model in order to fund her studies and drama school training, appearing in campaigns for Nokia and Selfridges & Co and numerous magazines including Elle, Cosmopolitan and the Sunday Times Style.
Acting
Gemma appeared in the Autumn 2009 special of the BBC’s Doctor WhoDoctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
(The Waters of Mars
The Waters of Mars
"The Waters of Mars" is the second 2009 special of British science fiction television series Doctor Who, broadcast on BBC One on 15 November 2009. It aired on BBC America on 19 December 2009 and was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on 11 January 2010 and in the US on 2 February 2010...
) with David Tennant
David Tennant
David Tennant is a Scottish actor. In addition to his work in theatre, including a widely praised Hamlet, Tennant is best known for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, along with the title role in the 2005 TV serial Casanova and as Barty Crouch, Jr...
and Lindsay Duncan
Lindsay Duncan
Lindsay Vere Duncan, CBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actress. On stage she won two Olivier Awards and a Tony Award for her performance in Les Liaisons dangereuses and Private Lives , and she starred in several plays by Harold Pinter. Her most famous roles on television include:...
, which aired 15 November 2009, playing geologist Mia Bennett. She was recently cast as a new series regular in Secret Diary of a Call Girl
Secret Diary of a Call Girl
Secret Diary of a Call Girl is a British television drama broadcast on ITV2 from 2007-2011 based on the blog and books by the pseudonymous "Belle de Jour," starring Billie Piper as Belle, a high-class London call girl. The series was written by Lucy Prebble, who is also known as the author of The...
alongside Billie Piper
Billie Piper
Billie Paul Piper is an English singer and actress.She began her career in the late 1990s as a pop singer and then switched to acting. She started in acting and dancing and was talent spotted at the Sylvia Young stage school by Smash Hits magazine who wanted a "face" for their magazine...
, the fourth and final series being due to air on ITV2
ITV2
ITV2 is a 24 hour, free-to-air entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998, and is available on digital television via satellite, cable, IPTV and terrestrial platforms. The channel has the...
in the UK and Showtime in the US in early 2011. Her other recent television projects include Sherlock, a contemporary adaptation of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
for BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
, alongside Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch is an English film, television, and theatre actor. His most acclaimed roles include Stephen Hawking in the BBC drama Hawking ; William Pitt in the historical film Amazing Grace ; the protagonist Stephen Ezard in the miniseries thriller The Last Enemy ; Paul...
as Holmes and Martin Freeman
Martin Freeman
Martin John C. Freeman is an English actor. He is known for his roles as John in Love Actually, Tim Canterbury in the BBC's Golden Globe-winning comedy The Office, Arthur Dent in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dr. John Watson in Sherlock and Mr. Madden...
as Dr. Watson which began airing on 25 July 2010 to overwhelmingly positive reviews and work on the 4th series of the BAFTA
British Academy Television Awards
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...
and Emmy award-winning British sitcom
British sitcom
A British sitcom tends, as it does in most other countries, to be based on a family, workplace or other institution, where the same group of contrasting characters is brought together in each episode. Unlike American sitcoms, where twenty or more episodes in a season is the norm, British sitcoms...
The IT Crowd
The IT Crowd
The IT Crowd is a British sitcom by Channel 4, written by Graham Linehan, produced by Ash Atalla and starring Chris O'Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson and Matt Berry...
for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
. In 2010 she will be seen in the World War II drama Shanghai directed by Mikael Hafstrom
Mikael Håfström
Jan Mikael Håfström , known as Mikael Håfström, is a Swedish screenwriter and director.-Biography:Håfström directed the exorcism thriller The Rite, which is based on a novel from Matt Baglio.- Filmography :...
, alongside John Cusack
John Cusack
John Paul Cusack is an American film actor and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Point Blank, The Thin Red Line, Stand by Me, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, Serendipity, Runaway Jury, The Ice Harvest,...
, Chow Yun-fat
Chow Yun-Fat
Chow Yun-fat, SBS is an actor from Hong Kong. He is best known in Asia for his collaboration with filmmaker John Woo in heroic bloodshed genre films A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard Boiled; and to the West for his role as Li Mu-bai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon...
and Gong Li
Gong Li
Gong Li is a Chinese film actress. Gong first came into international prominence through close collaboration with Chinese director Zhang Yimou and is credited with helping to bring Chinese cinema to Europe and the United States....
. She can also be seen in the BAFTA nominated psychological thriller Exam
Exam (film)
Exam is a British thriller film written by Simon Garrity and Stuart Hazeldine, directed by Stuart Hazeldine and starring Colin Salmon, Jimi Mistry, Luke Mably, Chuk Iwuji, and Nathalie Cox.- Cast :* Luke Mably as White* Adar Beck as Dark...
directed by Stuart Hazeldine
Stuart Hazeldine
Stuart Hazeldine is a British screenwriter, film producer and director. He lives in London.-Biography:...
, alongside Jimi Mistry
Jimi Mistry
-Early life:Mistry, was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England to an Indian Hindu father and an Irish Roman Catholic mother. He was brought up a Roman Catholic and attended St. James' Catholic High in Cheadle Hulme before his family moved to Cardiff where he attended Radyr Comprehensive School...
, Colin Salmon
Colin Salmon
Colin Salmon is a British actor best known for playing the character Charles Robinson in three James Bond films.-Personal life:...
and Luke Mably
Luke Mably
Luke Mably is an English actor, best known for playing Scott Lucas in Sky One's Dream Team, Prince Edvard in The Prince and Me and White in the 2009 thriller Exam. He attended the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama.-Movie career:Mably portrayed White in the thriller Exam under the direction...
. The film was nominated for the Raindance Award at the 2009 British Independent Film Awards, has been critically acclaimed in Empire Magazine and was released in UK cinemas on 8 January 2010. She was also seen in the 2011 comedy drama Submarine
Submarine (2010 film)
Submarine is a 2010 coming-of-age comedy-drama film adapted from the 2008 novel of the same name by Joe Dunthorne. The film was written and directed by Richard Ayoade and stars Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, Sally Hawkins, Noah Taylor and Paddy Considine...
directed by Richard Ayoade
Richard Ayoade
Richard Ellef Ayoade is a British comedian, actor, writer and director best known for his role as Maurice Moss in The IT Crowd.Ayoade was born an only child to a Norwegian mother, Dagny , and a Nigerian father, Layide Ade Laditi Ayoade. Ayoade studied at St...
, alongside Paddy Considine
Paddy Considine
Patrick George "Paddy" Considine is an English actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, musician and frequent collaborator with Shane Meadows. Best known to audiences for his portrayals of dark, troubled, morally or mentally ambiguous characters...
and Sally Hawkins
Sally Hawkins
Sally Cecilia Hawkins is an English actress. Her performance as Poppy in the 2008 film Happy-Go-Lucky won her several international awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy...
. Gemma appeared on stage in the British Premiere of Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
’s last play Turandot at the Hampstead Theatre
Hampstead Theatre
Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in the vicinity of Swiss Cottage and Belsize Park, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. In 2009 it celebrates its 50 year anniversary.The original theatre was...
, London, directed by Anthony Clark. A passionate supporter of human rights, she has also made a film for Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Personal life
Gemma Chan currently works in England. She is classically trained on the violin and piano.Filmography
| Film | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
| 2006 | When Evil Calls | Molly Nelson | |
| 2009 | Exam Exam (film) Exam is a British thriller film written by Simon Garrity and Stuart Hazeldine, directed by Stuart Hazeldine and starring Colin Salmon, Jimi Mistry, Luke Mably, Chuk Iwuji, and Nathalie Cox.- Cast :* Luke Mably as White* Adar Beck as Dark... |
Chinese Girl | |
| 2010 | Pimp | Bo | |
| Shanghai | Shin Shin | ||
| Submarine Submarine (2010 film) Submarine is a 2010 coming-of-age comedy-drama film adapted from the 2008 novel of the same name by Joe Dunthorne. The film was written and directed by Richard Ayoade and stars Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, Sally Hawkins, Noah Taylor and Paddy Considine... |
Kim-Lin | ||
| Television | |||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2006 | Project Catwalk Project Catwalk For the Dutch version of Project Catwalk, see Project Catwalk Project Catwalk is a competitive reality television series focusing on fashion design. In the UK it is shown on the digital station Sky One. The show follows a group of fashion designers as they compete against each other to avoid being... |
Herself | 10 episodes (was finalist) |
| 2009 | Doctor Who Doctor Who Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior... |
Mia Bennett | 1 Episode (Autumn 2009 Special The Waters of Mars The Waters of Mars "The Waters of Mars" is the second 2009 special of British science fiction television series Doctor Who, broadcast on BBC One on 15 November 2009. It aired on BBC America on 19 December 2009 and was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on 11 January 2010 and in the US on 2 February 2010... ) |
| 2010 | The IT Crowd The IT Crowd The IT Crowd is a British sitcom by Channel 4, written by Graham Linehan, produced by Ash Atalla and starring Chris O'Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson and Matt Berry... |
Ivana / Female Sulu | 2 Episodes ("The Final Countdown", "Reynholm vs. Reynholm") |
| Sherlock | Soo Lin | 1 Episode ("The Blind Banker") | |
| 2011 | Secret Diary of a Call Girl Secret Diary of a Call Girl Secret Diary of a Call Girl is a British television drama broadcast on ITV2 from 2007-2011 based on the blog and books by the pseudonymous "Belle de Jour," starring Billie Piper as Belle, a high-class London call girl. The series was written by Lucy Prebble, who is also known as the author of The... |
Charlotte (Regular) | |
| Fresh Meat | Ruth (Recurring) | ||