Ke Huy Quan

Ke Huy Quan (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Langx;<ref name=SVform/>Template:Efn born 1970<ref name="PodcastBirthYear">Template:Cite podcast</ref> or 1971<ref name="BBCBirthYear">Template:Cite news</ref>), also known as Jonathan Ke Quan, is an American actor. His accolades include an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Saturn Award, in addition to a BAFTA nomination.

Born in Vietnam, Quan immigrated to the United States as a child. As a child actor, he rose to fame playing Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and Data in The Goonies (1985). Following a few roles as a young adult in the 1990s, he took a 19-year acting hiatus, during which he worked as a stunt choreographer and assistant director.

Quan returned to acting with the family adventure film Finding ʻOhana (2021), followed by the critically acclaimed Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), a performance that won him various accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He is the first Vietnam-born actor to win an Academy Award. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2023.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He has since starred in the second season of the Disney+ series Loki in 2023 and in the upcoming Disney film Zootopia 2.

Early life

Quan Kế Huy was born in 1970<ref name="PodcastBirthYear" /> or 1971,<ref name="BBCBirthYear" /> in Saigon, South Vietnam,<ref name="BBCBirthYear" /> into a family of Chinese descent, with eight siblings.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Three years after the end of the Vietnam war in 1975, Quan and his family fled from Vietnam.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He, along with his father and five siblings, went to Hong Kong, while Quan's mother and three other siblings went to Malaysia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After staying at a refugee camp in Hong Kong, Quan's entire family was admitted to the United States as part of the Refugee Admissions Program in 1979.<ref name="Lee-2022">Template:Cite web</ref> In the U.S., Quan grew up in California, where he attended the Mount Gleason Junior High School in Sunland-Tujunga, Los Angeles and Alhambra High School in Alhambra.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Career

1984–1999: Early career

Quan became a child actor at age 13, starring as Harrison Ford's 12-year-old sidekick Short Round in the Steven Spielberg film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The casting director auditioned a number of children at Castelar Elementary School, including Quan's younger brother.<ref name="Ebiri-2022">Template:Cite web</ref> He described the role as "one of the happiest times of my life".<ref name="Lee-2022" /> For his performance, he was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1985, Quan co-starred in The Goonies as a member of the eponymous group of children, the inventor Richard "Data" Wang. He played a pickpocket orphan in the 1986 Taiwanese movie It Takes a Thief. In 1987, he appeared in the Japanese movie Passengers (Template:Ill) with the Japanese idol singer Honda Minako. He played Sam on the short-lived TV series Together We Stand (1986–1987) and played Jasper Kwong in the sitcom Head of the Class from 1990 to 1991. In 1991, he starred in the movie Breathing Fire, and had a small role in Encino Man the following year. He played the starring role in the 1993 Mandarin-language Taiwan TV show Eunuch & Carpenter, which ran for forty episodes.<ref name="vf221206">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="ETToday" /> He also starred in the 1996 Hong Kong-Vietnam co-production Red Pirate.

He studied Taekwondo under Philip Tan on the set of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and later trained under Tao-liang Tan.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

2000–2020: Acting sabbatical and other work

As an adult, Quan found it difficult to find acting work in the United States. He eventually quit acting and enrolled in the film program at University of Southern California.<ref name="Ito-2022">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Collis-2022">Template:Cite web</ref> During his time there, he edited a comedy horror short film titled Voodoo alongside his friend and fellow student Gregg Bishop, who directed the film.<ref name="Collis-2022" /> Voodoo won the Audience Award at the 2000 Slamdance Film Festival, and continues to be shown to USC students to this day.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After graduating from USC, Quan was asked by Corey Yuen to go to Toronto, Ontario, to help choreograph fighting sequences in X-Men (2000).<ref name="Ito-2022" /><ref name="Ebiri-2022" /> For the next decade, he worked behind the scenes on various productions in Asia and the United States.<ref name="Ebiri-2022" /> He again helped Yuen as a stunt choreographer for The One (2001).<ref name="nowmagazine.co.uk">Template:Cite web</ref> Quan worked as assistant director on Wong Kar-wai's 2046 (2004).<ref name="Ebiri-2022" />

2021–present: Return to acting

Sean Astin, Quan, and Corey Feldman at The Goonies panel, 2019 Fan Expo Toronto

Quan was inspired to return to acting following the success of Crazy Rich Asians in 2018.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2019, he was cast in a supporting role in the Netflix film Finding ʻOhana, released in 2021.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Quan approached director Jude Weng after overhearing her describing the film as The Goonies meets Indiana Jones, in both of which Quan had appeared.<ref name="Collis-2022"/> That same year, the filmmaking duo Daniels began casting for their film Everything Everywhere All at Once. They struggled to cast an actor in the role of Waymond Wang, a character who would appear in three different incarnations of the film. Co-director Daniel Kwan stumbled upon Quan on Twitter. Two weeks after getting a talent agent, Quan received a call to audition for the film.<ref name="Collis-2022" /> In January 2020, Quan was announced as a cast member of Everything Everywhere All at Once.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The film was released in March 2022 to overwhelming acclaim, becoming the most-awarded film of all time,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> with Quan's performance receiving near unanimous praise and media attention, eventually leading to him winning a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Academy Award for his role. The Screen Actors Guild Award win made him the first Asian man to win any individual category at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, with his win of the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role. He was the first Vietnamese-American actor to be nominated in that category.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Quan is one of two actors of Asian descent to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the other being Haing S. Ngor in 1985,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and is the first Vietnamese-born actor to win an Academy Award.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

President Joe Biden and Quan at the White House in 2023

In February 2022, it was announced that he had joined the cast of the TV adaptation of American Born Chinese for Disney+, which was subsequently released in May 2023.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In September 2022, Quan was announced to have joined the cast for the second season of the Marvel Cinematic Universe series Loki for Disney+, which premiered on October 6, 2023. For his performance he received a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series nomination.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In June 2023, it was announced that he had been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as an actor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He had a voice role in Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024).<ref name="casting:independent">Template:Cite web</ref> Quan has later then starred in a leading role in Love Hurts (2025), and starred in The Electric State, along side Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt. He will be a voice in Zootopia 2 as a new character, Gary the Snake.

Personal life

Quan is of Han Chinese ancestry from the Hoa ethnic minority group of Vietnam. He speaks English, Cantonese, and Mandarin.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref> Quan is married to Echo Quan,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> who served as the on-set translator for Everything Everywhere All at Once,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and resides in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.<ref name="Collis-2022"/><ref name="Ito-2022"/> Quan holds a second-degree black belt in taekwondo; he started taking classes after learning from a taekwondo instructor for his role in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.<ref name="Collis-2022" /> He remains close friends with his Goonies co-star Jeff Cohen, who is also Quan's entertainment lawyer and helped Quan negotiate his contract to star in Everything Everywhere All at Once.<ref name="Ebiri-2022" />

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Template:Refh
1984	Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom	Short Round
1985	The Goonies	Richard "Data" Wang
1986	It Takes a Thief	Little Guan
1987	Passenger	Rick
1991	Breathing Fire	Charlie Moore
1992	Encino Man	Kim
1996	Red Pirate	Kwan Chia Chiang
2002	Second Time Around	Sing Wong
2021	Finding ʻOhana	George Phan
2022	Everything Everywhere All at Once	Waymond Wang
2024	Kung Fu Panda 4	Han (voice)		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2025	Love Hurts	Marvin Gable		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	The Electric State	Dr. Clark Amherst / P.C. (voice)
	scope="row" Template:Pending film	Gary De'Snake (voice)	In-production	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Other credits

Year	Title	Role	Template:Refh
2000	X-Men	Assistant fight choreographer, translator
2001	The One	Assistant action choreography director
2004	2046	Assistant director

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Template:Refh
1986–1987	Together We Stand	Sam Randall	19 episodes
1990–1991	Head of the Class	Jasper Kwong	Main cast (seasons 4–5)
1991	Tales from the Crypt	Josh	Episode: "Undertaking Palor"
1993	Eunuch & Carpenter	Ba Dajia	Main role; 40 episodes
2023	American Born Chinese	Jamie Yao / Freddy Wong	Main role	<ref name="Feb22">Template:Cite web</ref>
	Loki	Ouroboros "OB" / A.D. Doug	Season 2; Main role
2025	The White Lotus	Kenneth "Kenny" Nguyen	Episode: "Special Treatments"; voice only, uncredited	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Accolades

Template:Main In 2023, Quan won a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actor, for his role in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was the first Asian man to win any individual category at the Screen Actors Guild Awards for the same role, as well as the first Vietnamese-American actor to be nominated in the supporting category.

In 2023, Quan was an honoree of the Carnegie Corporation of New York's Great Immigrant Award.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• Asian Americans in arts and entertainment
• List of Academy Award winners and nominees of Asian descent

Bibliography

• Holmstrom, John. The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995. Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, p. 387.

External links

• Template:IMDb name
• Template:Instagram