China’s “Elizabeth Taylor” Joan Chen might appear familiar to you. That is because the award winning actress was the “highly sexed, opium-addicted empress” in Bernardo Bertolucci’s, The Last Emperor.

Joan Chen studied acting at the Shangai Film Studio in 1975 and by 1977 she made her debut on China’s big screens. Her rise to populatity in China came when she played a deaf mute girl cured by acupuncture in the movie “Little Flower.” Since then, she has starred in numerous roles and won many awards within and outside China including: Golden Horse Awards, Asian Film Awards, AFI Award, Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards, Hong Kong Film Critics Society Award and the Hundred Flowers Awards.

Joan Chen is a graduate of Cal State Northridge with a degree in Film production. She lives in San Francisco with her family.