Early life

Her parents fled Suzhou during the Cultural Revolution and moved to Portuguese Macau during the 1960s. Wen was born on Wednesday, November 20, 1963, on Coloane and lived in Hong Kong with her mother, Lin Chan, who worked as a nurse, and her older brother, Jonathan. She later moved to the United States as a child with her mother, brother, and stepfather Soo Lim Yee, first to Harlem, New York, where her younger brother, Leong, was born, and then to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Wen attended high school in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. During her teen years she worked at her stepfather's family's restaurant called Chinatown Inn in downtown Pittsburgh's Chinatown, which her family still runs today.

She enrolled in Carnegie Mellon University where she graduated with high honors and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre.

Career

Wen's first television role was in the children's television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 1985. From 1988 to 1991, she played Lien Hughes on the soap opera As the World Turns.

After starring in the acclaimed 1993 film The Joy Luck Club, she landed the role of Dr. Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen on the NBC drama series ER. She first starred in a recurring role during the 1994-1995 season before returning in 1999 as a series regular, remaining on the show until midway through Season 11 in 2004. Wen also played Chun-Li in Street Fighter and co-starred on the sitcom The Single Guy from 1995 to 1997.

She provided the voice for the title character in Disney's 1998 animated movie Mulan, its direct-to-video sequel, Mulan II, and the video game Kingdom Hearts II, subsequently winning an Annie Award. She also voiced Aki Ross in the computer animated film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and Detective Ellen Yin in the animated series The Batman. She was also the voice actress for Jade, a minor character in the HBO animated series Spawn.

In 2004, she took part in a Hollywood Home Game on the World Poker Tour, and won. In fall 2005, she starred on the NBC drama series Inconceivable as the lead character, Rachel Lu. However, the series was canceled after only two episodes. Her next TV role was an FBI agent in the Fox kidnap drama series Vanished, which premiered in the fall of 2006 then was canceled roughly three months later. She also has played a small role as a college professor in the comedy series George Lopez.

On October 8 through October 29, 2007, Wen (billed as Ming Wen) appeared in a four-episode arc of CBS' Two and a Half Men playing Charlie Sheen's love interest, a judge closer to his own age. In November 2008, she guest-starred on two ABC series: Private Practice and Boston Legal. From December 5-6, 2008, Wen starred in a benefit production of the musical Grease with "Stuttering" John Melendez at the Class Act Theatre.

She was cast as a regular in the Stargate Universe television series as political attaché Camile Wray from October 2009 to May 2011. Wen made an appearance in "Disney Through the Decades", a short documentary about the history of the Walt Disney Company through to the present, as the hostess of the 1990s section.

Wen appeared on the Syfy series Eureka as the inquisitive U.S. Senator Michaela Wen, beginning in Season Four in 2011 and serving as a major villain in the fifth and final season in 2012.

Wen plays Agent Melinda May in the ABC action drama series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which premiered on September 24, 2013.

In August 2014, Wen reprised her role as Mulan for the first time since Mulan II in the Disney Channel show Sofia the First. Her daughter Michaela Zee has a recurring role on the show as Princess Jun.

Personal life

From 1985 to 1989 Wen was in a relationship with Australian actor Brett Hinch and juggled her commitments between the USA and Australia. In 1990, Wen married American film writer Kirk Aanes. They divorced in 1993. On June 16, 1995, Wen married her second husband, Eric Michael Zee. Together they have two children, a daughter, Michaela Kitlin, born on November 21, 2000, and a son, Cooper Dominic Zee, born on October 12, 2005. As of 2007, Wen and her family live in Calabasas, California. Michaela followed her mother's footsteps in voice-acting, and voices Princess Jun in the Disney Channel show Sofia The First.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Rain Without Thunder	"Uudie" prisoner
1993	Joy Luck Club, TheThe Joy Luck Club	Jing-Mei "June" Woo
1994	Terminal Voyage	Han
1994	Hong Kong 97	Katie Chun
1994	Street Fighter	Chun-Li Zang
1997	One Night Stand	Mimi Carlyle
1998	Mulan	Fa Mulan	Voice
1998	12 Bucks	Gorgeous
2001	Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within	Dr. Aki Ross	Voice
2002	Ribbon of Dreams, AA Ribbon of Dreams	Mei-Ling	Voice
2002	Teddy Bears' Picnic	Katy Woo
2005	Mulan II	Mulan	Voice; direct-to-video
2005	Perfection	Woman	Short film
2008	Prom Night	Dr. Elisha Crowe
2009	Push	Emily Hu
2010	BoyBand	Judy Roberts
2012	Super Cyclone	Dr. Jenna Sparks	Direct-to-video
2013	April Rain	Hillary
2016	The Darkness	Wendy

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Mister Rogers' Neighborhood	Royal trumpeter	2 episodes
1988-1991	As the World Turns	Lien Hughes	Role held: February 20, 1988 - May 1991
1993	Blind Spot	Mitsuko	TV Movie
1994	All-American Girl	Amy	Episode: "Redesigning Women"
1994	Vanishing Son II	Mai	TV Movie
1994	Vanishing Son IV	Mai	TV Movie
1995, 2000-2004	ER	Dr. Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen	Recurring (season 1); main cast (seasons 6-11); 91 episodes
1995-1997	Single Guy, TheThe Single Guy	Trudy	Main cast
1997	Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child	Lani (voice)	Episode: "Puss in Boots"
1998	Tempting Fate	Ellen Moretti	TV Movie
1998-1999	Todd McFarlane's Spawn	Jade/Lisa Wu (voice)	5 episodes
2002	I Got You	Kaila	Unsold ABC pilot
2002	Disney's House of Mouse	Fa Mulan (voice)	Episode: "Salute to Sports"
2004	Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, TheThe Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius	Princess Guan Qi "Peggy" Tsu (voice)	Episode: "The Great Egg Heist/The Feud"
2004-2005	Batman, TheThe Batman	Detective Ellen Yin (voice)	Main cast (seasons 1-2); 16 episodes
2004	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Li Mei	Episode: "Debt"
2005	Robot Chicken	Mary-Kate Olsen (voice)	Episode: "Kiddie Pool"
2005	Inconceivable	Rachel Lu	Main cast
2006	George Lopez	Professor Tracy Lim	2 episodes
2006	Vanished	Lin Mei	Main cast
2007	American Masters	Narrator	Episode: "Novel Reflections: The American Dream"
2007, 2010	Two and a Half Men	Judge Linda Harris	5 episodes
2008, 2013	Phineas and Ferb	Dr. Hirano (voice)	2 episodes
2008	Private Practice	Kara Wei	Episode: "Let It Go"
2008	Boston Legal	Ming Wang Shu	Episode: "Roe"
2009-2011	Stargate Universe	Camile Wray	Main cast; 31 episodes
2011-2012	Eureka	Senator Michaela Wen	7 episodes
2011	Celebrity Ghost Stories	Herself	Episode: "Keshia Knight Pulliam, Ming-Na, Chi McBride, Mia Tyler"
2012	Adventure Time	Farmworld Finn's mom (voice)	2 episodes
2013	Nashville	Calista Reeves	Episode: "You Win Again"
2013-present	Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.	Agent Melinda May Kara Palamas / Agent 33	Main cast Only in season 2 as Kara Palamas / Agent 33
2014	Sofia the First	Fa Mulan (voice)	Episode: "Princesses to the Rescue"

Web series

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2015	Parallel Man: Infinite Pursuit	Major Mackenzie Cartwright	Voice role

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Street Fighter: The Movie	Chun-Li
1999	Disney's Story Studio: Mulan	Fa Mulan	Voice
2005	Disney's Story Studio: Mulan II	Fa Mulan	Voice
2006	Kingdom Hearts II	Fa Mulan	Voice
2015	Disney Infinity 3.0	Fa Mulan	Voice

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
1998	Annie Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Feature Production	Mulan	Won
1999	Online Film & Television Association Award	Best Family Actress		Won
		Best Voice-Over Performer		Nominated
2001	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series	ER	Nominated
2014	People's Choice Award	Favorite Actress in a New TV Series	Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.	Nominated

Charities

Ming-Na Wen supports the following charitable cause: AIDS.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]