Early life

Born in Los Angeles, California as a second-generation Chinese American Chao's parents ran a successful Chinese American pancake restaurant, Chao's, across the street from Disneyland, and employed her there from an early age. After moving from Garden Grove to Villa Park, California, Chao was enrolled at Marywood, an all-girl school, where she was the only non-white student. She graduated from Pomona College in 1978.

Personal life

For some time, Chao worked at Disneyland as an international tour guide. It was there she met Simon Templeman; the couple would eventually wed and have their reception at the Disneyland Hotel. They have two children.

Career

Chao's parents were instrumental in her decision to pursue acting; she began at the age of five in a California-based Peking opera traveling company at the instigation of her parents who were already heavily involved, and during the summers they sent her to Taiwan to further develop her acting. She later performed in television commercials and guest starred on TV series in her teenage years. Her first acting role was in the CBS sitcom Here's Lucy, but she was first noticed performing in another CBS sitcom: 1972's short-lived Anna and the King as the eponymous king's (Yul Brynner) eldest daughter.

Dropping out of acting, Chao enrolled in the communications department at the University of Southern California where she earned her degree in journalism. However, after spending a year as a radio newswriting intern at the CBS-owned Hollywood radio station KNX, she soon returned to acting.

Re-commitment

Remembering Chao from Anna and the King, television producer Burt Metcalfe provided her big break with the role of Soon-Lee, a South Korean refugee, in the final episodes of the TV series M*A*S*H. Soon-Lee married longtime starring character Maxwell Klinger (Jamie Farr) in the series finale "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen", the most-watched television episode of all time (as of 2015). Chao continued playing the character in the M*A*S*H sequel: 1983's AfterMASH, her first role billed at co-starring status.

Post-M*A*S*H

Chao regularly portrayed the Japanese exo-botanist Keiko O'Brien (née Ishikawa) on both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with eight appearances in the former and 19 in the latter before DS9's end in 1999. In 2010, a preliminary casting memo for The Next Generation from 1987 was published, revealing that Chao was originally considered for the part of Enterprise security chief Tasha Yar.

Filmography

Television

Television
Year	Series	Role	Notes
1972	Here's Lucy
	Anna and the King
1977	The Hardy Boys	Lily	Episode "the Mystery of the Jade Kwan Yin"
	Kojak	Grace Chen	Episode - "The Summer of '69"
1978	The Incredible Hulk	Receptionist	Episode - "Married"
1979	The Amazing Spider Man		Episode "The Chinese Web"
	Mysterious Island of Beautiful Women	Flower
1981	Diff'rent Strokes	Ming Li	Episode "Almost American"
1982	Diff'rent Strokes	Miss Chung	Recurring role
		Moonlight
1983	M*A*S*H	Soon Lee	recurring character
1982-1983	AfterMASH	Soon-Lee Klinger
1986	The A-Team		episode - Point of No Return
	Paper Angles		First lead role on Television
1988	Miami Vice	Mai Ying	Episode - "Heart of Night"
1991-1992	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Keiko O'Brien	recurring role (8 appearances)
1993-1999	Star Trek: Deep Space Nine	Keiko O'Brien	recurring role (19 episodes)
1995	Murder, She Wrote	Phoebe	Episode - "Nailed"
1999	ER	Dr. Chao	Episode - "Humpty Dumpty"
2001	Citizen Baines	Judith Lin
2003	The O.C.	Dr Kim	Guest star recurring role
	Monk	Arleen Cassidy	Episode - "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School"
2007	Tell Me You Love Me		Recurring Role
2010	CSI	Michelle Huntley	Episode - "Long Ball"
2011	Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23	Pastor Jin	Recurring Role
2012	Bones	Mandy Oh	Season 7 Episode 12
2014	Intelligence	Sheng-Li wang	Episode - "Pilot"
	Forever		episode 6
2015	Castle	Mimi Tan	Episode - "Hong Kong Hustle"

Film

Year	Film	Role
1979	The Ultimate Imposter
1980	The Big Brawl	Mae
1981	An Eye For an Eye	Linda Chen
	The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island
	Twirl	Kim King
1983	The Terry Fox Story	Rika
1987	Slam Dance	Mrs. Bell
1988	White Ghost	Thi Hau
1991	Denial
	Thousand Pieces of Gold	Lalu Nathoy/Polly Bemis
	Megaville
1992	Intruders
	Memoirs of an Invisible Man	Cathy DiTolla
1993	The Joy Luck Club	Rose
1994	Web of Deception
	Love Affair	Lee
	North	Chinese Mom
1996	To Love, Honor and Deceive
1997	The End of Violence	Claire
1998	What Dreams May Come	Leona
2000	Enemies of Laughter	Carla
2001	Three Blind Mice
	I Am Sam	Lily
2003	Freaky Friday	Pei-Pei
2005	Life of the Party	Mei Lin
2006	Just like Heaven	Fran
2007	Nanking	Chang Yu Zheng
2009	The Rising Tide	Narrator

Theatre

Year	Play	Character Role
2008	Some Girl(s)	Lindsay

[ Source: Wikipedia ]