The Life of Constance Wu

She's the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants who catapulted into superstardom after starring in "Crazy Rich Asians." This is Constance Wu.

Changing the way Hollywood casts minorities in film and TV


Constance Wu was born in 1982 in Richmond, Virginia to Taiwanese parents. At 16, she spent 6 months in New York in an acting program at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. In 2005, at 23, Wu graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting from the State University of New York at Purchase. In 2006, she landed a role in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.


In 2014, she got her breakout role as a TV series regular in Fresh Off the Boat, playing the central family’s matriarch. For her role, she was nominated to 2 TCA Awards 4 Critics' Choice Television Awards. At 35, in 2017, she was on the Time Magazine's list of “100 Most Influential People.” The following year, her role as Rachel Chu in the romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians hugely propelled her career. The movie featured an all-Asian cast — the first Hollywood movie to do so in 25 years. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award. She won a National Board of Review Award and a Hollywood Film Award.


Wu recently admitted that she was apprehensive about returning to the set to shoot season 6. Following news of the hit ABC series’ renewal in May, Wu shocked fans by tweeting, “So upset right now that I’m literally crying. Ugh. F—,” followed by a second tweet that read, “F—ing hell.” She eventually clarified her comments and explained that she was “temporarily upset” because she “had to give up another project that I was really passionate about,” but admitted that she understood her previous comments following the renewal were “insensitive.” In 2019, aged 37, she had another major hit in the movie Hustlers.


Brut.


avatar
Brut.