Where is Jackie Chung now? Her Age, Height, Career, Husband
Jackie Chung
The accomplished stage, TV and film actress Jackie Chung was born on 10th July 1979, in the USA. Jackie’s age has long been a subject of speculation, as Google erroneously listed her birth year as 1961 until she took to social media to clear up the misunderstanding.
Although Jackie is best known for her recent role as Laurel in the hit series “The Summer I Turned Pretty”, she has a number of five-star projects under her belt, and also previously performed with the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville among others. Jackie, who is married to and has two children with actor Louis Ozawa, is also a Stanford University graduate.
Career
Jackie earned her first acting credit in 2005 with the role of JC in the short “Take It or Leave It?”. The following year, she wrote and starred in the pilot episode for the comedy miniseries “Finding My America”, which showed potential for Asian-American representation, but wasn’t picked up by any networks.
Undeterred, Jackie continued to star in a number of shorts over the next few years, such as “The Ninja Always Rings Once”, “Tomorrow Arigato”, and “The Picnic”. In 2010 and 2011, the actress continued to explore her craft in the shorts “4 Dates”, “The Desperate”, and “Green Plastic Sandals”.
In 2012, Jackie portrayed Rebecca in the Sam O’Hare comedy short “Going Local”, followed by minor roles in the shows “Me + U” and “Fortune Sun”. Three years later, she made her movie debut as Kat in “Someone Else”, which boasted a cast of promising talents and won several awards at the Sacramento Asian Pacific Film Festival and the DisOrient Asian American Film Festival.
Jackie’s depiction of Kat helped open the door for guest-starring roles in “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Deadbeat”, and “Station 19”. In 2019, the Stanford University graduate starred in the Wayne Wang indie movie “Coming Home Again”, playing an ailing mother who teaches her Korean-American son traditional recipes. Similarly to “Someone Else”, “Coming Home Again” did well in the festival circuit, taking home a Best Cinematographer award, and being nominated for a Grand Prix for Best Film.
In 2020, Jackie dazzled with a starring role in “The Translators”, a dystopian short film that marks her husband Louis’s directorial debut, and tells the story of two first-time parents who are unable to meet their newborn’s needs, and so turn to professional help. Based on the short play written by Paul Grellong – who just happens to be Louis’s longtime friend – the sci-fi project also starred Bernard White.
A year later, Jackie played a professor in “The Complaint”, and was cast as Laurel Park in “The Summer I Turned Pretty”, a touching coming-of-age Amazon Prime series which many consider to be her breakout role. Created by Jenny Han and starring Lola Tung, Christopher Briney, and Gavin Casalegno, the series has garnered an enormous amount of publicity, and is set to premiere its third season sometime in 2025.
In a series of promotional interviews following the season two premiere, Jackie discussed her character’s development as she navigates the unexpected loss of her best friend Susannah (played by Rachel Blanchard). However, she also stressed the importance of Asian-American representation, revealing that she was already familiar with Jenny Han’s work, and supported her as an ‘Asian American woman creating Asian American stories’.
‘I do see… so many films and other TV shows that are featuring Asian Americans, but I do feel like there’s room for more,’ Jackie added; ‘Asian Americans are such a diverse group.’ At the same time, the actress also appreciated how Laurel’s character strayed away from the stereotypical immigrant parent or Tiger Mom tropes.
Personal Life
As mentioned, Jackie is married to fellow actor Louis Ozawa, with whom she shares a long history. The attractive thespians are often described as an underrated power couple, who met while shooting a New York University graduate short film; since then, they’ve appeared together in “Tomorrow Arigato”, “Coming Home Again”, and “Someone Else”.
Jackie Chung e Louis Ozawa, seu marido, no 'The 20th Annual Asian American Awards' na noite anterior, (17/12). ❤️ pic.twitter.com/5Desi17jwq
— Trilogia Verão Brasil (@TrilogiaVeraoBR) December 18, 2022
Louis was born on 11th October 1975 in Queens, New York City, and raised in New York City and Japan. Not much is known about his father, who is Taiwanese, but we can confirm that his mother is a former jewelry designer of Japanese descent. After matriculating from Stuyvesant High School, Louis obtained his Master of Fine Arts in acting from Brown University.
The actor’s first credited role was in the 1999 movie “On the Q.T.”. At the beginning of his career, Louis participated in a number of unusual projects such as the 2003 film “Robot Stories”, which brought in just a little over $100,000 at the box office, but was praised by critics for bridging the gap between its human and android characters in a touching and realistic way.
From 2006 onwards, Louis also guest-starred in many popular TV shows such as “Law & Order”, “3 lbs”, and “Heroes and Villains”. In 2010, he portrayed Hanzo Kamakami in the sci-fi action film “Predators”, putting his years of kendo training to good use for a scene in which his character dueled against a Predator using a katana.
Since then, Louis has had roles in “The Bourne Legacy”, “The Sisterhood of Night”, and “Fair Game”. His last movie, “Spectral”, was released in 2016 and reportedly filmed on a staggering $70 million budget but received a lackluster reception after premiering on Netflix. However, the actor has had better luck on the small screen, with recurring roles in “Jack Ryan”, “Pachinko”, and “Hunters”.
Jackie and Louis share two children whose names and birthdays they prefer to keep a secret. However, in a May 2020 interview, the actor shared that they were six years and five months old, which would make them almost ten and four years old at time of writing. According to Louis, the Chung-Ozawa family also have a pet dog.
The couple are by no means social media sensations – Louis has less than 8,000 Instagram followers, whereas Jackie posts sparingly, and keeps most of her photos work-related. Nevertheless, we can confirm that they live in Los Angeles, with Louis often travelling to New York to do plays.
Jackie is 5ft 7in (170cm) tall, and weighs about 130lbs (58kgs).
