Quan Ke Huy: From a forgotten child star to an Oscar-winning Asian actor

Unprecedented before, Oscar 2023 attracts attention with a series of nominations for actors of Asian descent. And the focus of the award ceremony officially belonged to Quan Ke Huy when the star officially won.

Jonathan Ke Quan aka Quan Ke Huy was born on August 20, 1971 in Vietnam. He lived with 7 siblings, before leaving Vietnam in 1978. At that time, Quan Ke Huy, along with his biological father and 4 brothers, sisters and younger siblings went to Hong Kong, then to the US in 1979. Meanwhile, , his mother and three other brothers and sisters went to Malaysia.

In the US, Ke Huy attended Mount Gleason High School in Tujunga, California and Alhambra High School in Alhambra City, California. Passionate about acting, in 1999, this young man studied and graduated from USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Quan Ke Huy's "early blooming" film career

After graduating, he worked with Hong Kong martial arts director Corey Yuen on a number of projects.

Quan became a child actor when he was 12 years old, playing Harrison Ford's companion Short Round in the movie "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". The casting director held auditions for children at Castelar elementary school, and Quan Ke Huy's younger brother also participated in this audition.

In 1985, Quan Ke Huy continued to act in the movie "The Goonies" as a member of the children's group of the same name. He played a pickpocket orphan in the 1986 Taiwanese film "It Takes a Thief". In 1987, he appeared in the Japanese film "Passengers" with singer Honda Minako. He then played Sam in the mini-series "Together We Stand" (1986-1987) and joined Jasper Kwong in the sitcom "Head of the Class" from 1990 to 1991.

In 1991, he starred in "Breathing Fire" and had a small role in "Encino Man" (1992). He starred in the 40-episode Mandarin Chinese television program, which premiered in 1993, "The Big Eunuch and the Little Carpenter". Quan Ke Huy also starred in a 1996 Hong Kong-Vietnam joint production called "Red Pirate".

After learning Taekwondo under the tutelage of Philip Tan on the set of the movie "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", Quan Ke Huy then trained under the guidance of the famous martial arts actor and martial artist Tao-liang. Tan.

Switch to film production

Although successful as a child, when he became an adult, Quan Ke Huy, like many other child actors, had difficulty finding an acting job in the US. When forced to give up his passion, the 1971-born actor enrolled in the film program at the University of Southern California (UCS). During his studies, he self-produced and filmed the award-winning short film "Voodoo". The film is written and directed by Gregg Bishop, a friend of Quan Ke Huy.

After graduating from USC, Quan was invited by Corey Yuen to Toronto, Ontario, to help co-direct the fight scenes in "X-Men" (2000). Over the next decade, he worked on various productions in Asia and the United States.

He went on to help Yuen as a martial arts director for "The One" (2001). Quan worked as an assistant director for Wong Kar-wai in "2046" (2004).

Return to acting and succeed

In 2018, Quan Ke Huy was inspired by the success of the TV series "Crazy Rich Asians" (2018) to return to acting.

In the same year, director Daniel Scheinert began casting for the film "Everything Everywhere All At Once" (2022). They had trouble finding an actor for the role of Waymond Wang, a character who would appear with three different personalities in the film. Co-director Daniel Kwan accidentally discovered Quan Ke Huy on Twitter. Two weeks later, the actor received a call to audition for the film.

In January 2020, Quan was announced that he officially accepted the role in "Everything Everywhere All at Once". The film was released in March 2022 with positive feedback, in which, Quan Ke Huy's performance received praise and media attention, leading to him winning the Golden Globe Award, the SAG Award. and an Oscar for his role. Winning "Best Supporting Actor" at the SAG Awards makes him the first Asian man to win an individual award in any category at the SAG Awards.

After playing Waymond Wang, Guan received a supporting role in the Netflix series "Finding Ohana" (2021) in September 2019.

In February 2022, he announced he was in the cast of the TV series adaptation of Disney's American Born Chinese. In September 2022, Quan Ke Huy continued to say that he would participate in the second season of the "Loki" series of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

On March 13, 2023, the actor officially had a brilliant lipstick mark in his film career when he won the "Best Supporting Actor" award at the Oscars 2023. He surpassed the famous names Brendan Gleeson, Barry Keoghan , Brian Tyree Henry and the late actor Judd Seymore Hirsch.

As soon as he received the prestigious Oscar award, Quan Ke Huy made a couple of statements that made the audience sympathize.

Specifically, he choked up when talking about his mother and the long, difficult journey to get his hands on the Oscar golden statue. The actor said that his mother is already 84 years old and is currently watching the show through TV at home. The actor thanked the film crew "Everything Everywhere All At Once", A24 and his beloved wife who have continuously supported him for more than 2 decades.

"Thanks to the Academy for nominating me. Thank you to my mother and brother who take care of my children every day so that I have time to film. Thank you all for supporting me so much. My wife once said, my time will come.I love you with all my heart.

Thank you so much for helping me find my answer. You guys gave me more than I could have expected... When I read the script, I thought it was made for me, because they were me. I understand every single one of them... I don't think it would be possible to play Waymond if you had given me this role 10, 15 years ago. Looking back on my life, all the ups and downs, I have reached the bottom of my emotions to put all three different versions of these characters," the actor touched.

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