Brenda Song

Brenda Song (born March 27, 1988) is an American actress.

Born in California, Song began her career at the age of six, working as a child model.

Brenda Song was born on March 27, 1988, in Carmichael, California, a suburb of Sacramento, to a Thai father from Bangkok and Thai Hmong mother from Chiang Mai.

Her paternal grandparents were from the Xiong clan (熊; Xyooj in Hmong), but changed their last name to Song after arriving in the United States.

Her parents were born in Thailand and met as adults in Sacramento.

Her father works as a school teacher and her mother, a homemaker.

She has two younger brothers named Timmy and Nathan Song.

When she was six years old, Song moved with her mother to Los Angeles, California, to support her acting career; the rest of the family followed two years later.

As a young girl, Song wanted to do ballet, while her younger brother wanted to take taekwondo.

She said, "My mom only wanted to take us to one place," so they settled on taekwondo.

Although Song cried all the way through her first class, she now holds a black belt in taekwondo.

Song was named an All-American Scholar in the ninth grade.

She was homeschooled and earned a high school diploma at age 16, then took courses at a community college.

She made her screen debut with a guest appearance on the sitcom Thunder Alley (1995), and went on to roles such as the children's television series Fudge (1995) and the Nickelodeon series 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd (1999).

Her first film role was in the 1995 Requiem, an AFI student short film by actress Elizabeth Sung.

"She came in confident [at the auditions]. She was very focused, and it was very obvious that she loved what she was doing," said Sung.

The film is about a waitress/dancer named Fong who remembers her loving brother and their bittersweet childhood in Hong Kong.

The seven-year-old Song played a young version of "Fong", who is portrayed as an adult by Tamlyn Tomita.

The film won a CINE Golden Eagle award.

She appeared in another short film directed by Elizabeth Sung called The White Fox.

Song next appeared in two episodes of the television program Thunder Alley, and was a regular in the children's television series Fudge, in which she portrayed Jenny.

Her theatrical film debut was in Santa with Muscles, a 1996 independent film starring professional wrestler Hulk Hogan

After a small role in Leave It to Beaver (1997), she appeared in the Nickelodeon television series 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd, where she played Sariffa Chung in thirteen episodes.

She starred in the Disney Channel original film The Ultimate Christmas Present (2000), which won her a Young Artist Award.

Her role in the 2000 Disney Channel Original Movie, The Ultimate Christmas Present, won her the award for "Best Performance in a TV Movie Comedy, Supporting Young Actress".

The film centers on two teenage girls, Allison Thompson (Hallee Hirsh) and Samantha Kwan (Song), who find a weather machine and make it snow in Los Angeles.

Her 2002 appearance on The Bernie Mac Show led to her nomination for "Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series, Guest Starring Young Actress".

In the same year, she was in the 20th Century Fox family film Like Mike, which grossed over $60 million.

She additionally played the character of Tia on Phil of the Future (2004–2005), and had starring roles in the television film Get a Clue (2002), the sports comedy film Like Mike (2002) and the comedy film Stuck in the Suburbs (2004).

She subsequently signed a contract with Disney Channel and earned widespread recognition for playing the titular character in the action film Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior (2006), and London Tipton in the comedy franchise The Suite Life (2005–2011), earning her acclaim and two Young Hollywood Awards.

She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2009, majoring in psychology and minoring in business.

Song began in show business as a child fashion model in San Francisco after being spotted in a shopping mall by an agent from a modeling school.

She began acting at the age of five or six in a Little Caesars commercial, and then a Barbie commercial.

Song made her transition into mainstream roles with the critically acclaimed biographical drama film The Social Network (2010) and went on to roles in the ABC political thriller Scandal (2012–2013), the Fox sitcom New Girl and the sitcom Dads (2013).

After 100 Deeds, she had a number of small parts in television shows such as 7th Heaven, Judging Amy, ER, Once and Again, The Brothers García, Popular, Bette, The Bernie Mac Show, The Nightmare Room, For the People, and George Lopez.

Two of Song's early roles led to recognition in the Young Artist Awards.

In October 2014, she signed a talent holding deal with Fox and 20th Century Fox Television and was subsequently cast in several television pilots for NBC and CBS, including the medical drama series Pure Genius (2016–2017) and the action drama series Station 19 (2018–2020).

She has also headlined the romantic comedy film Angry Angel (2017), the psychological thriller film Secret Obsession (2019), the comedy-drama film Changeland (2019), and the romantic comedy Love Accidentally (2022).

She also starred in the horror video game The Quarry (2022).

She provided the voice of Anne Boonchuy in the Disney Channel animated series Amphibia (2019–2022), starred as Madison Maxwell in the Hulu comedy-drama series Dollface (2019–2022), and provides the voice of Princess Akemi in Blue Eye Samurai (2023–present).