Lauren Tom



Lauren Tom (born August 4, 1961)[1]  is an American stage, film, television and voice actress who played the roles of Lena St. Clair in The Joy Luck Club, Julie in the NBC sitcom Friends, and provided the voices for both mother and daughter characters on two animated TV comedy series: on Futurama she voiced Amy Wong and her mother Inez, on King of the Hill she voiced Minh & Connie Souphanousinphone and Lauren Tom also voiced Numbuh 3 from Codename: Kids Next Door.



Contents
[hide]  *1 Early life  ==Early life[edit] == Lauren Tom was born in Chicago, Illinois, the Chinese American daughter of Nancy (née Dare) and Tom Chan, Jr. who worked in the frozen food business. Her grandfather Tom Y. Chan was a businessman and a leading supporter of the Kuomintang in the United States, and helped raise money for both Sun Yat-sen and General Chiang Kai-shek. Her uncle was also a businessman and an influential civic leader.[2]  In an article for Detour magazine Tom described how being teased as a child about her Chinese heritage made her introverted and is what originally inspired her to study dance.[3] ==Theatre[edit] == At the age of 17, Lauren Tom landed a spot with a touring company of A Chorus Line and was cast in the Broadway production of the show less than a year later.[4]  She won an Obie Awardfor her Off-Broadway acting and was cast in the Broadway shows Hurlyburly and Doonesbury. ==Film[edit] == Tom had several small parts in movies including Nothing Lasts Forever, Wall Street, See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Blue Steel; but her biggest role up til that point was as a waitress in theRobin Williams/Tim Robbins film Cadillac Man. This role led to being a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
 * 2 Theatre
 * 3 Film
 * 4 Television
 * 4.1 Voice acting
 * 5 Filmography
 * 6 References
 * 7 External links

Tom landed a lead role in the film The Joy Luck Club in 1993, which led to roles in such other films such as When a Man Loves a Woman and North.

Since the mid-1990s, Tom has starred in few films (focusing her work, primarily, in the voiceover business), with the exceptions of her supporting roles in the 2003 hit comedy Bad Santa and the critically acclaimed 2004 film In Good Company. ==Television[edit] == <p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Lauren Tom's first role in television was that of Miko Wakamatsu on The Facts of Life. She subsequently appeared on The Equalizer, Catfish With Black Bean Sauce, thirtysomething, Quantum Leap, Chicago Hope, Homicide: Life on the Street, Grace Under Fire, as Ross's girlfriend Julie on Friends, The Nanny, The Middle, a starring role in DAG, The Division, as Mrs. Ling on Monk, My Wife and Kids, Barbershop: The Series, Grey's Anatomy, The Closer and as Mai Washington Men in Trees. She had an acting role in a bonus feature on the Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder DVD. She also had a supporting role on the television show Supernatural as prophet Kevin Tran's mother, Linda Tran. ===Voice acting<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === <p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Tom began vocal work in the animated series Superman: The Animated Series (as Angela Chen). From there Lauren had minor roles on Pinky and the Brain, Extreme Ghostbusters and The Zeta Project before landing her lasting roles on King of the Hill, where she voiced Minh and Connie Souphanousinphone and later Futurama, where she voices Amy and Inez Wong.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">She has also lent her voice to Playhouse Disney's Handy Manny as Mrs. Lee and Nelson, ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Grown_Up! All Grown Up!], Rocket Power, Max Steel, Batman Beyond, Justice League Unlimited, Kim Possible, Numbuh Three (Kuki Sanban), Numbuh Three's mother Genki, and Numbuhs 44 and 45 on Codename: Kids Next Door, Susanna Susquahanna on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histeria! Histeria!] in 2003, the villains Gizmo and Jinx on Teen Titans, Yan Lin, Susan, Alchemy on W.I.T.C.H., The Replacements,Legion of Super Heroes, Jake's mom, Counselor Chang on American Dragon: Jake Long, and as Joo Dee on Avatar the Last Airbender''. She guest-starred in The Penguins of Madagascar as Chuck Charles's co-anchor, Bonnie Chang, in "Gator Watch" and "All Tied Up With a Boa".

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">She also did the voice of Bai Li and Ming on the animated series, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, recently in 2010.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Other animated movies Tom has voiced include Mulan II, Kim Possible: The Secret Files, Kim Possible Movie: So The Drama, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker and the four Futurama movies: Bender's Big Score, The Beast with a Billion Backs, Bender's Game and Into the Wild Green Yonder.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">She also played the voice role of Jessica in the Scooby Doo animated film, ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooby-Doo!_Camp_Scare Scooby-Doo! Camp Scare]''.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">World of Warcraft voice over for Li Li Stormstout in the Mists of Pandaria expansion.<sup class="Template-Fact" style="line-height:1em;white-space:nowrap;">[citation needed] ==Filmography<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] ==