Rosalind Chao

Rosalind Chao (/ˈrɒzəlɪnd ˈtʃaʊ/; simplified Chinese: 赵家玲; traditional Chinese: 趙家玲; pinyin: Zhào Jiālíng; born September 23, 1957 (1957-09-23)) is an American actress. Chao's best-known roles have been as a star of CBS's AfterMASH portraying South Korean refugee Soon-Lee Klinger for both seasons, and the recurring character Keiko O'Brien with twenty-seven appearances on the syndicated science fiction series Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Chao was born in Los Angeles, California as a second-generation Chinese American. Her parents ran a successful Chinese American pancake restaurant, Chao's, across the street from Disneyland, and employed her there from an early age. After moving from Garden Grove to Villa Park, California, Chao was enrolled at Marywood, an all-girl school, where she was the only non-white student. She graduated from Pomona College in 1978.

For some time, Chao worked at Disneyland as an international tour guide. It was there she met Simon Templeman; the couple would eventually wed and have their reception at the Disneyland Hotel. They have two children.

Chao's parents were instrumental in her decision to pursue acting; she began at the age of five in a California-based Peking opera traveling company at the instigation of her parents who were already heavily involved, and during the summers they sent her to Taiwan to further develop her acting. She later performed in television commercials and guest starred on TV series in her teenage years. Her first acting role was in the CBS sitcom Here's Lucy, but she was first noticed performing in another CBS sitcom: 1972's short-lived Anna and the King as the eponymous king's (Yul Brynner) eldest daughter.

Dropping out of acting, Chao enrolled in the communications department at the University of Southern California where she earned her degree in journalism. However, after spending a year as a radio newswriting intern at the CBS-owned Hollywood radio station KNX, she soon returned to acting.

Re-commitment

Remembering Chao from Anna and the King, television producer Burt Metcalfe provided her big break with the role of Soon-Lee, a South Korean refugee, in the final episodes of the TV series M*A*S*H. Soon-Lee married longtime starring character Maxwell Klinger (Jamie Farr) in the series finale "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen", the most-watched television episode of all time (as of 2015). Chao continued playing the character in the M*A*S*H sequel: 1983's AfterMASH, her first role billed at co-starring status.

Post-M*A*S*H

Chao regularly portrayed the Japanese exo-botanist Keiko O'Brien (née Ishikawa) on both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with eight appearances in the former and 19 in the latter before DS9's end in 1999. In 2010, a preliminary casting memo for The Next Generation from 1987 was published, revealing that Chao was originally considered for the part of Enterprise security chief Tasha Yar.

Television

Film

Theatre