American TV and stage actress/screenwriter Zoë Carroll Chao is principally known for her role as Isobel in Strangers, and Zoe in The Afterparty. Most recently, in 2023, she appeared in the romantic comedy films Your Place or Mine (as Minka) and Somebody I Used to Know (Ramona). So, like that, Zoë has been in the industry since 2006. And undoubtedly she has had great support, especially from her parents, in all these years. Who they are? We shall now explore this in the rest of the writing.
Who Are Zoë Chao’s Parents?
Zoë Chao grew up in a family of visual artists. Yes, both her parents are in the profession, which we shall discuss later.
Zoë was born in Providence, Rhode Island in September 1985 to Bruce Chao and Sue Carrol. Keep reading and get to know the folks individually and together.
Meet Sue Chao, Zoë Chao’s Mother
Zoë Chao’s social media activity suggests that she is very much in love with both her parents. Often on her posts, she can be seen appreciating them.
Speaking of Zoë’s mother particularly, she always has had people telling her “you are your mother”.
Zoë’s mom, unlike her husband Bruce who is a second-generation Chinese American, reportedly has Irish roots. And Zoë in turn has been described as half-Chinese, and half-Irish.
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Sue Chao Age
Sue Chao was born in May 1946. So, she turned 76 years old in 2022.
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Sue Chao Job
Sue Chao is a visual artist, who, unlike her husband, had not given away details about her career.
Following in her mother and father’s footsteps, Zoë also always had plans to work in an art gallery after graduating from college. But, her fate had something else planned out for her. And her folks were also anyway supportive. Once, Zoë opened up in an IG story about how her mom helped her audition for a role.
Zoë after graduating from The Wheeler School in 2004, received her BA in art history from Brown University and her MFA from the graduate acting program at UCSD.
Zoë before landing career-changing roles in the likes of Strangers the year 2017 onward, had a lot of supporting “best friend” roles coming her way.
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Is Sue Chao On Instagram?
Sue Chao was not on Instagram as of 16 February 2023. But, she did, in the past, show glimpses of her life on ‘Sue Carroll’ Facebook.
Meet Bruce Chao, Zoë Chao’s Father
On her Instagram @zchao, we once saw Zoë Chao playing as a child with her dad and other members of his side of the family.
Apparently, Zoë’s father Bruce Chao is Chinese. His mother (Zoë’s grandmother) moved to Michigan from China when she was a 7-year-old, during the pre-Cultural Revolution.
Bruce, back in the day, was born to Wu-Wai Chao and Phebe Shih Chao. And he grew up alongside his two brothers Matthew and Stephen Chao.
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Bruce Chao Age
Bruce Chao was born in 1948. So, he turned 74 years old in 2022.
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Bruce Chao Job
As an artist, Bruce Chao’s sculptures have been exhibited throughout the United States at spaces such as the Smithsonian Museum of Art, PS1 in New York, The Mississippi Museum of Art, and the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha. Internationally, he has shown them at the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan, and the Fortress of Asperon in Leerdam, Holland, and many others. He seems to have had a mostly busy career between the 1970s and 1990s.
An MFA graduate from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, his grants and fellowships include a George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation Fellowship, an NEA United States/Japan Creative Artist Fellowship, several NEA Individual Artist Fellowships, as well as fellowships from the Ohio State Arts Council.
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Is Bruce Chao On Instagram?
Bruce Chao was not on Instagram or any other social media platforms at the time of this writing. Even so, he would feature on his wife and his kids’ socials every now and then.
Related FAQs
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Are Zoë Chao’s Parents Still Together?
Zoë Chao’s parents were likely still together and married until the time of this writing.
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Where Do Zoë Chao’s Parents Live Today?
Zoë Chao’s parents were residing in Rehoboth, a historic town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, as of February 2023.
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How Many Kids Do Zoë Chao’s Parents Have?
Zoë Chao’s parents have one more kid and she is Zoë’s sister Maia Chao. She turned 30 years old on 24 March 2022, making her much younger than her sibling who turned 37 on 19 September 2022.
On 23 January 2023, Malia, on her IG @maia.pologies, shared that for some time, she had been working with her mom and sister to turn her grandmother’s unpublished manuscript into a book. She informed everyone that this project they started in 2020, finally exists.
Maia, like her parents, is a visual artist. Her BIO on the internet particularly introduces her as an interdisciplinary artist working collaboratively in performance, video, sculpture, and social practice.
Maia holds a BA in Anthropology from Brown University and an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. At the time of this writing, she was a 2022-23 Pew Fellow and a full-time Professor of Social Practice at Maryland Institute College of Design in Baltimore.