MICHELLE MAO was born in Tennessee, and raised between the US, Hong Kong and Beijing. She fell in love with theater while attending school in the UK, and continued to foster her passion for acting within the theater scene of San Francisco while attending UC Berkeley.

While completing her master's degree through the Schwarzman Scholars Program at Tsinghua University, she was cast on Apple TV+’s Surfside Girls. She then went on to appear in the Disney+ series Goosebumps and CW’s Kung Fu. Mao co-starred with Matt McGorry (How to Get Away With Murder) in Hannah Bang’s My Nights Glow Yellow, which screened at Tribeca and TIFF.

She will next be seen in Bing Liu’s debut narrative feature film Preparation for the Next Life with Plan B and Pastel, and acting across Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie in A Big, Bold, Beautiful Journey from director Kogonada. She is also attached to star in an upcoming indie feature film in late development.