Gemma Chan is a world-famous actress best known for her roles in Captain Marvel, Crazy Rich Asians and Don’t Worry Darling, but you might not know that she is from Bromley.

She was born at Guy’s Hospital in Southwark.

Her dad was an engineer who grew up in Hong Kong and her mum was a pharmacist raised in Scotland, after her parents emigrated from Hong Kong.

Chan went to Newstead Wood School for Girls in Orpington, a school which is still open and can be found on Avebury Road.

When she left school, Chan went to study law at the University of Oxford.

She was offered a contract at a law firm when she graduated, but turned it down to study at the Drama Centre London and pursue a career as an actress.

One of her first notable roles was in Doctor Who, specifically the episode named ‘The Waters of Mars’ in which she played a geologist.

After this, she made appearance on The IT Crowd and shortly afterwards, on Sherlock.

In 2011, she had a part in Fresh Meat, a Channel 4 sitcom about a group of university students in Manchester.

She went on to appear in Bedlam and True Love before heading to the stage at the Royal National Theatre to appear in Yellow Face.

While she promoted this play, she spoke about how she has struggled with type casting due to her ethnicity, making it difficult for her to get parts on a variety of films and TV shows, for example period dramas.

But that did not stop Chan as she went on to continue being part of numerous other projects.

She starred as a very human-like robot in Humans, a science-fiction drama that aired on Channel 4, and also voiced a robot, Quintessa, in Transformers.

Then in 2018, she co-starred in Crazy Rich Asians as Astrid Leong-Teo, an extremely popular romantic comedy film.

Chan wen ton to play Elizabeth Hardwick in the historical drama Mary Queen of Scots and then in 2019, she had a supporting role in Captain Marvel.

She starred alongside Meryl Streep in the comedy Let Them All Talk, a film that premiered on HBO Max.

In 2021, the Marvel film Eternals was released in which she starred in the film as Sersi.

Soon afterwards, she appeared with Harry Styles and Florence Pugh in the psychological thriller Don’t Worry Darling.

Throughout her career, Chan has been an advocate for UNICEF UK and in 2021 was appointed as the charity’s celebrity ambassador.

In May 2021, she launched the campaign #StopSEAHate to help people of east and south east Asian descent who are victims of hate crimes.