Biography
Ansa Woo is an American model, actress, and writer.
She is notable for her work as an actress who typically books movement and action based roles.
Ansa’s first work in front of a camera started in modeling and commercial acting Ansa started modeling professionally in her late teens while she was studying journalism at Indiana University, Bloomington. Her "Thai + American girl next door" smile and mixed feature look combined with her penchant for martial arts, dance and outdoor sports has landed her numerous national and global campaigns with household brand names such as Oakley, Under Armour, Ulta Beauty and Google. Active/ sport themed shoots have given her an understanding and deep interest for how movement is filmed and shot.
Ansa is a multi-hyphenate professional. She has been hired as a writer within the scope of film, has choreographed for camera, and has coached performers in specialized movement for camera. Ansa has worked as a movement consultant with the NFL, and has been published by Galore and Elle magazine.
Outside of her work in entertainment, Ansa is a martial arts instructor and assistant instructor for the University of California, Los Angeles’ recreational sports program. She was a former assistant instructor for Indiana University, Bloomington’s martial arts programs. She holds formal rankings in her martial arts education through the World Thai Boxing Association (Instructor Level One), the United States Hapkido Federation (black belt 1st dan), and The Inosanto Academy (purple ikat/ belt; Silat & Kali). She has been instructing recreational martial arts classes at UCLA for over 9 years. Having had an adulthood start as a martial artist, she feels this insight, plus her communication skills as a written/ communications professional make her an excellent instructor for beginners or persons with zero athletic background.
Ansa is currently a student of Jessen Noviello (Divergent 2014). Jessen is a former world champion martial artist, stuntman and highly sought after instructor. His students include Pom Klementieff (Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning 2025), Rachel Taylor (Transformers 2017), and Eliza Gonzalez (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)
Ansa is a former student of the Inosanto Academy (Muay Thai, Silat, Kali, Jiu-Jitsu), and Hugh Fitzgerald an in house grappling arts instructor at 87North Productions/ 87Eleven Action Design. She was also Katy O’Brian’s (Mandalorian 2023) assistant instructor during her time as UCLA’s lead Hapkido instructor.
Ansa was born and raised in Northern Virginia and is currently based in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, an immigrant from Thailand, is the C.E.O. of a small software development company. Her father is an accomplished American coder/ Vice President of the same software company.
