Biography
Lia Chang is an actor, multi-media content producer, photographer, activist, and documentarian known for her award-winning debut short film, "Hide and Seek" (2015), which she co-produced, co-wrote and stars in. Chang received a Best Actress nomination for "Hide and Seek," which was named one of the top ten films at the 38th Annual Asian American International Film Festival/11th Annual 72 Hour Shootout 2015, presented by the Asian American Film Lab. Her short film, When the World Was Young garnered a 2021 DisOrient Film Audience Choice Award for Best Short Narrative. Chang is also known for "New Jack City" (1991), "King of New York" (1990) and "Big Trouble in Little China" (1986).
Chang is also the host and Executive Producer of Backstage Pass with Lia Chang, an Arts and Entertainment and Lifestyle program that airs on Sundays at 6:30pm on FIOS 34, RCN 83, Spectrum 56/1996.
Lia Chang was born as Kim Anne Chang on September 29, 1963 in San Francisco, California. Chang began her varied and extensive career in the arts as an actress and a petite runway model. She studied film and communications at Hunter College and photography at the International Center of Photography. Chang has acted in a handful of movies; she made her film debut in the immensely enjoyable martial arts romp "The Last Dragon" and was especially memorable as crack-smoking prostitute Crystal in the uproariously rude'n'raunchy horror comedy blast "Frankenhooker." Moreover, Chang played Liat in a national tour of "South Pacific" with Barbara Eden and Robert Goulet and Joy in a revival of Sam Shepard's "Chicago" for the Signature Theatre Company. She had a recurring role as Nurse Lia on the popular daytime TV soap opera "One Life to Live." In 1989, Chang launched Lia Chang Multimedia Productions; she produces video content for the Internet, oversees the Lia Chang Photography Archive for Notable Asian-American Pioneers, and creates custom fine art cards from her botanical portraits. In addition, Chang is a successful multi-platform journalist who writes in-depth features on food, style, culture, and Asian-American issues. She was named one of the "One Hundred Most Influential Asian-Americans" by Avenue magazine in 1997. Chang was the recipient the 2000 Organization of Chinese-Americans (OCA) Chinese-American Journalist Award, the 2001 Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) National Award for New Media, and the 2022 Prospect Muse Award. Her photography has been exhibited in major galleries in such cities as New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Lia Chang is a National Tropical Botanical Garden Environmental Journalism Fellow, a Scripps Howard New Media Fellow at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism, a Visual Journalism Fellow at the Poynter Institute for New Media, and a Western Knight Fellow at USC's Annenberg College of Communications for Specialized Journalism on Entertainment Journalism in the Digital Age.
