LIFE & TIMES: Gemma Chan

Playing a young woman who has reached a crossroads in her life in I Am Hannah (10pm, Ch4) is the latest role for one of our most promising actresses…

Early promise The elder daughter of Chinese immigrants to the UK, Gemma was quite the academic in her formative years, but was encouraged to take lessons in violin, piano, dance and drama, too. After graduating in law from Worcester College, Oxford, she secured a job at a top international law firm, but quickly realised that it wasn’t for her and returned to education to pursue her first love, acting. Cover girl In order to fund her drama studies, she did a bit of modelling on the side. In 2006, at the age of 23, she took part in the first series of Sky One’s fashion competition Project Catwalk, making it to the final and gaining a number of contracts in the process. Small screen star Thinking she was wasting her talents, her father didn’t speak to Gemma for three months when she decided to take up acting professionally. But to his (and her) relief, her career started to take off in 2009 with roles in indie film Exam and Doctor Who on TV; since then, it’s been nonstop. Her list of TV credits now includes The IT Crowd, Sherlock, Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, Fresh Meat, Bedlam and Humans. She also provided the voice of Dewdrop in the BBC’s Watership Down. Hollywood calling Her big-screen

credits include Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014), Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and Captain Marvel (2019).