Brenda Song (born March 27, 1988) is an American actress, film producer, and model. Song started in show business as a child fashion model. Her early television work included roles in the shows Fudge (1995) and 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd (1999). After many commercials and television roles in the late 1990s, Song won a Young Artist Award for her performance in The Ultimate Christmas Present (2000). She made her screen debut in Santa with Muscles (1996) and appeared in 20th Century Fox's Like Mike (2002). Her movies on the Disney Channel include Get a Clue (2002) and Stuck in the Suburbs (2004).
In 2005 Song began playing the lead female role of London Tipton in the Disney series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and The Suite Life on Deck. The character was noted as Disney's longest continuous female character in October 2009.[2] Song gained more fame[3] after she played the title role in the Disney Channel Original Movie, Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior, which received over 5.7 million viewers on the night of its premiere.[4][5] In 2006 Song was named the "Queen of Disney" by Cosmogirl Magazine.[6]
In the late 2000s, she starred in the coming-of-age drama Special Delivery, Walt Disney Pictures' College Road Trip,[7] and The Social Network (2010). She was the celebrity endorser of Disney Cruise Lines in 2010.[8] Song has been described as one of "young Hollywood’s most promising rising stars"[9] and a "young phenomenon on the rise" by media outlets.[10] TV Guide listed her in its 2008 list of "13 Hottest Young Stars to Watch".[11]
Early life
Brenda Song was born in Carmichael, California, a suburb of Sacramento, to a Hmong father and a Thai mother who had been adopted by a Hmong family.[12] Her paternal grandparents were from the Xiong clan, but changed their last name to Song when the family immigrated to the United States.[12] Her parents were born in Asia and met as adults in Sacramento. Her father works as a schoolteacher and her mother is a homemaker. She has two younger brothers, Timmy and Nathan.[1][13]
When she was six years old, Song moved with her mother to Los Angeles to support her acting career; the rest of the family followed two years later. As a young girl, Song wanted to do ballet, while her younger brother wanted to take taekwondo. She said, "My mom only wanted to take us to one place," so they settled on taekwondo. Although Song cried all the way through her first class,[14] she now holds a black belt in taekwondo. Song was named an All-American Scholar in the ninth grade. She was homeschooled and earned a high school diploma at age 16,[1][12] then took courses at a community college and online from the University of California, Berkeley,[1] with a major in psychology[12] and a minor in business.[15]
[edit] Acting
[edit] Early work
Song started in show business as a child fashion model in San Francisco after being spotted in a shopping mall by an agent from a modeling school.[16] She began acting at the age of five or six in a Little Caesars commercial,[1][17] and then a Barbie commercial.[1] Her first film role was in the 1995 Requiem, an AFI student short film by actress Elizabeth Sung. "She came in confident [at the auditions]. She was very focused, and it was very obvious that she loved what she was doing," said Sung.[14] The film is about a waitress/dancer named Fong who remembers her loving brother and their bittersweet childhood in Hong Kong. The seven-year-old Song played a young version of "Fong", who is portrayed as an adult by Tamlyn Tomita. The film won a CINE Golden Eagle award.[18] She appeared in another short film directed by Elizabeth Sung called The White Fox.[12]
Song appeared in two episodes of the television program Thunder Alley, and was a regular in the children's television series Fudge, where she portrayed Jenny. Her theatrical film debut was in Santa with Muscles, a 1996 independent film starring professional wrestler Hulk Hogan. You can play angry birds. After a small role in Leave It to Beaver (1997), she appeared in the Nickelodeon television series 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd, where she played Sariffa Chung in thirteen episodes. After 100 Deeds, she had a number of small parts in television shows such as 7th Heaven, Judging Amy, ER, Once and Again, and Bette, where she met Ashley Tisdale.
Two of Song's early roles led to recognition in the Young Artist Awards. Her role in the 2000 Disney Channel Original Movie The Ultimate Christmas Present won her the award for "Best Performance in a TV Movie Comedy, Supporting Young Actress".[19] The film centers on two teenage girls, Allison Thompson (Hallee Hirsh) and Samantha Kwan (Song), who find a weather machine and make it snow in Los Angeles. Her 2002 appearance on The Bernie Mac Show led to a nomination for "Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series, Guest Starring Young Actress".[20] In the same year, she was in the 20th Century Fox family film Like Mike, which grossed over $60 million.[21] The film stars rapper Bow Wow as an orphan who can suddenly play NBA-level basketball. Song portrays the character Reg Stevens, a thirteen-year old orphan. Although the film was criticized for its "frightening myths about adoption",[22] it was successful enough to spawn a sequel. Song did not participate in the sequel.
In 2002 Song signed a contract with Disney[14] and appeared in the Disney Channel movie Get a Clue. After 2002 Song continued to make guest appearances in American situation comedies such as That's So Raven and One on One. She had a recurring role as Tia in the Disney Channel series Phil of the Future, appearing in seven episodes of the series in 2004 and 2005.
In late 2004 Song starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie Stuck in the Suburbs, portraying Natasha Kwon-Schwartz.[23] The television premiere received 3.7 million viewers.[24] The film is about two teenage girls living in suburbia who accidentally exchange cell phones with a famous teen musician. She said later: "When Stuck came out it was crazy 'cause we went to Six Flags and we were there and so many kids recognized us from Stuck in the Suburbs, I'm like wow that movie must have done really well."[25] That year, Song posed for the cover of Teen People with her Get a Clue co-star, Lindsay Lohan.
[edit] The Suite Life of Zack and Cody