Chloé Zhao

Chloé Zhao Headshot

Director

Birth Name: Zhao Ting

Birth Date: March 31, 1982

Age: 42 years old

Birth Place: Beijing, China

Chloe Zhao's life has been primarily guided by a quest for information. Born in China, she grew up in a place where she felt trapped, like she was never going to get out. When her family finally moved away to London when she was in high school, she then researched and learned what she had missed being in China. She was able to separate what was true about her home country and what was false, which led her to studying Political Science at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. However, her time studying politics made her disenfranchised by the subject. Her fascination with politics was about learning people's stories, so she decided to transition into film.

Attending NYU's graduate film program, she began to create short films starting in 2008. She wrote and directed her first short "Post" (2008), which led her to create "The Atlas Mountains" (2009) and "Daughters" (2010). After finishing up school, Zhao started work on a project that would soon consume the next four years of her life. She began working on a screenplay for a film based on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation that was originally called "Lee." The project, which eventually was a Kickstarter success story in 2013, focuses on the trials and tribulations of Lakota teens. Zhao learned the group's stories, and even casted a large number of the people she talked to in the film. Now called "Songs My Brothers Taught Me" (2015), the film premiered at Sundance in 2015.

Credits

The Graduates

Executive Producer
Movie
2024

Hot Corn

Guest
Show
2022

Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer

Self
Movie
2022

Na wielkim ekranie

Actor
Show
2021

EternalsStream

Director
Movie
2021
47%

EternalsStream

Screenwriter
Movie
2021
47%

NomadlandStream

Director
Movie
2020
93%

NomadlandStream

Film Editing
Movie
2020
93%

NomadlandStream

Producer
Movie
2020
93%

NomadlandStream

Screenwriter
Movie
2020
93%

Na wielkim ekranie: Nomadland

Director
Movie
2020

Na wielkim ekranie: Nomadland

Producer
Movie
2020

Na wielkim ekranie: Nomadland

Screenwriter
Movie
2020

The RiderStream

Director
Movie
2017
97%

The RiderStream

Producer
Movie
2017
97%

The RiderStream

Screenwriter
Movie
2017
97%

Songs My Brothers Taught Me

Director
Movie
2015

Songs My Brothers Taught Me

Screenwriter
Movie
2015

Late Night With Seth MeyersStream

Guest
Talk
2014

The Girl

Actor
Ai Mei Li
Movie
2014

Daughters

Director
Movie
2010

Daughters

Producer
Movie
2010

Daughters

Screenwriter
Movie
2010

Access Hollywood

Guest
News
1996