Jona Xiao (born May 18, 1989) is an American actress born in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Early life

Xiao was born in Changsha, China and moved to New York as infant, before ultimately settling in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

with her family; starting acting in middle school. Growing up, she was called '

chink ''Chink'' is an English-language ethnic slur usually referring to a person of Chinese descent. The word is also sometimes indiscriminately used against people of East Asian, North Asian and Southeast Asian appearance. The use of the term des ...

' and '

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the R ...

' and decided to be an actress to break against stereotypes. Xiao founded Career ACTivate, which specializes in helping actors jumpstart and progress their careers.

Career

Xiao was cast in '' Spider-Man: Homecoming'' in a role that she denies was initially written for an Asian-American actress.

Marisa Tomei Marisa Tomei ( , ; born December 4, 1964) is an American actress. She came to prominence as a cast member on ''The Cosby Show'' spin-off ''A Different World'' in 1987. After having minor roles in a few films, she came to international attention ...

, who plays

Aunt May Maybelle "May" Parker-Jameson (née Reilly), commonly known as Aunt May, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the superhero Spider-Man. Making her first full appeara ...

in the film, lobbied for Xiao to be cast. Her role ended up getting cut in the final film. In 2021, Xiao lent her voice to a younger Namaari in ''

Raya and the Last Dragon ''Raya and the Last Dragon'' ( ) is a 2021 American computer-animated fantasy action-adventure film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The 59th film produced by the studio, it wa ...

''.

Filmography

Television

Film

References

External links

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Jona Xiao on Douban

Jona Xiao on Mtime
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xiao, Jona American film actresses 21st-century American actresses American actresses of Chinese descent Living people 1989 births Actresses from Changsha American television actresses Actresses from St. Louis