Shirley Chen

Shirley Chen is an American actress. She is known for leading the Sundance feature film Beast Beast and for her ensemble role in Dìdi (2024), for which the cast received the Special Jury Award for Ensemble at the Sundance Film Festival. She starred in the satirical drama Slanted (2025), which won the Narrative Feature Competition Grand Jury Prize at the South by Southwest Film & TV Festival.

Personal life

Chen was born in Pennsylvania, and moved to Washington at a young age, where she grew up. At age 13, she relocated with her family to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. She attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. Chen graduated from Harvard University, where she double-majored in History & Literature and Theater, Dance & Media. She was among the first six women cast in the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the nearly 200-year-old theatrical group. Her performance in Krista won the Best Acting in a Narrative Short award at the 2018 South by Southwest Film Festival. Madden subsequently developed Krista into the feature film Beast Beast, executive produced by Alec Baldwin, in which Chen reprised her role as Krista.

In 2021, Chen appeared in and produced the short film Only the Moon Stands Still, executive produced by Lena Waithe, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. In 2022, she performed in a leading role in Man of God at the Geffen Playhouse. The cast received the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, and the film also won the Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition.

Chen led the cast of Amy Wang's satirical drama Slanted (2025), playing a Chinese American high schooler who undergoes an experimental surgery to alter her ethnicity. The film won the Narrative Feature Competition Grand Jury Prize at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival. Bleecker Street and Fox Entertainment Studios subsequently acquired the film for a planned 2026 theatrical release.

In 2025, the Ouray International Film Festival presented Chen with its Excellence in Acting Award, only the second actor to receive the honor.

Recognition

Chen received the Best Acting in a Narrative Short award at the 2018 South by Southwest Film Festival for Krista. In 2024, she was part of the Dìdi ensemble cast that received the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble at the Sundance Film Festival. The Ouray International Film Festival presented her with its Excellence in Acting Award in 2025.