Brenda Song

• 1. Introduction

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  Brenda Song was six years old when she and her mother left Carmichael, California, for Los Angeles. The move was meant to support her acting career. The rest of the family followed two years later. Song had been born in that Sacramento suburb on the 27th of March 1988. Her childhood would be spent at auditions and on sets, and her adult career would be shaped by what those years made of her. How did a girl from a quiet suburb become a star of children's television? And what happens to an actress when the audience that grew up with her expects her to stay the same?

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• 2. Roots and Schooling

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  The surname Song began as Xiong, the clan name of her paternal grandparents, which is written Xyooj in Hmong. They Americanized it after arriving in the United States. Her father is Hmong and comes from Bangkok. Her mother, also from Thailand, was adopted by a Hmong family. Both parents were born in Thailand and met as adults in Sacramento. Her father works as a school teacher and her mother is a homemaker. Song has two younger brothers, Timmy and Nathan.

  Ballet was what young Song wanted to study, while her younger brother wanted taekwondo. "My mom only wanted to take us to one place," she recalled, so the family chose taekwondo. Song cried through her entire first class. She now holds a black belt.

  In the ninth grade, Song was named an All-American Scholar. She was homeschooled and earned her high school diploma at sixteen, then took courses at a community college. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2009 with a major in psychology and a minor in business. By then she had spent well over a decade working in front of cameras.

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• 3. From Mall to Disney

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  An agent from a modeling school noticed Song in a shopping mall and signed her as a child fashion model in San Francisco. At five or six, she appeared in a Little Caesars commercial, then in one for Barbie.

  Requiem, a 1995 AFI student short film made by the actress Elizabeth Sung, was Song's first film role. Sung remembered the audition clearly. "She came in confident at the auditions. She was very focused, and it was very obvious that she loved what she was doing," Sung said. The film follows a waitress and dancer named Fong, who remembers her loving brother and their bittersweet childhood in Hong Kong. The seven-year-old Song played the young Fong, and Tamlyn Tomita played her as an adult. The film won a CINE Golden Eagle award. Song also appeared in a second Sung short, The White Fox.

  Television came next. Song appeared in two episodes of the sitcom Thunder Alley, then became a regular as Jenny in the children's series Fudge. In 1996, she made her theatrical film debut in Santa with Muscles, an independent film starring the professional wrestler Hulk Hogan. A small role in Leave It to Beaver followed in 1997.

  The Nickelodeon series 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd cast her as Sariffa Chung. After that, she picked up small parts on 7th Heaven, Judging Amy, ER, Once and Again, The Bernie Mac Show and George Lopez, among other shows.

  The Ultimate Christmas Present, a 2000 Disney Channel Original Movie, follows two teenage girls. Allison Thompson is played by Hallee Hirsh and Samantha Kwan by Song. They find a weather machine and make it snow in Los Angeles. Song's performance won a Young Artist Award for supporting young actress in a TV movie comedy.

  In 2002, her guest spot on The Bernie Mac Show brought another Young Artist nomination. That same year, she appeared in Like Mike, a 20th Century Fox family film that grossed over $60 million. The rapper Bow Wow starred as an orphan who can suddenly play at an NBA level. Song played Reg Stevens, a thirteen-year-old orphan.

  Also in 2002, Song signed a contract with Disney and appeared in the Disney Channel movie Get a Clue, alongside Lindsay Lohan. She guest-starred on That's So Raven and One on One. In 2004 and 2005, she played Tia in seven episodes of Phil of the Future.

  In summer 2004, Stuck in the Suburbs cast her as Natasha Kwon-Schwartz. Its television premiere drew 3.7 million viewers. In the story, two teenage girls living in suburbia accidentally swap cell phones with a famous teen singer. At fifteen, Song also received an early acceptance letter from Harvard University, and she turned it down.

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• 4. London Tipton

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  "My mom got breast cancer for the first time, I booked Suite Life, and I was accepted into the college I'd always wanted to go to." That is how Song described the period when she weighed the Harvard offer. Her father encouraged her to take the role.

  The character was a spoiled heiress named London Tipton. The part was first named Paris, a nod to Paris Hilton. Song got it without an audition. "London is my fantasy person, I wish I could be her. I wish I had her closet," Song said.

  The Suite Life of Zack & Cody premiered on the Disney Channel on the 18th of March 2005. It drew four million viewers, the network's most successful premiere that year. The series is set in the fictional Tipton Hotel in Boston. It centers on the trouble-making twins Zack and Cody Martin, played by Dylan and Cole Sprouse.

  The show won a 2007 Young Artist Award for best family television series in comedy. It drew two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Children's Program and one for Outstanding Choreography. It also earned Kids' Choice Award nominations for Favorite TV Show in 2007-2008 and 2009. Song herself received a 2006 Asian Excellence Award nomination for Outstanding Newcomer.

  In a High School Musical-themed episode, Song performed "Bop To The Top" and "Really Great." The second song became the theme of the online series London Tipton's Yay Me!. She also sang "Bling Is My Favourite Thing" in another episode. Each time, she sang poorly on purpose, in character.

  In April 2006, the DisneyMania 4 CD and a special edition Cinderella DVD included a version of "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes." It was recorded by the Disney Channel Circle of Stars, a group of performers from several of the network's series, and Song was among them. That same year, she voiced a part in Holidaze: The Christmas That Almost Didn't Happen. She also had a voice role in American Dragon: Jake Long.

  When Song reprised London in the spin-off The Suite Life on Deck, its premiere drew 5.7 million viewers. It became the most-watched series premiere on Canada's Family Channel. Disney ordered second and third seasons. In May 2009, the cast of The Suite Life became the longest running continuous characters in Disney Channel history. An MSN cover story that year called Song one of the main reasons the franchise remained among Disney's most successful and highly rated series.

  In 2006, though, she would also carry her own film as its title character.

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• 5. Wendy Wu

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  Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior, released in 2006, gave Song her first role as a title character, though that was not the original plan. She had been slated for a supporting part. The lead was offered to her after she started martial arts training. Lydia Cook, one of the film's directors, explained why. "She had the perfect combination of wit and martial arts," Cook said.

  In the film, a Chinese-American teenager's life is turned upside down by a visit from a young Chinese monk, played by Shin Koyamada. The story also explores Wendy's culture and heritage. Disney Channel executive vice president Gary Marsh described it as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Of Song, he said: "She's incredibly talented, she's smart. She adds diversity to our network, and she's a real kid." Song felt close to the character's struggles with heritage, because she had known little about her own people before making the film.

  Song did most of her own stunt work, with guidance from Koichi Sakamoto. She was also a co-producer. The premiere drew over 5.7 million viewers, and critics were positive. UltimateDisney.com praised the film as a showcase of her acting and martial arts. Allmovie described her as a "charming and appealing personality." The New York Times called the film a "star vehicle" for Song.

  To promote it, she appeared on the covers of Seventeen, Teen People, Teen, Seventeen Malaysia and several other magazines. She traveled to Malaysia, Singapore and Costa Rica.

  A year earlier, in 2005, Scholastic Math had already run a feature titled "Maths Spotlight on... Brenda Song," with facts about her and mathematical guidance from Song herself.

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• 6. Fame and Causes

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  In 2006, CosmoGirl named Song the "Queen of Disney," citing her contributions to the Disney Channel. Netscape ranked her ninth on its 2007 list of "Top 10 Pretty Petites in Entertainment." AOL voted her one of its "Top 20 Tween (and Teen) TV Stars." In 2009, Celebuzz put her on its "Rising Stars" list. The blog Angry Asian Man named her one of the most influential Asian Americans under the age of 30.

  In April 2008, LA Weekly ran a picture of Song in an ad for an escort agency. A Disney representative told TMZ.com: "This is an unauthorized use of Brenda Song's image and her personal attorney has issued a cease and desist to the advertiser." Song filed a libel suit seeking $100,000 in damages. "As a role model to millions of young people, I feel I have to take a stand against this company in regard to its exploitation of my image," she said. A settlement was announced in March 2009.

  In 2006, Song hosted the "A World of Change" annual charity fashion show, which benefited Optimist Youth Homes & Family Services. She also supported the 10th Annual L.A. Cancer Challenge. In 2006 and 2007, she took part in YMCA Healthy Kids Day in Chicago.

  In 2007, she began hosting Pass the Plate, a daily Disney segment that teaches children and families about nutrition and healthy food. The series is produced in ten countries, and she returned for a second season.

  In 2008, Song appeared alongside Paula Abdul and other celebrities in an "Our Time to Vote" commercial, which urged Americans to vote in the presidential election. That year she also joined the "Power of Youth carnival," a benefit for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. In 2009, she decorated an egg at the "Diet Pepsi Easter Holiday House" event, and it was sold in an online auction benefiting Feeding America.

  She also served as spokesperson for Disney's Friends for Change, an environmental campaign. Disney Channel commercials explained how children could help preserve the Earth. Children who registered and pledged on the website could help choose how Disney would invest $1 million in environmental programs.

  In 2010, she became the celebrity endorser of Disney Cruise Line, and in 2011 the spokesperson of the clothing brand OP.

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• 7. Leaving Disney Behind

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  The Social Network, a Columbia Pictures film, placed Song in a main cast with Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake. She played Christy Lee, a Harvard University student who dates Eduardo Saverin, played by Garfield. The film was critically acclaimed, and it became her first to be inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. She told Variety the role "changed her life." She also said she had "fought" for it, because Disney took issue with the film's sexual content. She claimed she had lost an audition for Gran Torino in 2008 on the same grounds.

  In October 2011, Song starred in Boogie Town, shot in Los Angeles. It retells Romeo and Juliet in a futuristic New York where dance battles are permanently banned. She played the female lead, Natalie. In 2012, she starred in the short film First Kiss with her Social Network costar Joseph Mazzello. It won Best Short Film at the Omaha Film Festival and the TriMedia Film Festival.

  In 2012 and 2013, she had a recurring role as Alissa on Scandal. In 2013, she played Daisy on New Girl. That August, she was cast as Veronica in the Fox sitcom Dads, which premiered on the 17th of September 2013. Asian-American watchdog groups criticized the pilot because Song's character wore a stereotypical "sexy Asian schoolgirl" costume, which they called racist. Song defended the series in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Fox refused to re-shoot the scenes. In May 2014, it canceled the series after one season.

  In October 2014, Song signed a talent holding deal with Fox and 20th Century Fox Television. In April 2015, she was cast in the NBC comedy pilot Take It From Us. That November, she joined the CBS series Life in Pieces as Bonnie. In February 2016, she was cast in the CBS pilot Bunker Hill, later renamed Pure Genius. It aired in the 2016-2017 season and was canceled after one season. In March 2017, she joined the CBS pilot Real Life.

  Changeland was Seth Green's directorial debut. On it, Song worked with her future romantic partner, Macaulay Culkin. They met in June 2017, and they were seen dating the following month. Before that, from 2010 to 2017, she was in an on-and-off relationship with the musician Trace Cyrus, to whom she was engaged from 2011 to 2012. Song and Culkin had their first son in 2021 and became engaged in January 2022. Their second son was born later that year. The couple lives in Los Angeles, and Song is a fan of the Los Angeles Rams.

  In August 2017, Freeform announced Angry Angel, its first original holiday film, which premiered on the 18th of November 2017. In March 2018, she joined Station 19 for a multi-episode arc. Netflix released her psychological thriller Secret Obsession in July 2019. She also starred opposite Kat Dennings in the Hulu series Dollface and voiced Anne Boonchuy in the Disney Channel animated series Amphibia. Both shows would run until 2022.

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• 8. Second Act

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  In 2022, Song voiced the news anchor Vanessa Vue on The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder. That year she also starred as Alexa in the Amazon Freevee movie Love Accidentally. Radhika Menon of Decider wrote, "The film under-uses Brenda Song." She joined an ensemble cast in the horror game The Quarry, playing Kaitlyn Ka through voice, motion capture and likeness. In 2023, she began voicing Princess Akemi in the animated series Blue Eye Samurai. The following year, she appeared in Operation Taco Gary's, Michael Kvamme's directorial debut.

  Song told The Hollywood Reporter's Seija Rankin that she hit a career slump in early 2023 and considered retiring. Then Gia Coppola cast her as a showgirl in The Last Showgirl. Song thought the role would surprise audiences, because her character works in adult entertainment. The film was released in 2024 and won her a shared award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.

  In 2025, Song starred in Running Point, a Mindy Kaling office comedy. She played the right-hand woman of Isla, played by Kate Hudson. Time magazine praised her high-energy competence but wished for storylines of her own. Vanity Fair and other outlets praised her career reinvention across both projects. Song credits the roles with letting audiences meet "the adult me."

  In June 2025, Variety gave her the Variety Virtuoso Award at the Bentonville Film Festival for Running Point. In July 2025, she announced the nominations for the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Television Academy's Wolf Theatre in North Hollywood. She co-hosted with the actor Harvey Guillén and Television Academy chair Cris Abrego. She also voiced the lynx Kitty Lynxley in a cameo in the 2025 film Zootopia 2.

  A project called The Fifth Wheel is listed as filming for 2027.

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