Chloé Zhao

Chloé Zhao Bio

Chloé Zhao (born Zhao Ting on 31 March 1982) is a Chinese-born filmmaker known for her distinct storytelling approach in independent cinema. Her notable achievements include winning the Academy Award for Best Director for her film Nomadland (2020), making her the second woman and the first woman of color to receive that honor. Zhao has built a reputation for character-driven dramas that explore identity, displacement, and belonging, and she works as a film director, screenwriter, producer, and editor.

Zhao first drew wide attention with intimate independent features set in the American Midwest and Great Plains before moving on to larger studio projects. Her work has earned her major prizes from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. She continues to be regarded as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary cinema.

Early Life and Background

Chloé Zhao was born Zhao Ting on 31 March 1982 in Beijing, China. Her father, Zhao Yuji, was a successful executive at Shougang Group, one of the country’s largest state-owned steel companies, who later moved into real-estate development and equity investment. After her parents divorced, her father remarried Song Dandan, a well-known Chinese actress best known for her appearance in the sitcom Home with Kids. Zhao has described herself as a curious child who was drawn to Western pop culture, especially film and music, and as a teenager she became more interested in drawing manga-style comics and writing fan fiction than in school.

As a teenager, Zhao was strongly influenced by the films of Wong Kar-wai, particularly Happy Together, which she has called the film that made her want to make movies. In 1998, at the age of 15, her parents sent her to study in England at Brighton College, even though she was still learning English at the time. She later moved to Los Angeles on her own in 2000, where she attended Los Angeles High School while living in a Koreatown apartment.

After high school, Zhao attended Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, where she majored in politics and minored in film studies, graduating in 2005. While working odd jobs after college, she realized she enjoyed meeting people and hearing their stories, which pushed her toward film school. In 2010, she enrolled in the graduate film program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied under director Spike Lee.

Path to Director

Zhao’s earliest work behind the camera came during her time at New York University. Her first short film, The Atlas Mountains, was released in 2009 and followed a woman who develops a brief but passionate relationship with an immigrant worker who comes to fix her computer. In 2010, she released a second short film, Daughters, about a 14-year-old girl in rural China forced into an arranged marriage. Daughters won First Place Student Live Action Short at the Palm Springs International Short Fest and a Special Jury Prize at the Cinequest Film Festival.

These early projects helped Zhao sharpen the humanistic, documentary-influenced style that would later define her features. Working with non-actors and improvising scenes around their real lives became a signature part of her process, a method she would carry into her later independent films. By the time she completed her graduate studies, she had already built a small but respected body of short-form work that paved the way for her debut feature.

Zhao’s transition into feature directing began in 2015 with the Sundance Film Festival premiere of Songs My Brothers Taught Me, the first of three independent features set in rural America. That film, along with The Rider in 2017, established her as a filmmaker drawn to stories of overlooked communities and the emotional weight of place. Her growing reputation in the indie world set the stage for the international breakthrough that would follow with Nomadland.

Chloé Zhao Career

Early Career (2015–2017)

Zhao premiered her debut feature, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival as part of the U.S. Dramatic Competition. Shot on location at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the film depicts the relationship between a Lakota Sioux man and his younger sister. Working with non-actors from the reservation, Zhao and her team collected around 100 hours of footage to shape the story through improvisation and real life experiences. The film later played at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the Director’s Fortnight and was nominated for Best First Feature at the 31st Independent Spirit Awards.

In 2017, Zhao directed The Rider, a contemporary western drama that follows a young cowboy’s journey of self-discovery after a near-fatal accident ends his professional riding career. The film was executive produced by her father, Yuji Zhao, and once again featured a cast of non-actors living on the filming location. The Rider premiered at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the Directors’ Fortnight selection, where it won the Art Cinema Award. It also earned Zhao nominations for Best Feature and Best Director at the 33rd Independent Spirit Awards, where she became the inaugural winner of the Bonnie Award, which recognizes a mid-career female director.

Breakthrough (2020–2021)

Zhao’s international breakthrough came with Nomadland, which she wrote, produced, edited, and directed. Adapted from Jessica Bruder’s non-fiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, the film was shot over four months with many actual nomadic workers, some of whom had been interviewed for the original book. Starring Frances McDormand, the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Golden Lion, and later won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Released on 19 February 2021 by Searchlight Pictures, Nomadland won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, making Zhao the first woman of Asian descent and only the second woman to win the Golden Globe for directing since Barbra Streisand in 1984. She also won the BAFTA Award for Best Direction and the Directors Guild of America Award for Directing. In April 2021, Zhao won the Academy Award for Best Director, becoming only the second woman to receive that honor after Kathryn Bigelow, and the first woman of color.

In 2021, Zhao expanded her reach into the studio system with Eternals, a Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film she co-wrote and directed. Released on 5 November 2021, the film featured an ensemble cast and followed a new team of superheroes introduced after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Despite mixed reviews, the film opened at number one at the box office with $161.7 million during its opening weekend and became a global commercial success.

Notable Works and Milestones

Zhao’s signature works include the independent trilogy of Songs My Brothers Taught Me, The Rider, and Nomadland, each of which earned her major recognition on the festival circuit. Her most celebrated milestone remains her 2021 Academy Award win for Best Director, which cemented her status as a historic figure in modern Hollywood. The 2025 release of Hamnet further extended her record, earning her a second Academy Award nomination for Best Director.

Chloé Zhao Award Nominations

Across her career, Chloé Zhao has received a range of high-profile nominations for her work as a director, writer, and editor. Her most prominent nominations include four Academy Award nominations for Nomadland in 2021, including Best Picture and Best Director, with additional nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing. She was later nominated for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 98th Academy Awards in 2026 for her film Hamnet, which was also nominated for Best Picture. In the independent film world, Zhao has earned multiple Independent Spirit Award nominations, including Best First Feature for Songs My Brothers Taught Me and Best Feature and Best Director for The Rider.

Chloé Zhao Awards Won

Zhao’s career is marked by several of the most prestigious awards in film. She won the Academy Award for Best Director and shared in the Best Picture win for Nomadland in 2021. She also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, the BAFTA Award for Best Direction, the Directors Guild of America Award for Directing, and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Director and Best Editing, all for Nomadland. Her earlier short film Daughters won First Place Student Live Action Short at the 2010 Palm Springs International Short Fest and a Special Jury Prize at the 2010 Cinequest Film Festival, while The Rider earned her the Art Cinema Award at Cannes and the inaugural Bonnie Award. Her 2025 film Hamnet won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama and the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film.

Chloé Zhao Family

Chloé Zhao was raised in Beijing by her father, Zhao Yuji, a former executive at Shougang Group who later moved into real estate and investment. After her parents divorced, her father married Song Dandan, a well-known Chinese actress recognized for her role in the sitcom Home with Kids. Zhao has spoken about how her relationship with her father and stepmother shaped her early years and her path toward studying abroad.

Personal Life

Zhao was in a long-term relationship with English cinematographer Joshua James Richards, with whom she also collaborated on several of her films, including Songs My Brothers Taught Me, The Rider, and Nomadland. The two met while she was researching her first feature and Richards was a film student at New York University. As of 2021, Zhao lived in Ojai, California, and she has publicly described herself as neurodivergent, calling it a superpower that shapes how she approaches her work and daily life.