Constance Wu, an
American actress who broke through into Hollywood through the popular TV series
Fresh Off the Boat, recently said that she had faced sexual harassment from an
unnamed producer on the sets of the sitcom. Her statement came on the eve of
the release of her memoir titled Making a Scene. Fresh Off the Boat was the
first sitcom on network television to cast an Asian American lead. The show
came out in 2015.

Who is
Constance Wu?

Constance Wu was
born on March 22, 1982, in Richmond, Virginia. Wu’s parents are Taiwanese
immigrants. Her father, Fang-Sheng Wu, is a professor of biology and genetics
at Virginia Commonwealth University and her mother is a computer programmer.

Wu says her
paternal grandparents were poor and lived in a Taiwanese farm working as bamboo
farmers.

Third of four
daughters, Wu graduated from Douglas S Freeman High School where she developed
an interest in theatre. While in high school, she participated in a six-month
programme from the Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. She later went to
study at the State University of New York at Purchase’s Conservatory of Theatre
Arts.

Constance Wu’s
onscreen career began with a series of independent films. She played a
supporting role in Stephanie Daley (2006) and later found supporting roles in
Years of the Fish and Architect.

Her first
television appearance was in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She later
went on to do Torchwood and Covert Affairs.

In 2014, Constance
Wu scored a titular role in the Asian-American sitcom Fresh Off the Boat
opposite Randall Park. Loosely based on the life of Eddie Huang, who was also
the show’s executive producer, Fresh Off the Boat was the first network TV sitcom
on American television with an Asian-American lead.

In 2017, Constance
Wu featured in the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.
She was subsequently selected to play a lead character in Crazy Rich Asians, a
show based on the novel of the same name authored by Jon M Chu.