Wu was born on March 22, 1982, in Richmond, Virginia, into a Taiwanese American family. Wu's parents emigrated from Taiwan. Wu said that her paternal grandparents were very poor, working as bamboo farmers, and did not have the opportunity to get an education, so were unable to read and write. Her father was a biology and genetics professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and her mother was a computer programmer.
She has three sisters, two older and one younger.
Education
Constance graduated from Douglas S. Freeman High School, where she began performing in local theater; she participated in a six month program during high school at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.
Wu graduated from State University of New York at Purchase's Conservatory of Theatre Arts with a bachelor of fine arts in acting in 2005. Wu was influenced by Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee.
After college, Wu studied psycholinguistics and almost attended a graduate degree program in speech pathology at Columbia University.
Wu's career began in New York, taking on a variety of supporting roles both in film and television. She appeared in indie films like Stephanie Daley (2006), The Architect (2006) and Year of the Fish (2007), and on the small screen, she played ancillary characters in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Covert Affairs and for a brief time in 2007, played Laudine Lee on ABC's One Life to Live.
After moving to Los Angeles in 2010, Wu continued taking on supporting roles, which included a part in Brit Marling's psychological thriller Sound of My Voice (2011). Two years later, Wu put her acting chops online by working on the webseries EastSiders, a dark comedy that eventually became critically acclaimed and earned her praise and award nominations. On the show, which was eventually picked up by Netflix, she plays Kathy, a sharp-tongued and emotionally complicated but devoted friend of the main character Cal.
But it wasn't until 2014 that Wu had a major breakthrough in her career, being cast as young Chinese immigrant mother Jessica Huang on ABC's family sitcom Fresh Off the Boat, a story about a Taiwanese family moving from Washington D.C. and adjusting to their new life in Orlando, Florida.
With the success of Fresh Off the Boat, Wu began looking for other projects that would make a social and cultural impact, which she found with the film Crazy Rich Asians, an adaptation of author Kevin Kwan's novel. Although director Jon M. Chu had wanted Wu for the lead role, the actress had scheduling conflicts and had to reluctantly turn down the project. However, a month later, she decided to reach out to Chu via email to let him know she was still passionate about the opportunity. In the rom-com, Wu plays Chinese-American professor Rachel Chu, whose boyfriend Nick takes her to Singapore to celebrate a friend's wedding, only to find out that Nick is from a super rich family and a major chick magnet.
The first major studio project since The Joy Luck Club (1993) involving an Asian-American storyline with an all-Asian cast, Crazy Rich Asians proved a hit with audiences, raking in $34 million at the box office over its first five days.
Constance Tianming Wu is best known for her roles as Kathy on the web series EastSiders (2012–present), Jessica Huang in the ABC comedy series Fresh Off the Boat (2015–present), and Rachel Chu in the 2018 film Crazy Rich Asians. In 2017, Wu was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.
For her performance in the ABC comedy series Fresh Off the Boat , she was nominated for Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series and a Television Critics Association TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy, both in 2015.
Constance had some thoughts on the election and the impending Trump presidency. “We heard a lot about some of these Rust Belt states having economic anxiety because their manufacturing jobs are going away and that’s why they voted for Trump, because he wants to get rid of NAFTA,” Wu told Vulture at Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards. “My take on it is a lot of these jobs are going away just simply because we’re evolving with technology, and robots and computers are taking them away. But since that’s such a difficult thing to understand, often the scapegoat is immigrants and people of color, which is, I think, why you saw a lot of divisive, racist rhetoric during Trump’s campaign and why we’re seeing a rise of hate crimes toward people of color now.” “I think that one of the best cures for racism isn’t necessarily calling somebody a racist, but is actual exposure to other races as fully formed human beings. A lot of these people haven’t met an Asian-American, they only see what they see on TV. So I think what I’m doing with my show Fresh Off the Boat, and what many networks are doing, where they’re not just having diversity in the side parts … I actually think small movements like that can help to eliminate a little bit of the fear of the unknown when it comes to race,” Wu said. “And then maybe people of color become less of a scapegoat for economic anxiety and we can all start hating robots instead!”
Views
Wu is known for being an outspoken advocate on giving Asian-American artists ample opportunity to find diverse and meaningful work in Hollywood. She spoke decisively against the decision to cast Scarlett Johansson as the heroine in what was originally a Japanese character in the film Ghost in the Shell (2017).
Wu also spoke about her experiences talking to VIPs about the limited roles available to Asian-American actors.
Personality
Wu lives in Los Angeles with her pet rabbit, Lida Rose.
Physical Characteristics:
Height: 5 Feet 4 Inches
Body Weight: 125lbs
Bra Size: 34A
Body Measurement: 35-24-35
Interests
Sport & Clubs
She is an avid long-distance runner.
Connections
Constance has no husband at the moment and she has never been married. She has, however, been in a rather interesting relationship with the only boyfriend she has ever been publicly associated with. She began the relationship with Ben Hethcoat who is a filmmaker in 2011. The two met at a mutual friend’s and they didn’t hide that they were dating as they easily shared it on social media.
After 4 years of dating, however, they parted ways in 2016 without furnishing the eagerly wanting-to-know public with what went wrong. From that point, there’s been nothing to speculate about concerning the relationship and dating status of the star actress who is easy to love
