1984–1999: Early career Quan became a child actor at age 13, starring as
Harrison Ford's 12-year-old sidekick
Short Round in the
Steven Spielberg film
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984. The casting director auditioned a number of children at Castelar Elementary School, including Quan's younger brother. He described the role as "one of the happiest times of my life". In 1985, Quan co-starred in
The Goonies as a member of the eponymous group of children, the inventor Richard "Data" Wang. He played a pickpocket orphan in the 1986 Taiwanese movie
It Takes a Thief. In 1987, he appeared in the Japanese movie
Passengers () with the Japanese idol singer
Minako Honda. He played Sam on the short-lived TV series
Together We Stand (1986–1987) and played Jasper Kwong in the sitcom
Head of the Class from 1990 to 1991. In 1991, he starred in the movie
Breathing Fire, and had a small role in
Encino Man the following year. He played the starring role in the 1993
Mandarin-language Taiwan TV show
Eunuch & Carpenter, which ran for forty episodes.
2000–2020: Acting sabbatical and other work As an adult, Quan found it difficult to find acting work in the United States. He eventually quit acting and enrolled in the film program at
University of Southern California. During his time there, he edited a
comedy horror short film titled
Voodoo alongside his friend and fellow student
Gregg Bishop, who directed the film. After graduating from USC, Quan was asked by
Corey Yuen to go to
Toronto, Ontario, to help choreograph fighting sequences in
X-Men (2000). Quan worked as assistant director on
Wong Kar-wai's
2046 (2004). In 2019, he was cast in a supporting role in the Netflix film
Finding ʻOhana, released in 2021. Quan approached director
Jude Weng after overhearing her describing the film as
The Goonies meets
Indiana Jones, in both of which Quan had appeared. The film was released in March 2022 to overwhelming acclaim, becoming the most-awarded film of all time, with Quan's performance receiving near unanimous praise and media attention, eventually leading to him winning a Golden Globe, a
Screen Actors Guild Award and an
Academy Award for his role. The Screen Actors Guild Award win made him the first Asian man to win any individual category at the
Screen Actors Guild Awards, with his win of the
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role. He was the first Vietnamese-American actor to be nominated in that category. Quan is one of two actors of Asian descent to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the other being
Haing S. Ngor in
1985, and is the first Vietnamese-born actor to win an Academy Award. and Quan at the
White House in 2023 In February 2022, it was announced that he had joined the cast of
the TV adaptation of
American Born Chinese for
Disney+, which was subsequently released in May 2023. In September 2022, Quan was announced to have joined the cast for the
second season of the
Marvel Cinematic Universe series
Loki for Disney+, which premiered on October 6, 2023. For his performance he received a
Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series nomination. In June 2023, it was announced that he had been invited to join the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as an actor. He had a voice role in
Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024). Quan has later then starred in a leading role in
Love Hurts (2025), and starred in
The Electric State, alongside
Millie Bobby Brown and
Chris Pratt. He voiced Gary De'Snake in
Zootopia 2 (2025). ==Personal life==