Born in Beijing in 1982, Chloé Zhao was educated in England and the United States and studied film at New York University. Her first two features, Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015) and The Rider (2017), were set among Native American communities and cowboys in South Dakota, using non-professional actors who played versions of themselves. Nomadland (2020), with Frances McDormand as a woman who lives on the road, won the Golden Lion and the Oscars for best picture and best director, making Zhao the second woman, and the first woman of colour, to win best director. She then directed the Marvel film Eternals (2021) and Hamnet (2025).
Filmography
- Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015)
- The Rider (2017)
- Nomadland (2020)
- Eternals (2021)
- Hamnet (2025)