Rae Dawn Chong is a Canadian-American actress known for her fearless, genre-hopping work in film and television since the late 1970s. She made her big-screen debut in the musical drama Stony Island (1978), but it was her striking performance as the resourceful Ika in Jean-Jacques Annaud’s prehistoric epic Quest for Fire (1981) that put her on the map, earning her the Genie Award for Best Actress.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Chong became a familiar face in both studio films and cult favorites. She lit up the screen in Beat Street (1984) and Choose Me (1984), brought heart and edge to American Flyers (1985) and the hit drama The Color Purple (1985), and showed her action chops opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando (1985). She continued to build a diverse resume with roles in Soul Man (1986), The Principal (1987), and the horror anthology Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990), followed by projects like The Borrower (1991), Time Runner (1993), and Boulevard (1994).

Born in Edmonton, Alberta, to actor-comedian Tommy Chong and editor Maxine Sneed, Rae Dawn comes from a richly mixed Chinese, Scots-Irish, and Black Canadian heritage and is part of a multitalented family that includes sister Robbi Chong and adopted brother Marcus Chong. A fun fact: despite growing up in a house full of creativity, her breakout performance in Quest for Fire required her to convey emotion almost entirely without modern language—proving early on that she could command the screen with very few words at all.