From Chloe Wang (汪可盈) to Chloe Bennet – who is the real Chloe?

Chloe Wang (汪可盈) 0r Chloe Bennet is an American actress and singer currently playing the role of Daisy Johnson (formerly known as Skye) in the ABC spy-fi series Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Why does Chloe have two names?

Which is her real name and is she Chinese?

According to her Wikipedia profile, Chloe was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, the daughter of Stephanie Lynn Crane, an internist, and Bennet Wang, an investment banker.

Her father is Han Chinese and her mother is a Caucasian American. Following her father’s surname, her appropriate name would then be Chloe Wang.

Chloe’s grew up in an ethnically diverse family. Her well-educated parents likely embrace diversity – Chloe has six brothers: three biological, two foster and one adopted; two are African-American and one is Mexican-Filipino.

At 15, Chloe moved to China to pursue a singing career, under the name Chloe Wang (汪可盈). Her is a music video of one of her Chinese songs recorded as Chloe Wang which still can be found on YouTube:

To prove her versatility, here is an English version of the same song:

As you can see, Chloe is effectively bilingual and quite fluent in both English and Chinese. While in China, she lived with her paternal grandmother in Beijing, and studied Mandarin. She performed as a singer and then moved to Los Angeles, California.

She got her first big break on screen as a host for the short-lived TeenNick summer dance series The Nightlife. She also appeared in the 2011 music video for South Korean band BIGBANG’s extended play musical recording Tonight.

How did Chloe Wang become Chloe Bennet?

Chloe Bennet said she had changed her name from Chloe Wang because Hollywood is “racist” and would not cast her in roles because of her surname. She claims her original surname made Hollywood “uncomfortable”.

Surprise!

Who would have known Hollywood is racist?

After all, Scarlett Johansson was casted as a Japanese lead character in a live-action adaptation movie, Ghost in the Shell, based on a Japanese anime; and Matt Damon was tasked to teach the Chinese how to fight dragons in another Hollywood blockbuster, The Great Wall.

While pursuing an acting career in Hollywood, Chloe changed her name to “Chloe Bennet”, after having trouble booking gigs with her last name. According to Bennet, using her father’s first name rather than his last name avoids difficulties being cast as an ethnic Asian-American while respecting her father.

The name change seems to have worked.

From 2012-13, she played a recurring supporting role in the ABC drama series Nashville as Hailey. In December 2012, she was cast as a series regular on the ABC series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. which premiered on September 24, 2013, where she portrays the character Daisy “Skye” Johnson/Quake.

In 2017 she was cast in the MGM’s musical remake of the 1983 Martha Coolidge film, Valley Girl as the “Queen Bee” Karen.

Chloe Bennet can get away with the name change because of her mixed parentage, other non-white actors and actresses may not be able to do so.

It is most appropriate for Chloe to speak on this issue now to raise the racist that is prevalent in Hollywood. Thank you Chloe Wang/Bennet, for igniting this debate on racism in Hollywood again.