Maria Zhang (,

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

: ''Zhāng Zhìyí''; born 8 August 1999), is a Polish-Chinese actress. She appears as Suki in the 2024 live-action television series titled ''

Avatar: The Last Airbender ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'', also known as ''Avatar: The Legend of Aang'' in some regions, is an American animated series, animated fantasy television, fantasy Action fiction, action television series created by Michael Dante DiMartino a ...

''.

Early life

Zhang was born in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

to a Chinese father and a Polish mother. Around age one, Zhang and her parents moved to

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, where she grew up. She spent summers with her family in rural Poland and speaks Mandarin Chinese, Polish, and English. While in Poland at age twelve, Zhang and her sister Zofia Zhang came across a newspaper clipping of a community theater group's casting call. Later, she moved to Southern California to attend

USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

. Both of Zhang's parents are artists.

Career

Zhang starred in the 2021 short film ''All I Ever Wanted''. The film was an official selection at the

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF) – formerly known as VC FilmFest – is an annual film festival presented by Visual Communications (VC). It was established in 1983 by Linda Mabalot as a vehicle to promote Asian Pacific Amer ...

. In December 2021, Zhang was cast as

Suki Suki may refer to: People * Suki (Low Sook Yee) (born 1989), Malaysian singer, winner of the reality TV series ''One in a Million'' * Suki Brownsdon (born 1965), British swimmer * Suki Chan (born 1977), Hong Kong artist * Suki Chui (born 1984 ...

in the Netflix's ''

''. Released in 2024, the series is a live-action adaptation of the original 2005 animated series.

Filmography

Film

Television

Web

References

External links

*
Maria Zhang
on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhang, Maria 1999 births Living people 21st-century Chinese actresses 21st-century Polish actresses Actresses from Kraków Chinese emigrants to the United States Chinese film actresses Chinese people of Polish descent Chinese television actresses People from Alameda, California Polish emigrants to the United States Polish expatriates in China Polish film actresses Polish people of Chinese descent Polish television actresses USC School of Dramatic Arts alumni