Samantha Quan (born September 2, 1975) is a Canadian independent film producer and actress. She is best known for producing the films '' Red Rocket'' (2021) and ''

Anora ''Anora'' is a 2024 American romantic comedy-drama film written, directed, produced, and edited by Sean Baker. It stars Mikey Madison as Anora "Ani" Mikheeva, a stripper from New York who marries the wealthy son of a Russian oligarch played ...

'' (2024) which were directed by her husband

Sean Baker Sean Baker (born February 26, 1971) is an American filmmaker. He is a director, writer, editor, and producer of Independent film, independent narrative feature films which are most often about the lives of marginalized people, especially immi ...

. The latter won Quan the

Academy Award for Best Picture The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards (also known as Oscars) presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film a ...

Early life and education

Samantha Quan was born on September 2, 1975 in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

. Growing up, her father owned a Chinese restaurant. In 1998, Quan graduated from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in Theater. She graduated with an MFA from the

New York University Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch ...

in 2001.

Career

As an actress, Quan has played minor roles on various television shows. She received praise for her theatre role as Huong in the stage play ''Poor Yella Rednecks'' by

Qui Nguyen Qui Nguyen is a Vietnamese playwright, screenwriter and director. He is best known for his plays '' She Kills Monsters'' and ''Vietgone''. He is also known for writing ''Raya and the Last Dragon'' and '' Strange World''. Career He is a play ...

. She was instrumental in providing three weeks of acting classes to

Bria Vinaite Bria Vinaite (; born Barbora Bulvinaitė on June 10, 1993) is a Lithuanian-born American actress, best known for her debut role as Halley in Sean Baker's 2017 film ''The Florida Project''. Early life Vinaite was born in Alytus, Lithuania, and mo ...

prior to filming ''

The Florida Project ''The Florida Project'' is a 2017 American coming-of-age drama film directed by Sean Baker, written by Baker and Chris Bergoch, and starring Bria Vinaite in her film debut, Brooklynn Prince, and Willem Dafoe, with Valeria Cotto, Christopher ...

'', owing to the latter having no prior acting experience. Quan was on set throughout filming and would work with Vinaite at the end of each shooting day. Vinaite's performance was lauded as a breakout, receiving multiple film critics nominations. In 2025, Quan won a

PGA Award The Producers Guild of America Awards were originally established in 1990 by the Producers Guild of America (PGA) as the Golden Laurel Awards, created by PGA Treasurer Joel Freeman with the support of Guild President Leonard Stern, in order to ...

for producing ''Anora'' alongside Baker and Alex Coco. All three later won the

. She was also nominated for the

BAFTA Award for Best Film The BAFTA Award for Best Film is a film award given annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and presented at the British Academy Film Awards. It has been given since the 1st BAFTA Awards, representing the best films of 19 ...

. Quan won the

Critics Choice Association The Critics Choice Association (CCA), formerly the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) is an association of television, radio and online critics. Their membership includes critics who review film and television. Founded in 1995, it is the l ...

's Celebration of Asian Pacific Cinema and Television Producer Award for her work on ''Anora''. At a press conference at Cannes Film Festival,

Mikey Madison Mikaela Mikey Madison Rosberg (born March 25, 1999) is an American actress. She began her career acting in short films and received recognition for her role as a sullen teenager in the FX (TV channel), FX comedy series ''Better Things (TV se ...

said that Baker and Quan would act out different sex positions to demonstrate what they wanted the actors to do. This led to a conversation in the press about the relevance and importance of intimacy coordinators in film that generated some controversy.

Personal life

She is married to director

, and produced several of his films.

Filmography

As producer

As actress

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Quan, Samantha 1975 births Living people Hoa people Canadian women film producers Canadian actresses of Chinese descent Actresses from Vancouver 21st-century Canadian actresses Producers who won the Best Picture Academy Award Canadian film actresses Canadian television actresses Film producers from British Columbia Asian-Canadian filmmakers Mass media people from Vancouver