Starting out as a reality show star before becoming a serious, respected actor does not come very easily for most people who attempt to make that transition. However, Jamie Chung has beaten the odds, having gotten her big break on The Real World: San Diego (the MTV hit’s 14th season) and, 17 years later, eventually landing a major role in the Dexter: New Blood cast as an ambitious true crime podcast host.
The Showtime original miniseries - a continuation of the killer Emmy-winning drama Dexter - is not even the biggest title on the Korean-American actor’s resume so far. Let’s take a look at some of the best Jamie Chung movies and TV shows fans should be checking out if they have not already, starting with another one of her most esteemed television roles.
Lovecraft Country (HBO Max)
After returning from his service in the Korean War, a young Black man (Jonathan Majors) goes on a quest through Jim Crow Era America to find his missing father (Michael K. Williams), during which he learns that there is more truth to the fantasy stories he enjoys reading than he could have ever imagined.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: After a brief appearance in the pilot as one of Lovecraft Country’s more overt and familiar sci-fi/horror references, Jamie Chung reappeared as the main focus of the riveting sixth episode of the fantastic and harrowing Emmy-winning HBO series as a military nurse with a strange secret rooted in Korean folklore, which is all I will reveal about that.
Stream Lovecraft Country on HBO Max.
Buy Lovecraft Country on Amazon.
Big Hero 6 (Disney+)
A teenage mechanics prodigy (Ryan Potter) joins forces with a friendly, large, inflatable robot (Scott Adsit) and others to form a crew of powerful, technologically advanced vigilantes.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: After lending her voice to the role of the resilient, mechanically inclined superhero Go Go Tomago in 2014’s Big Hero 6, Jamie Chung would also reprise the role on the animated series spin-off of this fun and inventive adaptation of the comic book of the same name, that easily earns a place among the best animated Marvel movies yet.
Stream Big Hero 6 on Disney+.
Rent/Buy Big Hero 6 on Amazon.
Also try streaming Big Hero 6: The Series on Disney+.
Star Wars: Visions (Disney+)
An ambitious musical group hounded by a legendary bounty hunter, a boyish android discovering a heartbreaking secret about his creator, and a warrior who chooses to defend the town of the woman he loves are just some of the stories found in this collection of tales from a galaxy far, far away.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: Jamie Chung would later lend her voice to an episode of another animated series from Disney - Star Wars: Visions, an exciting and unique anthology which borrows themes and story elements from the Star Wars movies and incorporates them into beautiful Japanese anime aesthetics.
Stream Star Wars: Visions, Episode 9 on Disney+.
Once Upon A Time (Disney+)
After a troubled woman (Jennifer Morrison) is reunited with the son she gave up for adoption a decade earlier, the boy enlists her help to free a town full of amnesiac story book characters from their earthly, human bodies.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: Jamie Chung has also lent her talents to 12 episodes of Once Upon a Time - an ABC original series inspired by many literary tales that Disney has turned into animated movie classics - on which she became the first actress to play the Chinese warrrior princess, Mulan, in a live-action setting, before the release of the 2020 remake of the animated favorite from 1998.
Stream Once Upon A Time on Disney+.
Rent/Buy Once Upon A Time on Amazon.
Sin City: A Dame To Kill For (Starz)
The lives of several residents of a grim, crime-ridden town intersect in the midst of various, bloody conflicts.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: The same year that Jamie Chung became a Marvel movies star with Big Hero 6, she starred in an entirely different kind of comic book adaptation - Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, the prequel/sequel to the 2005 masterpiece based on co-director Frank Miller’s series of noir-inspired graphic novels, in which she took over the role of deadly, little Miho (previously played by Sin City cast member Devon Aoki).
Stream Sin City: A Dame to Kill For on Starz.
Rent/Buy Sin City: A Dame to Kill For on Amazon.
Premium Rush (Amazon Rental)
A New York bike messenger (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has his skills put to the ultimate test when he is tasked with delivering an envelope that, for whatever reason, makes him the target of a crooked cop (Michael Shannon), who chases him all over the city.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: Before sharing the screen with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Jamie Chung starred alongside the actor as a woman involved with the shady business JGL’s character is taunted by in 2012’s Premium Rush - a fast-packed, high-stakes thriller set in the unlikely world of bike messaging, from co-writer and director David Kopek.
Rent/Buy Premium Rush on Amazon.
Gotham (Netflix)
A good-natured cop (Ben McKenzie) struggles to avoid succumbing to corruption as a young, orphaned boy (David Mazouz) aspires to avenge his wealthy parents’ murder, in an infamously crime-ridden metropolis.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: Jamie Chung also became a DC TV shows star when she joined the Gotham cast in Season 3 for six episodes as Valerie Vale, a Gotham Gazette reporter, one-time lover of Jim Gordon, and aunt of journalist and eventual Bruce Wayne love interest, Vicki Vale.
Stream Gotham on Netflix.
Rent/Buy Gotham on Amazon.
Sucker Punch (Netflix)
A young woman (Emily Browning), sent into a mental institution by her abusive stepfather, imagines a bizarre, surreal reality in which she and four other resilient girls plan their action-packed escape.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: In 2011, before appearing in any of the various comic book adaptations listed above, Jamie Chung starred in a film that feels very much like it could have been based on a comic book called Sucker Punch - a star-studded, visually stunning, feminist fantasy tale from co-writer and director Zack Snyder.
Stream Sucker Punch on Netflix.
Rent/Buy Sucker Punch on Amazon.
The Hangover Part II (HBO Max)
Two years after their disastrous Las Vegas bachelor party, history appears to be repeating itself for Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), and Alan (Zach Galifianakis), when they gather for Stu’s wedding in Thailand and, inexplicably, wake up in Bangkok one morning.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: Also in 2011, Jamie Chung joined the cast of one of the most successful comedy movie franchises of all time when she starred as Stu’s bride-to-be, Lauren, in The Hangover Part II - which I believe, despite many glaring similarities to the plot of its 2009 predecessor, is actually funnier and more entertaining than some give it credit for, especially with Chung involved.
Stream The Hangover Part II on HBO Max.
Rent/Buy The Hangover Part II on Amazon.
Eden (Amazon Prime)
After she is kidnapped and forced against her will into becoming a sex worker, a young, Korean-American woman (Jamie Chung) desperately tries to do whatever she can to survive the cruel, inhumane treatment of her captors.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: Jamie Chung gives an astonishing performance in her first leading role as the title character of 2012’s Eden - a startling, thoroughly arresting inside look at the business of human trafficking.
Stream Eden on Amazon Prime.
Rent/Buy Eden on Amazon.
Knife Fight (Showtime)
A gifted, success-driven political strategist (Rob Lowe) begins to see the darker nature of his profession while trying to help three different troubled clients at one time.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: In the same year that she led the cast of Eden, Jamie Chung got to show off her comedic chops as Rob Lowe’s bright assistant in Oscar-winning director Bill Guttentag’s Knife Fight - a satirical, politically driven ensemble dramedy far more relevant today than it was at the time it came out.
Stream Knife Fight on Showtime.
Rent/Buy Knife Fight on Amazon.
Resident Advisors (Pluto TV)
Things get increasingly out of hand for a young woman (Jamie Chung) who accepts the responsibility of overseeing a rowdy college dorm along with her not-so responsible co-workers.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Jamie Chung: Jamie Chung’s comedic chops were front and center when she led the cast of Resident Advisors - a short-lived comedy series as charming and relatable as it is bizarre and crass, that was originally created for Hulu by Alex J. Reid, Taylor Jenkins Reid, and Natalia Anderson in 2015.
Stream Resident Advisors on Pluto TV.
Rent/Buy Resident Advisors on Amazon.
There are plenty of other great titles starring Jamie Chung that are available now, and some to look forward to as well. For instance, she will appear amongst an all-star cast in the dark comedy Reunion, which is now in post-production, and will voice Hel in Netflix’s upcoming animated adventure series, Twilight of the Gods.
