If you're an avid follower of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you are likely familiar with the actress who goes by the name Chloe Bennet. She is now synonymous with the character Quake (Daisy Johnson) in the ABC series, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
What you might not know about Bennet is that she did not originally go by this surname. Equally, she did not alter it as the result of a change in marital status or anything along those lines. Here, we take a closer look at who Chloe Bennet is, what she originally went by, and why she chose to change her name.
Deeply Immersed Into The Arts
Bennet was born Chloe Wang in April 1992 in Chicago, Illinois. Her mother, Dr. Stephanie Wang, works as an internist at the Rush University Medical Center in the city. Her father, Bennet Wang, is an investment banker.
She grew up in a family that she once referred to as 'the United Nations meets Animal House': She is the only girl in family of seven siblings, two who are African American and one who is Mexican-Filipino.
Even as a young girl, Bennet was always deeply immersed into the arts. She shed a light on this side of her childhood in a 2013 interview with the Chicago Tribune. "We used to wrestle and do that kind of stuff, and I was just a tomboy," Bennet said of growing up with her brothers. "I really got into the arts because I tried every sport and was just terrible, so I was like, the only thing for me to do is be creative."
Dr. Wang spoke about how little Chloe put her creative personality to work, even in those very early years of her life. "She's always had this bigger than life personality," she reminisced in the same Tribune report. "From the time she was very little, she would organize the neighborhood kids and dress them up and put on shows."
Had To Pay Rent
When she was 12, Chloe joined The Second City, a youth ensemble troupe in Chicago where she started studying acting and improv. She would soon move to Beijing for a short period of time, where she stayed with her paternal grandmother and studied Mandarin.
She returned to the States and moved to LA in 2010 to pursue a career in music and acting. She released three songs in 2011, 'Every Day In Between' and two versions of 'Uh Oh,' one English and the other Mandarin.
She got her major breakthrough as an actor when she landed a recurring role in the ABC musical drama, Nashville. Immediately after this stint, she joined the original cast of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a role she went on to reprise over the course of seven years.
The question of why she decided to change her name popped up when a fan posed it to her on social media in 2017. "Hollywood is racist and wouldn’t cast me with a last name that made them uncomfortable," she wrote. "I had to pay my rent."