Samantha Quan (born September 2, 1975) is a Canadian independent film producer and actress. She is best known for producing the filmsRed Rocket (2021) andAnora (2024) which were directed by her husbandSean Baker.^[1] The latter won Quan theAcademy Award for Best Picture.^[2]

Samantha Quan
Quan at theNew York Film Festival, 2024
Born	(1975-09-02)September 2, 1975 (age 49) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Occupation(s)	Film producer, actress
Years active	1997–present
Spouse	Sean Baker

Samantha Quan was born in September 2, 1975 inVancouver. Her parents wereHoa people who were forced to leaveSaigon after thecollapse of the Republic of Vietnam on April 30, 1975.^[3] Growing up, her father owned a Chinese restaurant.^[4]

In 1998, Quan graduated from theUniversity of British Columbia with aBachelor of Arts in Theater. She graduated with anMFA from theNew York University Tisch School of the Arts in 2001.^[5]

As an actress, Quan has played minor roles on various television shows. She received praise for her theatre role as Huong in the stage playPoor Yella Rednecks byQui Nguyen.^[6][7][8] She was instrumental in providing three weeks of acting classes toBria Vinaite prior to filmingThe Florida Project, owing to the latter having no prior acting experience.^[9] Quan was on set throughout filming and would work with Vinaite at the end of each shooting day.^[10] Vinaite's performance was lauded as a breakout, receiving multiple film critics nominations.^[11]

In 2025, Quan won aPGA Award for producingAnora alongside Baker and Alex Coco.^[12] All three later won theAcademy Award for Best Picture.^[13] She was also nominated for theBAFTA Award for Best Film.^[14] Quan won theCritics Choice Association'sCelebration of Asian Pacific Cinema and Television Producer Award for her work onAnora.^[15][16]

At a press conference at Cannes Film Festival,Mikey Madison 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 ofintimacy coordinators in film that generated some controversy.^[17][18]

She is married to directorSean Baker, and produced several of his films.^[17]

• Samantha Quan atIMDb