Ching Valdes-Aran

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Ching Valdes-Aran, also credited as Ching Valdes or Ching Valdes/Aran, is a Filipino-American actress, dancer, and choreographer. Born in San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte in the Philippines, she trained as a dancer and joined the Filipinescas Dance Company at 13. She moved to New York City in 1967 and worked with several dance groups, later shifting toward choreography and solo dance. While at La MaMa, she connected with the Pan Asian Repertory and began pursuing acting.

Her screen debut came in 1985 on The Equalizer. She has appeared on TV and in films since, including Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Blacklist, Elementary, and Blindspot. Her film debut was the experimental Fresh Kill (1994), followed by Closer to Home (1995). She has also been in Across the Universe (2007), Sex and the City (2008), From What Is Before (2014), Little Men (2016), and voiced Gamu in Missing Link (2019). On stage, she won an Obie Award in 1997 for Flipzoids and played Emelda Marcos in Dogeaters (1998). She appeared in A Man’s A Man (2014) and, from 2017 to 2023, toured Geoff Sobelle’s Home internationally. In 2023, she acted in True West with an all-Asian cast at People’s Light. Valdes-Aran lives in New York City and has advised the National Endowment for the Arts.