Lee Chen was born as Li Hui in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia of China. She toured with Chairman Mao Zedong's Communist Propaganda Performance Troupe in Inner Mongolia region through out her elementary school years. Then she got her BA in English Language and was one of the founding year graduate students in Chinese and American Studies Center of Johns-Hopkins University and Nanjing Unviersity. Later she came to the U.S.to earn a MA in Education and a MFA in Theatre. She studied acting with Jeremy Piven's parents Byrne and Joyce Piven at the Piven Workshop Theatre. She had been in many theatre and dance productions in Chicago, Honoulu and Los Angeles. She wrote and performed her original one woman show "Life Flies" and toured it in Honolulu and Los Angeles area. She left acting for nine years (2001-2010) to raise her two sons and teaching English to new immigrants. She came back to act in film/TV in 2011, by now in 2016, she has guest starred and co-starred in HBO's Veep, Disney's Girl Meets World, CBS's NCIS: Los Angeles and TNT's "Southland" among others. At the same time, she has appeared as lead and supporting characters in about 40 independent features and short films. One short film took her to Cannes International Film Festival in 2015 and another won her a Best Supporting Actress in a film festival. Because of her bilingual ability (Chinese Mandarin), she has played all kinds of characters but branded out naturally as a Chinese Mom both in drama and comedy.