Filmmaker, performer, and writer, Tiana Alexandra (Thi Thanh Nga) was born in Saigon and emigrated to the USA with her family as a consequence of the Vietnam War.
Tiana escaped to Hollywood to fulfill her childhood dream to act and dance. She became Tiana Karate Princess: the first female student of 'Bruce Lee', whom she met through Jhoon Rhee in Virginia. Lee would later introduce Tiana to her future husband, Oscar-winning screenwriter Stirling Silliphant.
Tiana made her screen debut in Sam Peckinpah 's Tueur d'élite (1975). Subsequent starring roles included Pearl, the hit ABC miniseries about Pearl Harbor, the leading role in Catch the Heat (1987) with Rod Steiger, _Fly Away Home (TV 1981)_ with Brian Dennehy & The Three Kings (1987) with Lou Diamond Phillips . She was the first Vietnamese American to join Screen Actors Guild but left acting in 1988 to pursue philanthropy and social activism.
In the early '90s, Tiana made her first film, the autobiographical documentary From Hollywood to Hanoi (1992), which won the "Best Of Telluride" at Telluride Film Festival and was nominated for "Best Non-Fiction Film" at Sundance International Festival. Executive produced by Oliver Stone, this personal account of an actress's rediscovery of her homeland, her quest for reconciliation between Vietnam/USA will be expanded and re-issued in 2012, thirty-seven years after the war ended.
Tiana founded the Indochina Film Arts Foundation to stimulate artistic ventures in film, theater, radio and education, presenting numerous projects in venues from the D.G.A. in Los Angeles to the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Having amassed a one-of-a-kind archive of contemporary life in Viet Nam, she's now working on a personal portrait of her friend, the Commander of the North Vietnamese Army during both the French and the American wars, General Võ Nguyên Giáp.
Tiana is currently Associate Producer on the David Cronenberg film A Dangerous Method (2011), starring Keira Knightley and Viggo Mortensen, a project she supervised with writer Christopher Hampton since before its inception as a stage play. She is now enjoying being single, shooting & writing her new interactive play about social consciousness, and the dating game on the web titled: Somebody Nobody Everybody.
More than 60 of Tiana Alexandra's films, interviews, music videos, and more are posted on YouTube
