Joan Chen () (born April 26, 1961) is an actor and film director.

Born in Shanghai, China. At age eighteen she won the Golden Rooster award for acting in China. At age twenty she moved to the United States where she studied film at California State University. In 1989, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Her first Hollywood movie was Tai-Pan, filmed on location in China. She went on to star in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor in 1987 and the David Lynch television series Twin Peaks.

She directed in 1998 and Autumn in New York in 2000. She has also appeared in many other numerous movies both in Hollywood and China.

Selected filmography

• Salute of the Jugger (1990)
• The Wild side