赵家玲（Rosalind Chao）在美国加州出生，因为她的父母都是京剧票友，她也在京剧中客串演出，因而被星探发现，在多个电视片集及广告中客串演出，当时她只有七岁。她在南加州大学毕业后，在电视片集《军营杏林》（M．A．S．H．）中客串，其后她在《星空奇遇记》电视片集中演出。她演出的电影包括《蜘蛛侠》（The Amazing Spiderman，1977）、《以牙还牙》（An Eye For An Eye，1981）、《千金》（又名《移民足迹》、《金山梦》）（Thousand Pleces of Gold，1991）、《隐形怪杰》(Memories of On Invisible Man， 1992）、《喜福会》等。而她最满意的作品是《千金》。她还参演过国内由陈佩斯主演的喜剧片《少爷的磨难》。目前最新作品是《南京》(Nanking)（2007）。

​Rosalind Chao is an American actress of Chinese heritage. Chao's most notable roles are as South Korean refugee Soon-Lee Klinger on CBS' AfterMASH, as Keiko O'Brien on both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Dr. Kim on The O.C., Rose Hsu Jordan in The Joy Luck Club (1993), and Hua Li, Mulan’s mother, in the live-action version of Mulan (2020). Chao is married to voice actor Simon Templeman; they have 2 children.

She began acting at the age of five in a California-based Peking opera traveling company at the instigation of her parents who were already heavily involved, and during the summers they sent her to Taiwan to further develop her acting skills. As a child, she played the daughter of a laundry owner (played by James Hong) on the 1970 episode of Here's Lucy entitled "Lucy the Laundress".

For some time, Chao worked at Disneyland as an international tour guide.

Deciding not to pursue acting, Chao enrolled in the communications department at the University of Southern California where she earned her degree in journalism. However, after spending a year as a radio newswriting intern at the CBS-owned Hollywood radio station KNX, she soon returned to acting.

Her big break was with the role of Soon-Lee, a South Korean refugee, in the final episodes of the TV series M*A*S*H. Soon-Lee married longtime starring character Maxwell Klinger (Jamie Farr) in the series finale "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen", the most-watched U.S. sitcom television episode of all time as of 2021. Chao continued playing the character in the M*A*S*H sequel series: AfterMASH (1983), her first role billed at co-starring status.

Chao regularly portrayed the Japanese exo-botanist Keiko Ishikawa O'Brien on both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. She was also originally considered for the part of Enterprise security chief Tasha Yar.

She's had recurring roles as Miss Chung on season 5 of Diff'rent Strokes, Li Ying on season 5 of Falcon Crest, Dr. Judith Lin on Citizen Baines, Dr. Kim on seasons 1 & 3 of The O.C., Pastor Jin on Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment B, Mrs. Wu on Sin City Saints, Caroline on Better Things, and Tina Tchen on The First Lady.

She's guest starred on numerous shows including This is Us, Code Black, The Catch, black-ish, The OA, Hawaii Five-O, Castle, Forever, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Bones, The Event, CSI, Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy, According to Jim, Six Feet Under, The Parkers, Monk, Without a Trace, Dharma & Greg, Once and Again, The West Wing, Family Law, ER, Brimstone, Chicago Hope, Murder She Wrote, thirty something, Jake & the Fatman, Miami Vice, Beauty and the Beast (1988), The A-Team, St. Elsewhere, Riptide, M*A*S*H,One Day at a Time (1981), Emergency!, The Incredible Hulk (1978), Here's Lucy, and more.

She has starred in several movies including The Joy Luck Club, North (1994), What Dreams May Come, Impostor, I Am Sam, Freaky Friday (2003), Just Like Heaven, Mulan (2020) as Mulan’s mother, Together Together, and The Starling.

In 2019, Chao was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences citing her contributions to critically acclaimed films The Joy Luck Club and I Am Sam.