Do Thi Hai Yen (born 1 October 1982) is a Vietnamese actress. She rose to international fame for her role in Academy Award-nominated film The Quiet American (2002) by Phillip Noyce, which made her the first Asian actress to be nominated for a Satellite Award. For her breakthrough performance in the drama film Story of Pao (2005), Hai Yen won Best Actress awards at the 4th Vietnam Cinema Association’s Golden Kite Awards and 15th Vietnam Film Festival. She gained further acclaim for her performances in Adrift (2009), The Floating Lives (2010) and Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories (2015).

Đỗ Thị Hải Yến began her acting career at age 17 in Trần Anh Hùng’s The Vertical Ray of the Sun. She was later selected from more than 2,000 candidates to star opposite Sir Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser in Phillip Noyce’s The Quiet American, earning a nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the 2002 Golden Satellite Awards.

In 1999, director Tran Anh Hung invited Hai Yen, only 17 at that time, to play a role in the film The Vertical Ray of the Sun (Vietnam/France).^[3]

In 2000, Hai Yen appeared again in the film Song of the Stork (Vũ khúc con cò), a co-production between Vietnam and Singapore, directed by Nguyễn Phan Quang Bình (Vietnam) and Jonathan Foo (Singapore). The film had its world premiere at the 26th Montreal World Film Festival during the World Cinema section. It received the “Best Feature Film” award at the Milan Film Festival in 2002 and was nominated for Grand Prix award at the Paris Film Festival in 2003.

In 2001, Hai Yen became a leading actress in Vietnam when she was selected in a competition attended by more than 2,000 candidates in Vietnam and overseas to play the main female character next to two world-famous actors, Sir Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser, in The Quiet American directed by Phillip Noyce. It was the first time in Vietnam’s history that a Vietnamese actress was selected as a main English-speaking character in a Hollywood film. Hai Yen was nominated for the “Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Drama” at Golden Satellite Award in 2002 for her role in The Quiet American.

A prominent figure in Vietnamese arthouse cinema, Hải Yến has starred in critically acclaimed films including The Story of Pao, for which she won Best Actress honors at both the Vietnam Cinema Association’s Golden Kite Awards and the Vietnam Film Festival’s Golden Lotus Awards; Floating Lives (Best Actress, Viet Film Fest 2010); Adrift (2009); and Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories (2015).

Known for her nuanced and introspective performances, Hải Yến remains a favorite among filmmakers. Her upcoming film, The Last Secret of the First Emperor, will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2026.