Tien Tran

Hanh Tien Tran, is an American comedian, actress, and writer. She is best known for her role as Ellen in the comedy series How I Met Your Father (2022) and Jane Ji in the horror film Candyman (2021).

Early life
Tran was born in Chester, Pennsylvania and grew up in Erie and Millcreek Township. Her parents are Vietnamese refugees who immigrated to the United States in 1979. She graduated from Boston College with a degree in biology, where she was part of a sketch comedy group.

Career
In 2017, she was a cast member at The Second City in Chicago, where she had previously been a recipient of the Second City's Bob Curry Fellowship.

During 2017–2020, she appeared in guest roles in several TV series, including Easy, Hot Date, Sherman's Showcase, and Space Force. In 2021, she was a staff writer for the second season of Work in Progress, and co-wrote and appeared in one episode. She also appeared in the Chicago-set horror film Candyman and an episode of the comedy series South Side.

In 2021, Tran was cast as a series regular in the Hulu sitcom How I Met Your Father, a spin-off of the series How I Met Your Mother. She plays Ellen, who moves to New York from a small farming town in Iowa after divorcing her wife. The series was released on January 18, 2022. On February 15, 2022, Hulu renewed the series for a 20-episode second season.

Tran is a regular contributor to the feminist podcast Hysteria, hosted on Crooked Media. She co-hosts the podcast In These Cleats with Angel City FC defender Paige Nielsen, which launched during the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup and covers women's soccer.

Personal life
Tran is openly lesbian. Tran's older sister Tram-Anh Tran starred in the 1990s children's television series Ghostwriter.