Lauren Tom is the name of the actress who portrayed Linda Tran in season seven and eight of Supernatural and is an American actress and voice actress who played the roles of Lena St. Clair in The Joy Luck Club, Julie in the NBC sitcom Friends, and provided the voices for both mother and daughter characters on two animated TV comedy series: on Futurama she voices Amy Wong and her mother Inez, and on King of the Hill she voiced Minh & Connie Souphanousinphone. At the age of 17, Lauren Tom landed a spot with a touring company of A Chorus Line and was cast in the Broadway production of the show less than a year later. She won an Obie Award for her Off-Broadway acting and was cast in the Broadway shows Hurlyburly and Doonesbury.
Lauren Tom was born in Chicago, Illinois, the Chinese American daughter of Nancy (née Dare) and Tom Chan, Jr. who worked in the frozen food business. Her grandfather Tom Y. Chan was a businessman and a leading supporter of the Kuomintang in the United States, and helped raise money for both Sun Yat-sen and General Chiang Kai-shek. Her uncle was also a businessman and an influential civic leader In an article for Detour magazine Tom described how being teased as a child about her Chinese heritage made her introverted and is what originally inspired her to study dance.
Tom had several small parts in movies including Nothing Lasts Forever, Wall Street, See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Blue Steel; but her biggest role up til that point was as a waitress in the Robin Williams/Tim Robbins film Cadillac Man. This role led to being a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Tom landed a lead role in the film The Joy Luck Club in 1993, which led to roles in such other films such as When a Man Loves a Woman and North.
Since the mid-1990s, Tom has starred in few films (focusing her work, primarily, in the voiceover business), with the exceptions of her supporting roles in the 2003 hit comedy Bad Santa and the critically acclaimed 2004 film In Good Company.
Lauren Tom's first role in television was that of Miko Wakamatsu on The Facts of Life. She subsequently appeared on The Equalizer, Catfish With Black Bean Sauce, thirtysomething, Quantum Leap, Chicago Hope, Homicide: Life on the Street, Grace Under Fire, as Ross' girlfriend Julie on Friends, The Nanny, The Middle, a starring role in DAG, The Division, as Mrs. Ling on Monk, My Wife and Kids, Barbershop: The Series, Grey's Anatomy, The Closer and as Mai Washington Men in Trees. She also had an acting role in a bonus feature on the Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder DVD.