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On Nov. 19, 2014, The Crimson reviewed a Loeb mainstage performance of Anton Chekhov’s play “Three Sisters.” Chase Sui Wonders ’18 recalls how the review described her performance then as “the nail in the play’s coffin.”

Now, more than a decade later, Wonders has used her talents to ensure those words could not seem further from the truth.

In an interview with The Crimson, the actress and filmmaker said that being profiled by the paper more than a decade ago was a form of “beautiful cosmic karma.”

“I’m back home rewriting my history, reclaiming the narrative,” she said.

Riding on the critical acclaim of Seth Rogen’s loving satirization of Hollywood’s “The Studio,” in which she played the steely-eyed Quinn Hackett, Wonders reflects on the seeds of creativity that germinated on Harvard’s campus.

Originally from the suburbs of Detroit, Wonders has spanned a range of characters and worlds across her career in which she embodies youth’s chaotic fervor. As the dynamic Riley Lou in “Generation,” the scaldingly manipulative Emma in “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” and the scream-queen Ava Brucks in 2025’s “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” she pours an energy into her roles that is reflective of her artistic hunger.

When describing her initial reaction to The Crimson’s 2014 review of her performance, Wonders said, “I think that it lit a fire under my belly of, ‘Okay, acting’s not for me, but goddamn, I am going to try my darnedest to score, to erase that stain from my record and try to write, direct, and be behind the camera.’”

It was this compulsion to direct and create which landed her in the Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies (then known as Visual and Environmental Studies). But her concentration was not a done deal when she first walked through Johnston Gate: Wonders originally came to Harvard to go down the STEM track.

When asked what her “Harvard introduction” was, she said: “My name is Chase Sui Wonders. I am in Wigglesworth A and my concentration is TBD, but probably Astrophysics or VES.”

This pivot from science to art rooted Wonders in a vibrant, expressive, and especially bold career on campus.

“Harvard is not advertised as an art school by trade, but I do think there are so many cool outlets to express yourself,” Wonders said. “And I think one thing that I embraced while I was at Harvard was not having shame.”

Chase credits The Harvard Lampoon, a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine, as the place where she believed she “was funny for the first time.”

Now, she can flaunt her electric humor in Apple TV’s “The Studio” (which won a record-breaking number of Emmy Awards). Her character, a former assistant turned creative executive, is as quippy as she is conniving. Wonders particularly shines in the fifth episode of the season, in which her drive and penchant for deception culminates in a war with the iconic character Sal Saperstein (Ike Barinholtz).

Wonders credits the AFVS department for unlocking a “carapace of steel” within her through its testing of her creative limits. On campus, her direction led her to the wacky creation of the short series “The Crimson Bachelorette.”

In 2022, Wonders directed the short film “Wake” for Vogue China, which oozes sincerity and melancholy. Wonders remarked how her work as a director informed her acting philosophy, describing the communal process of creation as “a giant tapestry that you are a thread of.”

“An actor is one piece of the whole thing, and obviously it’s your face, it’s up close and personal, and everyone is in service of what an actor can do with their face on screen for a couple seconds,” Wonders said.

“But I think understanding you are part of a larger narrative and not being too precious about anything kind of gives you your own freedom,” she added.

As a film lover, Wonders named two films that truly impacted her during her time with the AFVS department. The first is Nagisa Ōshima’s 1969 film “The Boy,” which was introduced to her by mentor and professor Haden Guest. Guest screened the movie for her, her friends, and her mother at the Harvard Film Archive for her birthday. The second is Thomas Vintenberg’s 1998 film “The Celebration.”

Wonders’ stamina in the creative world knows no limit. Bold, authentic, and hilarious, Wonders is a force to be reckoned with. Her advice to aspiring entertainers is to do and create as much as you can, and to do so shamelessly.

—Staff writer Kai C. W. Lewis can be reached at kai.lewis@thecrimson.com.