Zhao becomes first Asian woman to win best director Oscar

China-born Zhao is only the second woman ever to win the Academy Award for best director.

Chinese-born filmmaker Chloe Zhao, who told the story of financially stretched van dwellers in United States’s recession-era tale Nomadland, has become the first Asian woman and only the second woman ever to win best director at the Academy Awards on Sunday. It was the first Oscar for Zhao, 39, who featured real-life nomads alongside actress Frances McDormand to tell the tale older Americans who travel from job to job to try and scrape together a living. Zhao was born in China and lived in Beijing until age 14, when she went to boarding school in London. She later moved to Los Angeles where she finished high school and then attended film school in New York.