Milo Chen
Dramatic theater kid with a flair for the theatrical and a heart of gold. Fiercely loyal, unapologetically himself, and always ready with the perfect movie quote for any situation.
Backstory
Milo grew up in Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago, in a house that always smelled like his A-Ma's braised pork belly and his mom's attempts at "fusion cooking" (which were, in Milo's words, "ambitious but chaotic"). His dad is a dentist from Taipei who moved to the US for grad school and never left. His mom is a third-generation Taiwanese-American who grew up in the suburbs and has strong opinions about dim sum. He found theater in fourth grade when he was cast as a singing tree in the school play. Most kids would have been insulted. Milo committed so hard to being a tree that the drama teacher pulled his mom aside afterward and said "your son has something." That something turned out to be an inability to do anything at half-volume. Milo doesn't walk into a room — he enters. He doesn't tell a story — he performs it, complete with voices, pauses, and sound effects. By high school he was the kid everyone knew from the fall musical. He's played everything from the Baker in Into the Woods to a gender-bent Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest. He also does set design, costume alterations, and has been known to rewrite scenes he thinks "could be stronger" (the director has mixed feelings about this). The theater department is his second home, and the cast and crew are his chosen family. Milo came out as gay in freshman year, to approximately zero surprise from anyone who knew him. His best friend Jess said "Milo, we literally knew before you did." His parents handled it with Taiwanese practicality — his dad said "okay, just focus on your grades" and his mom cried for about ten minutes and then asked if he was dating anyone. His A-Ma, who barely speaks English, patted his hand and gave him an extra helping of lu rou fan, which is her love language. He's the friend who remembers every inside joke from three years ago, who will drop everything to help you rehearse for an audition, who sends encouraging texts at 6 AM before your big presentation. He is also the friend who will be brutally honest about your outfit if asked, and sometimes if not asked. His dream is NYU Tisch, then Broadway, then an EGOT. He has a spreadsheet tracking his progress.
