The daughter of comedian Tommy Chong, actress Rae Dawn Chong began appearing on Canadian television in her preteen years. Chong's first major TV role was on the popular 1974 sitcom The Wiz Kid of Riverton. Seven years later, she exploded onto the big screen as the mud-covered cave dweller Ika in Quest for Fire (1981), which earned her the Canadian equivalent of the Academy Award. Playing a variety of no-nonsense ethnic types, she has been prominently cast in such films as The Color Purple (1985), Choose Me (1985), and Commando (1985). She has also appeared with her dad in Cheech and Chong's The Corsican Brothers (1984) and Far Out Man (1990), and was the central female character in the Mick Jagger music video "Just Another Night." In addition, she has hosted a series of "safe sex" cautionary videos aimed at teens, and both acted in and scripted the 1994 feature Boulevard. Rae Dawn Chong was at one time married to "brat pack" actor C. Thomas Howell.