Arden Cho is not a lawyer, but she does play one on TV. Partner Track follows Ingrid Yun (Cho), a hardworking senior associate at a prestigious New York City law firm who’s devoted her entire 20s to making partner, all while dealing with sexism, racism and other obstacles in her quest to break the glass ceiling.
As a Korean American woman working in the notoriously cutthroat entertainment industry, Cho’s faced her own share of underhanded competition and straight-up prejudice. “There’s decades of experience of being the only Asian person in the room, or being the only minority, and seeing just pure discrimination and microaggressions,” she tells Tudum. “Feeling like they’re just normal and feeling like, ‘Do I say something? If I say something, will it just make it worse?’ ”
Ingrid’s philosophy is that the harder she works, the easier it will be for her managers to promote her to partner. If she’s undeniably the most diligent, most accomplished employee, there’s no way she can be passed over for the job she’s been working toward her entire career. But in the show’s extremely white, extremely male corporate lawyer world, she’s still subject to comments about her race and being a woman.
Much like Ingrid’s tightrope walk between keeping her head down and calling things out, Cho’s also had to learn when it’s time to speak up. After breaking out in 2014 playing Kira Yukimura, high school student slash mythical kitsune (in Japanese folklore, a fox with magical abilities) in the MTV series Teen Wolf, the actor made headlines in early 2022. She confirmed that she would not return for a Teen Wolf movie due to a pay disparity, which was leaked information that she never intended to reveal.
Speaking with Tudum ahead of Partner Track’s launch, she’s reflective about the ways the show’s legal world parallels the entertainment industry and the ways she’s learned to stand up for herself.
“There’ve been so many moments in my life where, years later, I’ll think, ‘Ugh, I wish I would’ve said something,’ but I was scared and I think that’s OK. I think a lot of people have moments in their life where they wish they said something or wanted to say something, but they were scared,” she says. “I’m not beating myself up about it, but I am saying when it happens again or in the future, I think I’ve grown to be a woman who’s a bit more unafraid, who’s going to be unapologetic and say, ‘Yeah, no, we’re not going to be OK with that.’”
After a stint in the Dick Wolf procedural Chicago Med from 2018–19 as the troubled younger sister of a big-shot ER surgeon, Cho landed her role in Partner Track — her first starring role, her first time being No. 1 on the call sheet. According to co-star Dominic Sherwood, “She worked so hard just constantly and relentlessly. She believes in this [show], as we all do, and to have your leader be the person who believes in it the most inspires the rest of us to work as hard as we can to give that same amount of effort and passion.”
While Partner Track touches on those very real (and very lived) experiences, it’s not all serious issues all the time. It’s also a fun, frothy soap about a young lawyer dating in Manhattan. “Our writers have done such a beautiful job of making it seamless and just a part of the journey. These are just normal things that our characters experience on a day-to-day basis,” Cho says. After all, the series is based on real-life lawyer Helen Wan’s experience over two decades in the field, which Wan chronicled in her book, The Partner Track.
At times, watching Partner Track feels like watching early Grey’s Anatomy: a group of attractive, hardworking twenty and thirtysomethings as they work hard and play hard, partying and hooking up and then making it in for their 8 a.m. meetings. Ingrid is embroiled in a love triangle between a sweet society playboy, Nick (Rob Heaps), and a past hookup who just so happens to be her newest co-worker, Jeff (Sherwood). She spends most of her free time with best friends and co-workers Tyler (Bradley Gibson) and Rachel (Alexandra Turshen).
Naturally, those friendships extended off-screen, especially since the cast filmed in a bubble during COVID. Cho’s still in a group chat with Gibson and Turshen that they’ve named “Destiny’s Child,” although she will not confirm who’s the Beyoncé, who’s the Kelly and who’s the Michelle. “Ask Bradley,” she jokes.
Either way, Cho’s proud to play an independent woman who can inspire others like her. “What an amazing moment to be shared with all the hardworking, ambitious women in the world that are going to feel seen, that are going to feel like Ingrid gets it,” she says. “I’ve experienced that exact same thing, and boy, does that suck. But we are here, we are thriving and we are going to fight for our seat at the table.”
Additional reporting by Arianna Romero
