Anonymous Actress Who Sued Amazon for Revealing Her Age Identifies Herself

SEATTLE (The Blaze/AP) -- An actress who filed an anonymous lawsuit against Amazon.com and its Internet Movie Database for revealing her age identified herself in court filings Friday, after initially refusing to do so out of concern that it would negatively impact future work opportunities.

She is Huong Hoang of Texas, perhaps better known by her stage name, Junie Hoang. Her IMDb credits list recent roles as "Sandy" in "Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver" and as "Ghetto Girl 3" in "Hoodrats 2: Hoodrat Warriors."

Hoang filed a million-dollar claim against Amazon last fall, saying the company mined her IMDb account to learn her age, 40, and then posted it on her profile -- causing her offers for roles to dry up.

The lawsuit caused a frenzy of online speculation over who the actress might be -- as well as a bit of soul-searching about ageism in youth-obsessed Hollywood.

Women over 40 make up 24.3 percent of the U.S. population, but a casting analysis by the Screen Actors Guild showed actresses over 40 get just 12.5 percent of roles for television and film. Men of that age are also about a quarter of the population, but nearly equal their ranks in casting.

Last month a federal judge in Seattle ordered the lawsuit dismissed, saying the actress had no grounds to proceed with an anonymous complaint. Hoang refiled it under her real name.

She did not immediately return an email seeking comment, nor did her lawyer immediately return a voice message left after business hours.

A lawyer and a spokeswoman for Amazon also did not immediately return calls.

Hoang's IMDb profile says she got her start in dance at 16, was the salutatorian of her high school class and earned a degree in biomedical science from Texas A&M University's College of Veterinary Medicine. It lists her at 5-foot-2, 100 pounds, and suggests she can play characters ages 26-33.

According to IMDb, "Gingerdead Man 3" is a sequel to a 2005 Gary Busey movie in which "an evil yet adorable gingerbread man comes to life with the soul of a convicted killer." She also had a role in "Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust."

Her other credits include a part as a triage nurse in the TLC television series "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant," and as the part of Janet in "My Big Phat Hip Hop Family."