After The Summer I Turned Pretty premiered on Amazon Prime in June 2022, Lola Tung described the sudden shift in her world as going from an audience of “just your high school friends and your mom” to millions of strangers overnight. That mention of her mom was almost offhand. But for anyone genuinely curious about who Lola Tung is beyond Belly Conklin, her parents are the starting point.
Here is what is actually verified — and what still remains private.
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Who Are Lola Tung’s Parents?
Lola Tung’s parents are her mother, Pia Tung, and her father, a musician of Eastern European descent whose name has never been publicly disclosed. Both parents come from artistic backgrounds. Neither has sought any public attention since their daughter became a recognisable name.
In a February 2025 interview with Polyester magazine, Lola described them as “pretty artistic people” and said her childhood home meant being “constantly surrounded by art and artists.” That framing — two quietly creative parents raising a daughter in New York City — is the foundation of her story.
Lola Tung’s Mother: Pia Tung
Heritage and Family Background
Pia Tung is of Chinese and Swedish descent, and her heritage has specific, documented roots on both sides.
Her father — Lola’s maternal grandfather — was Ting San “Timothy” Tung, a Chinese immigrant born in Ningbo, China. Her mother — Lola’s maternal grandmother — was Birgit Holst, a Swede. IMDb’s official biography confirms the Ningbo connection directly, noting that Lola is “grateful having both connections of her Swedish and Chinese heritage.”
This is worth stating clearly because several websites have named the grandmother “Birgit Tung,” which is inaccurate. Her maiden name was Holst — a verifiably Scandinavian surname documented by genealogy research on EthniCelebs.
Before raising Lola, Pia had her own history with performance. Lola described her, in the same Polyester interview, as someone who “toyed with acting” in her twenties. That is a precise phrase and worth taking at face value. A number of outlets have upgraded Pia to “professional actress,” but Lola never said that, and no professional credits for Pia exist in any verified record.
Her Role in Lola’s Career
When Lola was in middle school, she surprised herself by auditioning for the school production of The Wizard of Oz. She was, by her own description, a shy kid. She landed the part of the Tin Man. It was Pia who found her a silver jacket at a thrift store and a pair of silver rain boots for the costume.
Lola has recalled that detail more than once. She remembers wearing those boots and loving every second of being on stage. From that point, Pia became her most consistent source of encouragement. Before auditions, the message was always the same:
“You go in and do your best; no matter what happens, I am proud of you.”
In 2018, a teenage Lola marked International Women’s Day with an Instagram post describing her mother as “the strongest woman she knows.” When the Summer I Turned Pretty launch event was held in New York in June 2022, Pia was there — photographed with Lola, one of the few public appearances she has made since her daughter’s career took off.
Pia keeps a private Instagram account. She has not given interviews. She appears when it matters and steps back the rest of the time.
Lola Tung’s Father
Lola’s father is of Eastern European descent — confirmed by both her Wikipedia page and IMDb biography. His specific country of origin within Eastern Europe has not been documented anywhere. His name has never been disclosed.
In the Polyester interview, Lola said her father “had been in a band.” That is the most direct description she has given of him in any verified public interview. He contributed a musical sensibility to the household. He has not appeared at any events connected to his daughter’s career, has not been named in any credible publication, and has not been photographed alongside Lola at any public occasion.
That level of privacy, maintained consistently over several years of his daughter’s growing fame, appears to be a deliberate choice.
The Home They Built Together
The detail that best captures what kind of parents Pia and her husband were is this: when Lola was around five years old, they took her to Broadway.
She told Polyester she cannot quite remember if it was The Lion King or Mary Poppins — both were running in New York during that period — but she remembers the feeling immediately. She described it as “one of those incredible spectacles that you immediately are just blown away by.”
That was not accidental. Two people who understood art — one who had been on stage, one who had been in a band — made a deliberate choice to give their daughter that experience early.
When Lola later showed a clear interest in performance, they enrolled her at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts, where drama was part of the daily curriculum. After graduating in 2020, she went on to the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama — before leaving after her first year to film The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Their influence also shaped how Lola engages with the world beyond acting. She told 1883 Magazine:
“I feel very grateful that my parents always encouraged [these conversations] and instilled in me that my voice mattered and that my opinion mattered and that I should fight for the things that I believe in.”
That is reflected in her public advocacy around climate change and women’s rights, and in her 2023 partnership with Coachtopia, Coach’s sustainability-focused line.
Her Heritage and What It Means to Her
Lola Tung’s ethnic background is a direct product of her parents’ combined origins: Eastern European on her father’s side, and Chinese and Swedish on her mother’s side — tracing back to Ningbo on one branch and Scandinavia on the other.
She has spoken openly about what that identity means to her, particularly through the lens of The Summer I Turned Pretty. Speaking to Teen Vogue in 2022, she said:
“To be working with other Asian-American actors and to have an Asian-American creator, writer, and showrunner who has that voice and that understanding is so incredible. It’s a story about love and family, and the family happens to be Asian-American, which is so cool, because it’s just family, it’s just love.”
That comfort with her own multicultural identity did not come from nowhere. It came from growing up in a home where two different worlds — Ningbo and Eastern Europe, Stockholm and New York — coexisted without being treated as a contradiction.
Her parents chose lives out of frame while their daughter stepped into one of the most public roles of her generation. Her father’s name is still unknown. Her mother’s stage career exists only in a single careful phrase. What they did leave behind is more specific than a biography: a thrift store silver jacket, a Broadway seat at age five, and a pep talk that never changed. That is the family that raised Lola Tung.
