Her father is a Taiwanese man who went to work in the US, and her mother is a woman from Vietnam who grew up in the US after being adopted during the Vietnam War by an American soldier who was guilt-ridden about his involvement in wartime massacres.
范直安的父親原是在美國工作的台灣人，母親來自越南，在越戰後被參與戰爭殺戮、良心有虧的美國大兵收養，在美國長大。