Brandon Chang (;

Pha̍k-fa-sṳ Pha̍k-fa-sṳ is an orthography similar to Pe̍h-ōe-jī and used to write Hakka, a variety of Chinese. Hakka is a whole branch of Chinese, and Hakka dialects are not necessarily mutually intelligible with each other, considering the large geogr ...

: Chong Tsok-nâm;

Hanyu Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: Zhāng Zhúonán; born 28 December 1982) is a Taiwanese musician and actor.

Early life

Chang was born on 28 December 1982 in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. He began taking piano lessons at age five and guitar at age 10. Though he mainly spoke English with his siblings and friends, he also spoke Mandarin and Cantonese at home with his father, a Taiwanese, and his mother, a Hong Kong Chinese. At the age of 14, he moved to Hong Kong with his family, and by early 20s, he moved back to

Taipei, Taiwan Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

. His career began at the age of 16 when Brandon started modeling in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. His first casting landed him a commercial shoot with

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...

in France. This was followed by several other shoots with fashionable brands. Within a year, Chang was cast to star in one of Hong Kong's popular teen dramas, then known as

RTHK Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service in Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Econom ...

's ''Y2K''.

Career

By 2001, Chang signed under Media Asia Entertainment Group, one of Asia's largest and most successful Chinese language film studios It was then that

Michelle Yeoh Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng, ( ; born 6 August 1962) is a Malaysian actress. Credited as Michelle Khan in her early Hong Kong films, she rose to fame in the 1990s after starring in a series of Hong Kong action films where she performed her own ...

took notice of Chang and his talents. Brandon's family soon became very close to Michelle, and with the approval of his parents, Michelle took Chang as her apprentice. Chang started shooting his first film in the same year, ''The Touch'' (2002), starring Hollywood's Ben Chaplin and Richard Roxburgh, followed by ''Silver Hawk'' (2003). In 2005. Chang launched his own lifestyle sneaker brand "Greedy Genius" in the United States. Greedy Genius immediately captured a following with many celebrities and rappers around the globe and sold to top stores including well known fashion department store Barneys New York. In the recent years, Greedy Genius has become a household name in the sneaker market covered by leading magazines and websites throughout the world and has expanded its market throughout United States, Europe, Canada, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Eurasia. In 2009, Chang was chosen by

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

as one of Asia's Best Young Entrepreneurs. In 2010, Chang partnered with Mandopop singer songwriter

JJ Lin Wayne Lin Junjie (; born 27 March 1981), better known by his stage name JJ Lin, is a Singaporean singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. Lin launched his musical career by releasing his debut album ''Music Voyager'' (2003). GIO, Taiwa1 ...

to form fashion label Still Moving Under Gunfire (SMG). Retail stores and operations in Taiwan and China. In 2013, Chang partnered for the apparel brand MSFTSrep. Founded by celebrity

Jaden Smith Jaden Christopher Syre Smith (born July 8, 1998), also known mononymously as Jaden, is an American rapper, singer, and actor. He has received various accolades, including a Teen Choice Award, an MTV Movie Award, a BET Award and a Young Artist ...

In 2013, Chang signed with

Creative Artists Agency Creative Artists Agency LLC (CAA) is an American talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, California. It is regarded as an influential company in the talent agency business and manages numerous clients. In March 2016, CAA had 1,800 emplo ...

(CAA), one of Hollywood's top talent agencies. In the same year he also joined Invincible Plan company founded by actor

Bolin Chen Chen Bolin (; born 27 August 1983), also known as Wilson Chen, is a Taiwanese actor. Early life and education Chen was born on 27 August 1983. While in high school, Chen participated in the Taiwanese variety show ' due to his similarity to Tak ...

and movie producer Maxx Tsai for management and film productions.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chang, Brandon 1982 births Living people Canadian people of Chinese descent Canadian people of Taiwanese descent Male actors from Toronto Musicians from Toronto Taiwanese male film actors 21st-century Taiwanese male singers