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Daniel Ng Neh-Tsu (, born September 30, 1974) is an American actor, director and producer based in Hong Kong. He is known as a "flexible and distinctive" leading actor in the Chinese language film industry. Since his film debut in 1998, he has been featured in over 60 films. He also starred in the AMC martial arts drama series ''
Into the Badlands ''Into the Badlands'' may refer to: * ''Into the Badlands'' (film), a 1991 television film; * ''Into the Badlands'' (TV series), a 2015–2019 television series {{Disambiguation ...
''.


Early life

Daniel N Wu was born in
Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
, and raised in
Orinda, California Orinda is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city's population as of the 2020 census is estimated at 19,514 residents. History Orinda is located within four Mexican land grants: Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados ...
. His parents, Diana (née Liu), a college professor, and George Wu, a retired engineer, are natives of
Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
, China. His father immigrated to the United States from China and met his mother in New York, where she was a student. After marrying, they settled in California. Wu has two older sisters, Greta and Gloria, and an older brother who died when he was two. Wu developed an interest in martial arts when he saw
Jet Li Li Lianjie (courtesy name Yangzhong; born 26 April 1963), better known by his stage name Jet Li, is a Chinese film actor, film producer, martial artist, and retired Wushu champion. He is a naturalized Singaporean citizen. After three years of ...
in '' The Shaolin Temple'' and Donnie Yen in '' Iron Monkey'', and consequently began studying
wushu Wushu may refer to: Martial arts * Chinese martial arts, the various martial arts of China * Wushu (sport), a modern exhibition of traditional Chinese martial arts * Wushu stances, five key stances utilized in both contemporary wushu and traditio ...
at age 11. His childhood role model was
Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for ...
, a man who now considers Wu "like a son". Wu attended the Head-Royce School in
Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
and later majored in architecture at the University of Oregon. While there, he founded the University of Oregon Wushu Club in 1994 and served as the team's first coach. During this time, Wu took film classes and frequented local theaters, and came to enjoy the works of filmmakers like
Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dy ...
and
Luc Besson Luc Paul Maurice Besson (; born 18 March 1959) is a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He directed or produced the films ''Subway'' (1985), '' The Big Blue'' (1988), and ''La Femme Nikita'' (1990). Besson is associated with the '' ...
, whom he describes as "men of vision." Following graduation, Wu traveled in 1997 to Hong Kong to witness the
handover of Hong Kong Sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China (PRC) at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony. Hong Kong was established as a special admin ...
, with no intention of taking on a film career. At the suggestion by his sister, Wu began modeling. Four months later, film director Yonfan, after seeing Wu featured in a clothing ad, approached Wu about starring in an upcoming film.


Career

Despite his inability at the time to speak
Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...
or read Chinese, Wu successfully completed his first film, Yonfan's '' Bishonen'' in 1998. As of this day, when Wu receives a Cantonese script, his assistant reads the entire piece, while he makes notes on the pronunciation. The day after ''Bishonen'' wrapped, Wu was offered the leading role in Mabel Cheung's ''City of Glass'' (for which Wu was nominated as best new actor at the 18th Hong Kong Film Awards) and later, a supporting part in ''Young and Dangerous: The Prequel'', from Andrew Lau's gangster film series. Around this time, Wu met
Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for ...
at a restaurant opening and was quickly signed to Chan's JC Group with agent Willie Chan. Wu's breakthrough performance came in 1999 with his role in Benny Chan's ''Gen-X Cops''. He followed this success with roles in a variety of films including big-budget thriller ''Purple Storm'', arthouse production ''Peony Pavilion'' and the successful ''Love Undercover''. In 2001, Wu received criticism from the Hong Kong media for sexual scenes with Suki Kwan in ''Cop on a Mission'', but Wu says that same criticism attracted the attention of directors and the film represented a turning point in the types of roles he chose in the future. Wu's first experience in film production came with his starring role in Julian Lee's 2003 film ''Night Corridor''. Due to budgetary constraints, Wu participated in the search for funding for and distribution of, the film and recruited Jun Kung to create the soundtrack. Though ''Night Corridor'' dealt with "risky" themes, Wu felt he had less reliance on image than many of his pop-star actor peers, and he was nominated for best actor at Taiwan's 40th Golden Horse Film Awards for his effort. During 2003, Wu took part as producer and creative director on MTV's ''Whatever Things!'', a ''Jackass''-styled program aired in Asia, also featuring Sam Lee, Josie Ho, Terence Yin, and other celebrities. During 2003, Wu took part in a stage production of '' The Happy Prince'' at the Edward Lam Dance Theater as part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival, during which he recited a 16-minute monologue in Cantonese, learned entirely from
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 fo ...
. In 2005, Wu was nominated as best actor at the 24th
Hong Kong Film Awards The Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA; ), founded in 1982, is an annual film awards ceremony in Hong Kong. The ceremonies are typically in April. The awards recognise achievement in various aspects of filmmaking, such as directing, screenwriting, ...
for his role in Derek Yee's '' One Nite in Mongkok'', and as best supporting actor for ''New Police Story''. At the 41st Golden Horse Film Awards, Wu won the award for best supporting actor for ''New Police Story''. The win came as a surprise to him, because he "didn't think that much" of his performance in the film. In 2005, Chinese media began to report that Wu had formed a
boy band A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Ma ...
, Alive, with Terence Yin, Andrew Lin and Conroy Chan. Wu and his bandmates posted information, updates, personal thoughts (including slamming Hong Kong Disneyland, for which they were spokespersons), and the band's music, at their official website. In 2006, Wu made his writing and directorial debut with ''
The Heavenly Kings ''The Heavenly Kings'' (四大天王) is a 2006 Hong Kong film directed by Daniel Wu. Background In 2005, Chinese media began to report that Daniel Wu had formed a boyband, Alive, with Terence Yin, Andrew Lin and Conroy Chan. Wu and his ba ...
'', which chronicles Alive's formation and exploits. After the film's release, however, it was revealed that ''The Heavenly Kings'' was actually a
mockumentary A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on ...
of the Hong Kong pop music industry, and Alive was constructed purely as a vehicle to make the film; the film's characters represented only 10–15% of their real-life counterparts and much of the footage blurred the line between fiction and reality. Wu admitted his own singing voice "sucked really bad", and the band had their voices digitally enhanced for its music, to prove that "it's easy to fake it". Despite some backlash from the media over being intentionally fed false information in the film about illegal downloads of the band's music, Wu won the best new director award at the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards, an achievement he called "a group effort." In 2011, Wu starred alongside Kevin Spacey in director Dayyan Eng's bilingual film ''Inseparable''. It premiered at the Busan International Film Festival and was released in cinemas in China and other territories worldwide, making it Wu's first English-language film performance. From 2015 to 2019, he starred as Sunny on the AMC action series ''
Into the Badlands ''Into the Badlands'' may refer to: * ''Into the Badlands'' (film), a 1991 television film; * ''Into the Badlands'' (TV series), a 2015–2019 television series {{Disambiguation ...
'', for which he also served as executive producer. In 2016, he portrayed via motion capture and voiced Gul'dan, the central antagonist of the action fantasy film '' Warcraft'', based upon the '' Warcraft'' video game series by
Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, ...
. In 2018, he appeared in ''
Tomb Raider ''Tomb Raider'', also known as ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' from 2001 to 2008, is a media franchise that originated with an action-adventure video game series created by British gaming company Core Design. Formerly owned by Eidos Interactive, th ...
'', based upon the video game series of the same name, as Lara Croft's sidekick, Captain Lu Ren. In 2021, he appeared in ''
Reminiscence Reminiscence is the act of recollecting past experiences or events. An example of the typical use of reminiscence is when people share their personal stories with others or allows other people to live vicariously through stories of family, frien ...
'', director Lisa Joy's feature film debut.


Other ventures

In April 2007, Wu re-launched his band's old website, AliveNotDead.com, with Terence Yin and RottenTomatoes.com founders Patrick Lee and Stephen Wang, as a place for filmmakers, musicians, and other artists to collaborate, receive exposure, network, and interact with fans. He continues his modeling career as spokesperson for a variety of products such as Seiko and L'Oréal. Wu posed for the charity photography album ''SuperStars by Leslie Kee'', and performed on rapper Jin's song "HK Superstar." Wu is an investor in Racks MDB Shanghai, which opened in 2008.


Personal life

Wu maintains residences in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, and Oakland, California. He continues to actively train in wushu as well as other martial arts. On April 6, 2010, Wu married
Lisa S. Lisa Selesner (born May 26, 1978), professionally known as Lisa S., is an American international model, actress and Channel V veejay based in Hong Kong. Early life Lisa Selesner was born on May 26, 1978 in Monaco to an American mother and a fathe ...
in South Africa. Their daughter, Raven, was born in June 2013. In 2018, Daniel Wu denied rumors of supporting Hong Kong independence and has explicitly stated his opposition for it. On February 5, 2021, Wu partnered with
Daniel Dae Kim Daniel Dae Kim (born Kim Dae-hyun ( ko, 김대현); August 4, 1968) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Jin-Soo Kwon in '' Lost'', Chin Ho Kelly in '' Hawaii Five-0'', Gavin Park in ''Angel'', and Johnny Gat in the '' Saints ...
to offer a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators of a series of attacks against elderly Asian Americans in the
Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
. Yahya Muslim, a suspect who was already in police custody for a separate assault, was later arrested for the crimes. Both Wu and Lisa are godparents to Ase Wang's daughter.


Filmography


Film


Television

Daniel Wu at chinesemov.com
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Awards and nominations


References


External links

* *
Daniel Wu's Official Blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wu, Daniel 1974 births Living people 20th-century American male actors 20th-century Hong Kong male actors 21st-century American male actors 21st-century Hong Kong male actors American expatriates in Hong Kong American film directors of Hong Kong descent American film producers American male actors of Hong Kong descent American male film actors American male models American male screenwriters Film directors from California Film producers from California Hong Kong film directors Hong Kong film producers Hong Kong male film actors Hong Kong male models Hong Kong screenwriters Male actors from Berkeley, California Male models from California People from Orinda, California Screenwriters from California University of Oregon alumni American born Hong Kong artists