Olivia Cheng () is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

actress, broadcast journalist, and former correspondent for ''

Entertainment Tonight Canada ''ET Canada'' (previously referred to as ''Entertainment Tonight Canada'') is a Canadian entertainment news television series, using the same format as the American entertainment newsmagazine '' Entertainment Tonight''. ''ET Canada'' is a broadca ...

''.

Early life

Cheng was born in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

to parents who immigrated from

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

. They were part of a co-founding group of Chinese parents that created the Edmonton Mandarin Bilingual program within the city's public school system. Her father worked in software and her mother was a health aide. Cheng enrolled in her first acting class at age six, and booked her first commercial at age nineteen. She attended NAIT's Radio and Television Arts program the following year. After finishing school, she became a videographer for Global TV Lethbridge, before moving back to Edmonton to work as a broadcast and print journalist. She went on to freelance as a correspondent for ET Canada.

Career

In the mid-2000s,

AMC AMC may refer to: Film and television * AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain * AMC Networks, an American entertainment company ** AMC (TV channel) ** AMC+, streaming service ** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company *** ...

was launching its original content division and came to Alberta with a Walter Hill-helmed mini-series executive produced by

Robert Duvall Robert Selden Duvall (; born January 5, 1931) is an American actor and filmmaker. His career spans more than seven decades and he is considered one of the greatest American actors of all time. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, four Gold ...

. They were looking for five Chinese actresses, and were willing to consider amateurs. Duvall saw Cheng's audition and asked to bring her back. She was subsequently cast in ''

Broken Trail ''Broken Trail'' is a 2006 Western television miniseries directed by Walter Hill and starring Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church. Written by Alan Geoffrion, who also wrote the novel, the story is about an aging cowboy and his nephew who t ...

'' (2006), which was nominated for 16 Primetime Emmy Awards and won four, including the Emmy for Outstanding Mini Series. In 2007, Cheng portrayed

Iris Chang Iris Shun-Ru Chang (March 28, 1968November 9, 2004) was a Chinese American journalist, author of historical books and political activist. She is best known for her best-selling 1997 account of the Nanking Massacre, ''The Rape of Nanking'', and ...

in the documentary ''Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking,'' based on Chang's best-selling 1997 book ''The Rape of Nanking''. Cheng has appeared on '' Supernatural'' and ''

Eureka Eureka (often abbreviated as E!, or Σ!) is an intergovernmental organisation for research and development funding and coordination. Eureka is an open platform for international cooperation in innovation. Organisations and companies applying th ...

'', as well as the episode " The New World" on the television show ''

The 4400 ''The 4400'' (pronounced "the forty-four hundred") is a science fiction television series produced by CBS Paramount Network Television in association with BSkyB, Renegade 83, and American Zoetrope for USA Network in the United States and Sky ...

''. In 2013, she appeared as

Linda Park Linda Park (born July 9, 1978) is a South Korean-born American actress, best known for her portrayal of communications officer character Hoshi Sato in the television series '' Star Trek: Enterprise''. Early life Park was born in South Korea and ...

in the TV series '' Arrow''. In 2014, Cheng landed a role in

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

's series '' Marco Polo''. It was a lavish television drama, one of the most expensive ever produced, about Marco Polo’s journey as he travels from his home in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

to the court of Kublai Khan, where he finds himself in the middle of a war in 13th-century China. Cheng portrayed Mei Lin, a concubine and assassin, the sister of

Jia Sidao Jia Sidao (August 25, 1213 – October 1275), courtesy name Shixian, was a Chinese politician. He was a chancellor of the late Song dynasty of China, the younger brother of a concubine of Emperor Lizong, who subsequently had a relationship of sp ...

. Cheng joked in a December 2014 interview that owing to her frequent nude scenes in ''Marco Polo'', she would not be watching the series with her parents. In October 2017, it was announced Cheng would be part of the main cast of the

Justin Lin Justin Lin (, born October 11, 1971) is a Taiwanese-American film director. His films have grossed US$2.3 billion worldwide as of March 2017. He is best known for his directorial work on '' Better Luck Tomorrow'' (2002), the ''Fast & Furious'' f ...

-produced ''Warrior'', set against the backdrop of the

Tong Wars The Tong Wars were a series of violent disputes beginning in the late 19th century among rival Chinese Tong factions centered in the Chinatowns of various American cities, in particular San Francisco. Tong wars could be triggered by a variety o ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. The series was based on an original idea by the late Bruce Lee and premiered on

Cinemax Cinemax is an American pay television, cable, and satellite television network owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Developed as a companion "maxi-pay" service complementing the offerings shown on parent ...

on April 5, 2019.

Filmography

References

External links

*
Olivia Cheng
on

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Olivia Cheng
on

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Article mentioning Cheng's appearance in future film about China in WWII
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheng, Olivia 1979 births Actresses from Edmonton Living people Canadian actresses of Chinese descent Canadian film actresses Canadian television reporters and correspondents Canadian expatriate actresses in the United States Canadian women television journalists Journalists from Alberta