[Wing Wang17]

Zhang was born and raised in Beijing, China. Her father was an accountant and later economist, and her mother, a kindergarten teacher. She has an older brother with whom she was very close. Zhang began studying dance when she was 8 years old; subsequently, she joined the Beijing Dance Academy at her parents' suggestion at the age of 11. While at this boarding school, she noticed how mean the other girls were to each other while competing for status amongst the teachers. Zhang disliked the attitudes of her peers and teachers so much that, on one occasion, she ran away from the school. At the age of 15, Zhang won the national youth dance championship and also appeared in a handful of tv commercials and began appearing in television commercials in Hong Kong.

Her first major role was in The Road Home (1999). She later achieved fame for her role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), which was nominated for 10 Academy Awards.

In the West, Zhang is best known for her appearances in Rush Hour 2 (2001), Hero (2002), and House of Flying Daggers (2004). Her most critically acclaimed works are Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), which earned her nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role; and The Grandmaster (2013), for which she won 12 different Best Actress awards to become the most awarded actress for a single film.

From 2004 to 2010, Zhang ranked in the Top 5 of Forbes China Celebrity 100 list every year. In 2008, she was awarded with the Outstanding Contribution to Chinese Cinema award at the 11th Shanghai International Film Festival. In 2013, she received the French Cultural Order at the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.


Born: February 9, 1979 (age 39) Beijing, China
Nationality: China
Profession: Actress | Model


Filmography

• The Road Home (1999)
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
• Rush Hour 2 (2001)
• Zu Warriors (2001)
• The Warrior (2001)
• Hero (2002)
• Purple Butterfly (2003)
• My Wife Is a Gangster 2 (2003)
• House of Flying Daggers (2004)
• 2046 (2004)
• Jasmine Flower (2004)
• Princess Raccoon (2005)
• Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
• The Banquet (2006)
• TMNT (2007)
• Forever Enthralled (2008)
• Horsemen (2009)
• Sophie's Revenge (2009)
• The Founding of a Republic (2009)
• Til Death Do Us Part (2011)
• Dangerous Liaisons (2012)
• The Grandmaster (2013)
• Better and Better (2013)
• My Lucky Star (2013)
• The Crossing (2014)
• Oh My God (2015)
• The Crossing 2 (2015)
• Where's the Dragon? (2015)
• Run for Love (2016)
• The Wasted Times (2016)
• Forever Young (2018)
• The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)
• Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) | Post-Production
• Godzilla vs. Kong (2020) | Pre-Production