Carina Lau

Carina Lau Kar-ling is a Hong Kong screen performer and vocalist who first rose to prominence through her work on television before transitioning into a successful motion picture career. Recognized for her early relatable film performances, she achieved widespread acclaim for her portrayal of Empress Wu Zetian in the Detective Dee film franchise. Over her career, she has earned several major accolades, including Best Actress honors at the Nantes Three Continents Festival, the Golden Rooster Awards, and the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Lau was born on December 8, 1965, in Suzhou, Jiangsu, with ancestral roots in Rong County, Guangxi. Her father returned to China from Thailand in 1955 and later relocated to Hong Kong in 1976. Lau moved to Hong Kong two years later with her mother and brother. In 1983, she enrolled in TVB's acting training program to begin her career in the entertainment industry.

Her screen acting debut came in 1984 with the TVB series The Clones, performing alongside her future spouse, Tony Leung. She expanded her prominence through television roles in popular drama series such as The Duke of Mount Deer and Police Cadet. Lau achieved widespread public recognition in 1989 for her performance as a wealthy heiress in Looking Back in Anger, one of Hong Kong's most-watched television series.

Lau soon expanded into feature films, earning a Hong Kong Film Award nomination for her role in Her Beautiful Life Lies in 1989. Her role in Wong Kar-wai's Days of Being Wild brought her critical acclaim and an international award. Throughout the 1990s, she demonstrated her range in a variety of genres, appearing in the martial arts feature Saviour of the Soul, the biographical drama Center Stage, the comedies He's a Woman, She's a Man and Forbidden City Cop, and the wuxia feature Ashes of Time. She also gained attention for her dramatic performances in Intimates and Flowers of Shanghai.

In the 2000s, Lau broadened her global profile with roles in two Infernal Affairs sequels and the science-fiction drama 2046. She won a Golden Rooster Award for Best Actress for her performance in Curiosity Kills the Cat in 2006. She later earned the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Empress Wu Zetian in Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, a role she subsequently reprised in two prequels. Her starring turn in Bends led to a nomination at the Cannes Film Festival.

Beyond feature films, Lau previously served as executive president of the Hong Kong broadcast channel TVMART. In 2016, she joined the cast of the reality program Up Idol and has since appeared on several mainland television broadcasts. She became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2017. Her hosting work includes the 2021 web series Reflection and the 2024 talk show Jia Ren Zi You Yue. In her personal life, she married actor Tony Leung in Bhutan on July 21, 2008.