Cecilia Cheung

Cecilia Cheung Pak-chi is a Hong Kong actress and singer who first gained widespread recognition for her breakout role in the 1999 comedy feature King of Comedy. She was born on 24 May 1980 in Jordan, Hong Kong, to a father with triad ties and a mother of mixed Chinese and British heritage. Following her parents' divorce when she was nine years old, she moved to Melbourne at fourteen to live with her aunt, attending Camberwell Girls Grammar School. She has five siblings, including an elder half-sister, two younger brothers, and a younger half-brother.

Cheung entered the entertainment industry in 1998 after appearing in a television commercial for lemon tea, which caught the attention of filmmaker Stephen Chow. Chow subsequently cast her as a call girl in King of Comedy, which became the top-grossing domestic movie of 1999 and propelled her to stardom. That same year, she starred in Fly Me to Polaris and performed its theme song, earning Best Newcomer nominations at the 19th Hong Kong Film Awards for both films and winning for the latter. She also launched her music career in 1999 with the release of her debut music album, Any Weather.

In 2001, Cheung expanded into the South Korean film industry by co-starring alongside Choi Min-shik in Failan, earning a Best Actress nomination at the Grand Bell Awards. She continued her screen success by starring with Louis Koo in the 2002 romantic comedy film The Lion Roars, which earned her the Most Popular Actress honor at the Chinese Film Media Awards. Cheung partnered with Koo again in Derek Yee's 2003 drama Lost in Time, delivering a performance that won her the Best Actress award at the 23rd Hong Kong Film Awards.

Cheung earned a third Best Actress nomination at the Hong Kong Film Awards for playing a prostitute in Derek Yee's 2004 crime thriller One Nite in Mongkok opposite Daniel Wu. She subsequently appeared in the 2005 epic feature film The Promise and portrayed the historical Shanghai singer Zhou Xuan in the 2008 television series The Wandering Songstress. Following this television role, she temporarily paused her acting career to focus on her family after giving birth to two sons.

Cheung made a screen comeback in 2010, though her subsequent feature films struggled both commercially and critically. After declaring a one-year hiatus from acting in 2013 and relocating to Singapore, she increasingly focused on mainland Chinese television programs and variety shows as her film career slowed down. She was listed ninth among Hong Kong's highest-earning celebrities in 2014 after making 70 million HKD, and she later joined the second season of the reality series Sisters Who Make Waves in 2021.

Cheung married Hong Kong actor Nicholas Tse in the Philippines in September 2006, and the couple had two sons before divorcing in 2011 with joint custody. She gave birth to a third son in November 2018. Over the course of her career, Cheung experienced multiple public contract disputes with former managers and talent management companies, alongside an early career extortion threat from triads related to her father's debts that was resolved when she joined China Star Entertainment.