Zhou Dongyu

Zhou Dongyu is a Chinese performer born on January 31, 1992, in Shijiazhuang, Hebei. She gained national recognition after being selected by director Zhang Yimou to star in the 2010 romantic drama Under the Hawthorn Tree. She later solidified her status in Chinese cinema through acclaimed performances in feature films such as Soul Mate, Us and Them, and Better Days, securing major accolades including the Golden Horse Award, the Hong Kong Film Award, and the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actress.

Raised in a working-class household, Zhou experienced the loss of her father in a road accident during her third year of primary school, after which her mother remarried. She engaged in gymnastics throughout her youth and became a member of the local Shijiazhuang athletic team at age twelve. She attended No. 27 Middle School starting in 2004 and No. 12 Middle School in 2007, later graduating from the Beijing Film Academy.

Despite possessing no prior acting background, Zhou was chosen for her debut role in Under the Hawthorn Tree, a breakout performance that earned her honors at the Valladolid International Film Festival, the Huabiao Awards, and the Shanghai Film Critics Awards. Over the following years, she expanded her filmography with roles in the romantic drama The Allure of Tears, the historical feature The Road of Exploring, and Yu Zheng's period film The Palace. She attained further commercial success through the 2014 youth film My Old Classmate and the hit comedy Breakup Buddies, followed by projects including The Unbearable Lightness of Inspector Fan and The Ark of Mr. Chow in 2015.

In 2016, Zhou achieved significant critical acclaim for her leading role in the film adaptation Soul Mate, sharing the Best Actress prize at the 53rd Golden Horse Awards with co-star Sandra Ma. The same year, she won an award at the Macau International Movie Festival for Never Said Goodbye and made her television debut in the espionage drama Sparrow. Her subsequent projects included the romantic comedy This Is Not What I Expected, the television drama Shall I Compare You to a Spring Day, and the fantasy film The Thousand Faces of Dunjia in 2017.

Zhou continued her box office success with the 2018 romantic drama Us and Them, followed by the 2019 youth drama Better Days, which earned her the Best Actress award at the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards along with a Golden Rooster Award. She also served as a co-producer on the 2019 drama On The Balcony. Her later projects included the 2021 television series Ancient Love Poetry and Anthony Chen's 2023 feature film The Breaking Ice, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section.

Throughout her career, Zhou has received widespread public recognition, being designated by the Southern Metropolis Daily as one of the post-90s generation's Four Dan Actresses. She featured repeatedly on the Forbes China Celebrity 100 list, placing 71st in 2017, 7th in 2019, and 3rd in 2020. Additionally, after relying on an interpreter at the 2010 Hawaii International Film Festival, she demonstrated fluent English during the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. In March 2021, she formally ended her ambassador contract with fashion brand Burberry amidst a corporate sourcing dispute regarding Xinjiang cotton.