CHARLENE CHOI

Charlene Choi (Chinese name: 蔡卓妍) (born 22 November 1982) is a Hong Kong-based actress and singer. She is best known as a member of the Cantopop girl group Twins, alongside Gillian Chung.

Biography

Choi was born in Vancouver, Canada. She moved with her family to Hong Kong a few years later. She is fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin.^[1] Charlene Choi was educated at a number of institutions. After graduating from Rosaryhill School, where many other pop stars had attended, she started working full-time as a model in Hong Kong. She was scouted by Emperor Entertainment Group, and was then linked with Gillian Chung to form the C-pop duo Twins.

Solo acting career

Early years

Aside from her musical career, Choi has become a successful actress in the Hong Kong film industry, co-starred alongside famous names such as Andy Lau, Eason Chan, Jay Chou, Mike He, Wu Chun and Nicholas Tse. She wrote an article describing her acting career:

"Earlier before, I have shared with everyone some of my acting experiences. This time, I want to talk about movies. As an artist, whenever I'm working, I have to show the best side and give the best performance to everyone. I have to show the most fit side of me and hence, I'm often in "battling mood". When free, I like to watch slow-pace movies. The too exciting movies I can't stand. I'm the type who can be easily thrown into the world of the movie. Those type of fast-pace movies will end up making me tense and nervous so comedy, romance or humanity issue discussion movies are all more suitable for me."

Choi's first acting gig was a starring role in the 2000 TV Series Youth Y2K. Then, Choi made her first film debut in 2001 in the affecting and emotional film Funeral March (filmed prior to Twins' debut) which drew rave reviews from critics and earned Choi a Best New Artist nomination at the 21st Annual Hong Kong Film Awards. Choi's next big acting break was in 2003 with her earnest and pretence-free portrayal of a young girl who battles through all odds in hopes of becoming a singer in the hit movie Diva - Ah Hey.

Breakthrough success

Since then, Choi has taken Jim Chim Sui-Man as a mentor, and has been in the comedic movie Simply Actors as a kind and comedic porn star. Her breakthrough role in the psychological thriller movie Diary, by the Pang Brothers has earned her many movie award nominations and she received the Best Actress award at the 11th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PIFAN Korean Movie Award).

Choi's solid acting has been once again duly identified by an abundance of film critics with her portrayl of Dani Dan in the box-office hit Simply Actors. Only months later, she left the 2007 Golden Bauhinia Film Awards hand in hand with the awards for Best Actress and Favorite Actress for her portrayal of Dani Dan in Simply Actors. Choi also appeared alongside the young Taiwanese pop singer Jay Chou in the much anticipated movie Kung Fu Dunk.

She has appeared in the highly anticipated movie "The Butterfly Lovers", based on a popular Chinese tale. Appearing alongside Wu Chun and Hu Ge, "The Butterfly Lovers" hit theatres October 9, 2008. Throughout the filming of the movie, rumors of an off-set romance between Charlene Choi and Wu Chun (the leading actress and actor) developed. Though they have denied such rumors, Wu Chun has stated that the pair has reached an agreement with Jingle Ma ("The Butterfly Lovers" director) to collaborate once again in the future.

In December 2008, she began filming her first Taiwanese series, Calling For Love (Hu Jaio Da Ming Xing), produced by popular producer Angie Chai and directed by Director Lin. Appears alongside Taiwan heartthrob Mike He, this series began airing May 2010.

Finally in December 2009 after over 1 year of post-production, positive response at the Shanghai International Film Festival, The Storm Warriors was released with Choi taking on the main female lead role as Second Dream and starring alongside actors Aaron Kwok, Ekin Cheng, Simon Yam and Nicholas Tse. Though it was only released on December 10, 2009, The Storm Warriors was listed as #5 in the list of Top 10 HK Movies of 2009 based on Box Office results.

Present

Despite 2009 being a year more heavily concentrated on music, 2010 is to be a year saturated with acting projects. Starring alongside actress Sandra Ng, 2010 started off with a bang with box-office hit Beauty on Duty. Charlene has next appeared in the highly critically acclaimed summer blockbuster movie blending action, drama, suspense, thriller and romance entitled Triple Tap, starring Daniel Wu and Louis Koo. Starring in The Jade and the Pearl with Raymond Lam, as well as good friends Joey Yung and Wong Cho Lam, the movie is set to release Summer 2010 and will call upon Charlene and Raymond to have a rare collaboration in singing a duet theme song. Charlene has concluded filming God of Fortune's Inn with actors Nicholas Tse and Nick Cheung and as of July 2010, she has begun 3-4 month long filming with Nicholas Tse, this time to star in her very first Mainland series entitled Sword Heroes' Fate.