Donnie Yen

Donnie Yen Ji-dan (born 27 July 1963) is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and action director.

He is regarded as one of Hong Kong's top action stars.

Yen is credited by many for contributing to the popularisation of Wing Chun in China.

He portrays Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man in the Ip Man film series, which has garnered box office success.

Yen was born on 27 July 1963 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.

His mother, Bow-sim Mark, is a Fu-style wudangquan (internal martial arts) and tai chi grandmaster, while his father, Klyster Yen (甄雲龍), was a newspaper editor.

When he was two years old, his family moved to Hong Kong and then to the United States when he was 11, settling in Boston.

He attended Newton North High School.

Yen's first step into the film industry was when he landed his first starring role in the 1984 film Drunken Tai Chi.

After filming Drunken Tai Chi and Tiger Cage (1988), Yen made his breakthrough role as General Nap-lan in Once Upon a Time in China II (1992), which included a fight scene between his character and Wong Fei-hung (played by Jet Li).

Yen had a starring role in the film Iron Monkey in 1993.

In 1995, Yen starred as Chen Zhen in the television series Fist of Fury produced by ATV, which is adapted from the 1972 film of the same title that starred Bruce Lee as Chen Zhen.

In 1997, Yen started the production company Bullet Films, and made his directorial debut in Legend of the Wolf (1997) and Ballistic Kiss (1998), in which he played the lead character.

At age 34, Yen almost went bankrupt.

Films produced by his own production company and directed by him were critically acclaimed but did not do well at the box office.

Yen was forced to borrow money from loan sharks and his production crew to get by.

Yen later went back to the United States, where he was invited to choreograph fight scenes in Hollywood films, such as Highlander: Endgame (2000) and Blade II (2002).

His choreography and skills impressed the directors, and they invited him for cameo appearances in both movies.

Yen continued to be active in Hong Kong cinema in the 2000s, starring as Chu Zhaonan in Tsui Hark's wuxia epic film Seven Swords, and as Ma Kwun in Wilson Yip's brutal crime drama film SPL: Sha Po Lang in 2005.

Yen and Li appeared together again in the 2002 film Hero, where Yen played a spear (or qiang) fighter who fought with Li's character, an unnamed swordsman.

In 2002, Jet Li was filming the movie Hero and insisted to the director (Zhang Yimou) that he wanted Yen to play the role of Sky, his adversary, due to Yen's martial arts ability.

Li personally invited Yen back from Hollywood to star in the movie, marking the second time the two actors appeared onscreen together since Once Upon a Time in China II ten years earlier.

The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2003 Academy Awards.

In 2003, Yen played one of the antagonists against Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson in Shanghai Knights.

Yen choreographed most of the fight animation in the 2004 video game Onimusha 3, which featured actors Takeshi Kaneshiro and Jean Reno.

Both films were featured at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival.

Later that year, Yen co-starred with Nicholas Tse and Shawn Yue in Wilson Yip's Dragon Tiger Gate, an adaptation of Wong Yuk-long's manhua series Oriental Heroes.

Yen also worked as action choreographer in Stormbreaker, starring Alex Pettyfer.

His younger sister, Chris Yen, is also a martial artist and actress, and appeared in the 2007 film Adventures of Johnny Tao: Rock Around the Dragon.

At a young age, under the influence of his mother, Yen developed an interest in martial arts and began experimenting with various styles, including tai chi and other traditional Chinese martial arts.

At age 16, Yen began practising Wushu after his parents sent him to Beijing to train with the Beijing Wushu Team.

At age 18, when Yen was returning to the United States to visit his family, he made a stop in Hong Kong, where he met and auditioned for action choreographer Yuen Woo-ping.

Yen also came from a family of musicians.

His mother is a soprano, in addition to being a martial arts teacher in Boston, while his father is a violinist.

From a young age, he was taught by his parents to play musical instruments, including the piano.

Yen continued to work with Wilson Yip in Flash Point (2007), in which he starred as the lead character and served as producer and action choreographer for the film.

He won the award for Best Action Choreography at the Golden Horse Film Awards and the Hong Kong Film Awards for his performance in Flash Point.

In 2008, Yen starred in Ip Man, a semi-biographical account of Ip Man, the Wing Chun master of Bruce Lee.

Yen later reprised his role as Chen Zhen in the 2010 film Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen by replacing Jet Li who starred as Chen Zhen in the prequel film Fist of Legend, which was released in 1994.

He has also gained international recognition for playing Chirrut Îmwe in Rogue One (2016) and Xiang in XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017), as well as Commander Tung in Mulan (2020) and Caine in John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023).