Zhang Ziyi

Zhang Ziyi (born 9 February 1979) is a Chinese actress and model.

She is regarded as one of the Four Dan Actresses of China.

Zhang was born and raised in Beijing, China on 9 February 1979.

Her father, Zhang Yuanxiao, was an accountant and later economist, and her mother, Li Zhousheng, a kindergarten teacher.

She has an older brother, Zhang Zinan, who was her manager.

Zhang began studying dance when she was 8 years old; at 11, she joined the Beijing Dance Academy at her parents' suggestion.

While at this boarding school, she noticed how mean the other girls were to each other while competing for status amongst the teachers.

Zhang disliked the attitudes of her peers and teachers so much that, on one occasion, she ran away from the school.

At the age of 15, Zhang won the national youth dance championship and also appeared in a handful of TV commercials and began appearing in television commercials in Hong Kong.

In 1996, Zhang entered the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing at the age of 17.

Zhang made her acting debut in the television film Touching Starlight at the age of 16.

In 1998, while she was studying in Central Academy of Drama, Zhang was offered her first major role by director Zhang Yimou in his film The Road Home, which would win the Silver Bear prize at the 2000 Berlin International Film Festival.

Zhang plays a country girl in love with the town's young teacher.

After her breakout role in Zhang Yimou's The Road Home (1999), she gained international recognition for her performance in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), which was nominated for 10 Academy Awards.

She won the Best Actress Award at the 2000 Hundred Flowers Awards for her performance.

Zhang rose to international fame in 2000 with her role as Yu Jiaolong in Ang Lee's re-visioned martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

The movie's success in the US and Europe helped her break into Hollywood.

Zhang plays a young Manchu noblewoman who has secretly learned martial arts and runs off to become a wandering swordswoman rather than commit to an arranged marriage.

This role won her the Most Promising Actress award at the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards and Best Supporting Actress awards from the Independent Spirit Awards, as well as Toronto Film Critics Association Awards.

Zhang has also appeared in Rush Hour 2 (2001), Hero (2002), and House of Flying Daggers (2004).

Zhang then appeared in her first American film, Rush Hour 2 (2001) opposite Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.

On playing her first villain role, Zhang expressed that "the opportunity to sort of try and analyze the psyche of the character and get to know and pull out emotions I’ve never had to utilize before...was very exciting."

In 2002, Zhang co-starred in Hero alongside Jet Li, Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung, directed by her early mentor Zhang Yimou.

The film was a huge success in the English-speaking world and was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe award in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.

She then signed on to film an avant-garde drama film Purple Butterfly (2003), which competed in the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.

From 2004 to 2010, Zhang ranked in the Top 5 of Forbes China Celebrity 100 list every year.

Zhang went back to the martial arts genre in House of Flying Daggers (2004), again by Zhang Yimou, where she starred along Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau.

She plays the blind dancing girl Mei, who despite the lack of eyesight, is a skilled fighter.

In preparation for the part, Zhang spent two months living with an actual blind girl.

Her performance earned her a Best Actress nomination at the BAFTA Awards.

She also featured on the House of Flying Daggers soundtrack with her own musical rendition of the ancient Chinese poem Jia Rén Qu (佳人曲, The Beauty Song).

Zhang next starred in Wong Kar-wai's romantic drama film 2046 (2004), which featured many top Chinese actors and actresses.

Critics praise Zhang for her "expressive" body language that was combined with her "reserved and complex emotions" in performance as a struggling prostitute.

Zhang won Best Actress awards at the Hong Kong Film Critics' Award and Hong Kong Film Academy Award.

Her most critically acclaimed works are Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), which earned her nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role; and The Grandmaster (2013), for which she won 12 different Best Actress awards to become the most awarded Chinese actress for a single film.

In 2005, Zhang featured in the critically acclaimed film Jasmine Women, adapted from Su Tong's novel titled Women's Lives.

She won Best Actress at the Golden Rooster Awards for her performance.

Next came Princess Raccoon (2005), directed by Japan's Seijun Suzuki, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2008, she was awarded with the Outstanding Contribution to Chinese Cinema award at the 11th Shanghai International Film Festival.

In 2013, she received the French Cultural Order at the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.