Maggie Cheung

Born: September 20 1964
Where: Hong Kong

The actress has impressed as an action star, serious actress and comedienne in almost 100 films.

She is probably best known for her roles in Jackie Chan's Police Story, Ann Hui's Song of the Exile and Wong Kar-Wai's In The Mood For Love.

Cheung moved with her family to England aged eight and returned to Hong Kong to complete her education.

She landed contracts with local TV companies after being runner-up in the Miss Hong Kong contest and also appeared on local TV.

She made her feature debut proper in Police Story after a handful of low budget outings.

The turning point in her career came when she was cast in As Tears Go By (she was nominated as best actress in the Hong Kong Film Awards).

She went on to pick up the award five times - for A Fishy Story, Actress, Comrades: Almost A Love Story, The Soong Sisters and In The Mood For Love.

Actress, in which she played a tragic silent era starlet, also landed her best actress awards in Taiwan and Chicago and she became the first Asian performer to win the Silver Bear at Berlin.

Cheung has also made waves outside Hong Kong, starring in Oliver Assayas' Les Vampires while Irma Rep marked her first international outing.

Subsequent roles included Peter Chan's Comrades, Almost A Love Story, Mabel Cheung's historical saga The Soong Sisters and Wayne Chang's Chinese Box.

In 2004, she played assassin Flying Snow in the historial martial arts drama Hero and also starred in Wong Kar-Wei's romance 2046.

In 2005, she starred in former husband Olivier Assayas' rock band drama Clean alongside Nick Nolte.