Ang Lee

Born: 23rd October 1954
Where: Pingtung, Taiwan

Lee has built up a revered reputation as a genre-swapping director able to switch from costume drama (Sense & Sensibility) to comic book blockbuster (Hulk).

In 1973, he headed to Taipei to study acting, and five years later, he moved to America to pursue further studies.

Following graduation from the University of Illinois (where he majored in theatre), he headed to New York University's film school, where he began his moviemaking career.

His first film job came in 1982, as assistant cameraman on Spike Lee's Joe's Bed-Stuy Barber Shop: We Cut Heads.

His own shorts, Dim Lake and Fine Line earned prizes and the latter won best film and best director at NYU's film festival, and led to a five year contract with William Morris talent agency.

For five years, he struggled to get projects off the ground, all the while playing househusband to his two sons while his wife was the breadwinner.

1990 saw a turning point in Ang's career. He entered two scripts into a national competition in Taiwan and amazingly placed first and second with Pushing Hands and The Wedding Banquet.

The latter became a huge international success, helped put Taiwanese cinema on the international map, and became the first movie from that country to earn an Academy Award nomination as Best Foreign-Language Film.

A year later, Eat Drink Man Woman, also picked up an Oscar nomination as Best Foreign-Language Film.

Sense and Sensibility was the first full English-language film that Ang directed, the film earned rave reviews and received seven Oscar nominations including Best Picture.

Subsequent projects included the critical rave The Ice Storm with Sigourney Weaver and the underappreciated civil war drama Ride With The Devil.

After a long harbored desire to make a Taiwanese-style film, Lee saw the realization of a dream project when he made his first Chinese-language project in years, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

A big hit, the movie earned ten Academy Award nominations and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

However, his involvement with the Marvel Comics classic character Hulk was less successful, with special effects dominating any characterisation.

In 2005, he was back on form with the gay western Brokeback Mountain with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.