Bai Ling

Born: October 10 1970
Where: Beijing, China

The former chorister and pro-democracy campaigner first attracted attention as Myca in the cult supernatural thriller The Crow.

Since then she has appeared in high profile movies including Sky Captain: World of Tomorrow and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.

Ling kicked off her show business career when she was in school with the school choir.

When she was 14 she enlisted in the Chinese People's Liberation Army where she spent three years in a performance troop entertaining soldiers stationed in Tibet.

Ling then became a performer in a local theatre in Beijing where she eventually became involved in the pro-Democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

As a result of her involvement, Ling emigrated to the USA in 1991 where she soon found work with her first English-language role as a villain in The Crow.

Steady work followed with various character roles ranging from the villainous Miss East in Wild, Wild West with Will Smith to a Chinese interpreter in Oliver Stone's Nixon.

Her appearance in the controversial Red Corner playing a pragmatic Chinese People's lawyer threatened to jeopardise trips home to see her family.

Subsequent appearances include The Breed, Paris and Spike Lee's forgettable social satire She Hate Me.

Recent work includes the sci-fi thriller Sky Captain and the role of Ling in Hans Petter Moland's The Beautiful Country.