Profile | Acting with Michelle Yeoh, modelling at 12: the Cinderella story of Isabella Leong, who passed up Hollywood to have children with Richard Li, younger son of Li Ka-shing

Isabella Leong was poised to break into Hollywood after starring in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor alongside Michelle Yeoh, Jet Li and Brendan Fraser

However, the Macanese actress gave it all up when she began dating Richard Li – son of tycoon Li Ka-shing and 22 years her senior – with whom she had three sons

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Isabella Leong in an interview with the Post in 2005. The Macanese actress put a halt to her acting career when she began dating Richard Li, the younger son of Li Ka-shing. Photo: SCMP

Published: 7:15am, 3 Aug 2023Updated: 2:29pm, 7 Aug 2023

This is the fourth instalment in a biweekly series profiling major Hong Kong pop culture figures of recent decades.

Not only does Isabella Leong Lok-sze’s first name rhyme with Cinderella, her life story bears more than a passing resemblance to the classic fairy tale.

The Macanese actress, born Luísa Isabella Nolasco da Silva Leong Lok-yau in 1988, grew up in a single-parent household after her father died when she was six months old.

Leong’s Eurasian father was a descendant of the Nolasco da Silva family, one of the most prominent and longest-established families in Macau. Her Macau Chinese mother worked as a casino croupier.

Despite the influence and wealth of her paternal family, Leong took her mother’s surname.

In 2001, she was signed to a modelling contract with Hong Kong’s Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG).

SCMP Series

Hong Kong’s pop culture icons

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