Profile | Hong Kong singer-actor Julian Cheung’s career from Cantopop to TV to police movie regular
Fan-favourite Hong Kong actor Julian Cheung, who seems to have become typecast as a policeman, began acting and singing in the early 1990s
Born in Hong Kong in 1971 to a mother who as a beauty queen won the city’s 1962 Miss Exhibition Pageant, actor Julian Cheung Chi-lam once said he was a “pretty rough guy from an ordinary family”.
His extended family has no shortage of entertainers, though – his maternal uncle, Charlie Cho Cha-lee, is an actor known for his soft porn film roles, while his cousin Anna Ueyama was an actress before she switched to working in insurance.
Cheung’s parents separated when he was a child and, when he was 16, he and his father moved to Sydney, Australia. In 1990, Cheung was introduced to a talent manager through Ueyama while he was visiting Hong Kong during a summer holiday.
In November 1991 Cheung debuted as a singer, releasing Modern Love Story – his first duet album – with actress and singer Maple Hui Chau-yi. His first solo album, Make Me Happy, came out in October 1992.