Early life

Wu was born in Berkeley, California, and raised in Orinda, California. His parents were immigrants from Shanghai, China. Wu developed an interest in martial arts when he saw Jet Li in The Shaolin Temple and Donnie Yen in Iron Monkey, and consequently began studying wushu at age 11. His childhood role model was Jackie Chan, a man who now considers Wu "like a son." Wu attended the Head-Royce School in Oakland, California and later majored in architecture with Tony Salas at the University of Oregon. While there, he founded the University of Oregon Wushu Club in 1994 and served as the team's first coach. During this time, Wu also took film classes and frequented local theaters, and came to enjoy the works of filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa and Luc Besson, whom he describes as "men of vision." Following graduation, Wu traveled in 1997 to Hong Kong to witness the handover of Hong Kong, with no intention of taking on a movie career. At the suggestion of his sister, Wu began modeling. Four months later, film director Yonfan, after seeing Wu featured in a clothing ad at a railway station, approached Wu about starring in an upcoming movie.

Acting career

Despite his inability at the time to speak Hong Kong Cantonese or read Chinese, Wu successfully completed his first movie, Yonfan's Bishonen in 1998. Still today, when he receives a Cantonese script, his assistant reads the entire piece, while he is making notes on the pronunciation. The day after Bishonen wrapped, Wu was offered the leading role in Mabel Cheung's City of Glass (for which Wu was nominated as best new actor at the 18th Hong Kong Film Awards), and later, a supporting part in Young and Dangerous: The Prequel, from Andrew Lau's gangster film series. Around this time, Wu met superstar Jackie Chan at a restaurant opening, and was quickly signed to Chan's JC Group with agent Willie Chan. Wu's breakthrough performance came in 1999 with his role in Benny Chan's Gen-X Cops. He followed this success with roles in a variety of movies including big-budget thriller Purple Storm, art-house production Peony Pavilion, and the extremely successful Love Undercover. In 2001, Wu received criticism from the Hong Kong media for sexual scenes with Suki Kwan in Cop on a Mission, but Wu says that same criticism attracted the attention of directors and the film represented a turning point in the types of roles he chose in the future.

Wu's first experience in film production came with his starring role in Julian Lee's 2003 film, Night Corridor. Due to budgetary constraints, Wu also participated in the search for funding for, and distribution of, the film, and recruited Jun Kung to create the soundtrack. Though Night Corridor dealt with "risky" themes, Wu felt he had less reliance on image than many of his pop-star actor peers, and he was nominated for best actor at Taiwan's 40th Golden Horse Film Awards for his effort. During 2003, Wu also took part as producer and creative director on "MTV's Whatever Things!", a "Jackass"-styled program aired in Asia, also featuring Sam Lee, Josie Ho, Terence Yin, and other celebrities. Also during 2003, Wu took part in a stage production of The Happy Prince at the Edward Lam Dance Theater as part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival, during which he recited a 16-minute monologue in Cantonese, learned entirely from pinyin. In 2005, Wu was nominated as best actor at the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards for his role in Derek Yee's One Nite in Mongkok, and as best supporting actor for New Police Story. At the 41st Golden Horse Film Awards, Wu won the award for best supporting actor for New Police Story. The win came as a surprise to him, because he "didn't think that much" of his performance in the film.

In 2005, Chinese media began to report that Wu had formed a boy band, Alive, with Terence Yin, Andrew Lin, and Conroy Chan. Wu and his bandmates posted information, updates, personal thoughts (including slamming Hong Kong Disneyland, for which they were spokespersons), and the band's music, at their official website. In 2006, Wu made his writing and directorial debut with The Heavenly Kings, which chronicles Alive's formation and exploits. After the film's release, however, it was revealed that The Heavenly Kings was actually a mockumentary of the Hong Kong pop music industry, and Alive was constructed purely as a vehicle to make the movie; the film's characters represented only 10-15% of their real-life counterparts and much of the footage blurred the line between fiction and reality. Wu admitted his own singing voice "sucked really bad," and the band had their voices digitally enhanced for its music, to prove that "it's easy to fake it." Despite some backlash from the media over being intentionally fed false information in the movie about illegal downloads of the band's music, Wu won the best new director award at the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards, an achievement he called "a group effort."

In November 2015, he began starring in the AMC action series Into the Badlands as Sunny.

Other projects

In April 2007, Wu re-launched his band's old website, AliveNotDead.com, with Terence Yin and RottenTomatoes.com founders Patrick Lee and Stephen Wang, as a place for filmmakers, musicians, and other artists to collaborate, receive exposure, network, and interact with fans. He continues his modeling career as spokesperson for a variety of products such as Seiko and L'Oréal. Wu posed for the charity photography album SuperStars by Leslie Kee, and performed on rapper Jin's song, "HK Superstar." Wu is an investor in Racks MDB Shanghai, which opened in 2008.

Personal life

Wu's parents, George (a retired engineer) and Diana (a college professor) are natives of Shanghai, China. His father immigrated to the United States after the communist revolution in China in 1949, and met his mother in New York, where she was a student. After marrying they settled in California. Wu also has two older sisters, Greta and Gloria. He maintains residences in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing. He continues to actively train in wushu as well as other martial arts. On April 6, 2010, Wu married Lisa S. in South Africa.

Their daughter, Raven, was born on June 2, 2013.

Filmography

Film

Year	English title	Chinese title	Role	Notes
1998	Bishonen	美少年の恋	Sam Fai
	City of Glass	玻璃之城	Daniel	credited as Daniel Ng; nominated: Hong Kong Film Awards, best new actor
	Young and Dangerous: The Prequel	新古惑仔之少年激鬥篇	Big Head	credited as Daniel Ng
1999	Gorgeous	玻璃樽	photographer's assistant
	Gen-X Cops	特警新人類	Daniel
	Purple Storm	紫雨風暴	Todd Nguyen
2000	2000 AD	公元2000	Benny
	Undercover Blues	刑 「殺之法」	Joe Wong
2001	Headlines	頭號人物	Peter Wong
	Hit Team	重裝警察	Inspector Chung Chai
	Cop on a Mission	知法犯法	Mike
	Born Wild	野獸之瞳	Tide Ho
	Beijing Rocks	北京樂與路	Michael Wu
	Peony Pavilion	遊園驚夢	Xing Zhi-gang
2002	Beauty and the Breast	豐胸秘Cup	Harper
	Love Undercover	新紮師妹	Au Hoi-man
	Princess D	想飛	Joker
	Devil Face, Angel Heart	變臉迷情	Long
	The Peeping	偷窺無罪	Calvin
	Naked Weapon	赤裸特工	Jack Chen
2003	Night Corridor	妖夜迴廊	Sam Yuen/Hung	also producer; nominated: Golden Horse Film Awards, best actor
	Love Undercover 2: Love Mission	新紮師妹2: 美麗任務	Au Hoi-man
	Hidden Track	尋找周杰倫	Police officer
	Miss Du Shi Niang	Miss 杜十娘	Ken Li
2004	Magic Kitchen	魔幻厨房	Kevin
	Chiseen	黐線		DVD version of some segments of MTV's Whatever Things
	Enter the Phoenix	大佬愛美麗	Georgie Hung
	One Nite in Mongkok	旺角黑夜	Lai Fu	nominated: Hong Kong Film Awards, best actor
	Around the World in 80 Days	80日環遊世界	Bak Mei
	The Twins Effect II	千機變II: 花都大戰	Wei Liao
	Beyond Our Ken	公主復仇記	Ken
	New Police Story	新警察故事	Joe Kwan	winner: Golden Horse Film Awards, best supporting actor nominated: Golden Rooster Film Awards, best supporting actor
2005	DragonBlade	龍刀奇緣	Hung Lang	voiceover
	House of Fury	精武家庭	Jason
	Divergence	三岔口	Coke
	Drink-Drank-Drunk	千杯不醉	Michael
	Everlasting Regret	長恨歌	Kang Mingxun
2006	Rob-B-Hood	寶貝計劃	Brokeback Security agent Daniel
	McDull, the Alumni	春田花花同學會	Hostage-taker
	The Banquet	夜宴	Prince Wu Luan
	The Heavenly Kings	四大天王	Daniel Wu	also writer & director; winner: Hong Kong Film Awards, best new director
2007	Protégé	門徒	Nick
	Ming Ming	明明	D
	Blood Brothers	天堂口	Ah Fung
2009	Shinjuku Incident	新宿事件	Jie/Joe
	Overheard	竊聽風雲	Max Lam
	Like a Dream	如夢	Max	nominated: Golden Horse Film Awards, best actor
	Jump	跳出去	Doctor
2010	Hot Summer Days	全城熱戀	Sushi master
	Triple Tap	鎗王之王	Chong Tze-wai
2011	Don't Go Breaking My Heart	單身男女	Kevin Fong
	The Founding of a Party	建党伟业	Hu Shih
	Overheard 2	竊聽風雲2	Joe Szema
	Inseparable	形影不離	Li
2012	The Great Magician	大魔術師	Captain Tsai	guest star
	Tai Chi 0	太极	Mad Monk
	Tai Chi Hero	太極２ 英雄崛起	Mad Monk
	The Man with the Iron Fists	铁拳男子	Poison Dagger
	The Last Supper	王的盛宴	Xiang Yu
	CZ12	十二生肖	Hospital Doctor	cameo
2013	Europa Report	木衛二報告	William Xu
	Control	控制	Mark
2014	That Demon Within	魔警	Dave Wong	nominated: Hong Kong Film Awards, best actor
	Overheard 3	竊聽風雲3	Joe
	Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2	單身男女2	Kevin Fong
2015	I Am Somebody	我是路人甲
	Go Away Mr. Tumor	滾蛋吧！腫瘤君
2016	Warcraft	魔獸	Gul'dan	Post-production
	Battle of Life	天火		Filming

TV series

Year	English title	Chinese title	Role	Notes
2015	Into the Badlands	荒原	Sunny	also executive producer

[ Source: Wikipedia ]