Daniel Wu is a Hong Kong and American actor, director, and producer. He is known for his “flexible and distinctive” acting skills in the Chinese-language film industry.
Daniel Wu Early life and career
Daniel was born Daniel Wu Yin-Cho on September 30. 1974. His mother Dianna was a college professor, and his father, George Wu was a retired engineer. They are both residents of Shangai, China. His father had fled to America after the Communist Revolution in China in 1949 and where he met his mother who was still a student. He is of American nationality but shares a Chinese ethnicity. Daniel has two sisters, Greta and Gloria.
We developed an interest in martial arts after he saw Jet Li in The Shaolin Temple and Donnie Yen in Iron-Monkey. He started taking wushu classes when he was just 11. Daniel has stated that as a child his role model was Jackie Chan, who now considers Wu “like a son”.
He attended the Head-Royce School in Oakland, California. He later majored at the University of Oregon in the field of architecture. During his time in Oregon, he founded the University of Oregon Wushu Club-IN 1994, where he served as the teams' first coach. He also began to engage himself in film classes and frequently acted in minor roles at local theatres. He started to enjoy the works of filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa, and Luc Besson, whom he describes to be “men of vision.”
After his graduation in 1997, Wu traveled to Hong Kong to witness the handing over of Hong Kong. At the time, he still had no intention of pursuing a movie career. There he met his sister, who suggested he start a modeling career. He was then spotted by director Yonfan, who had seen Wu’s feature in a clothing ad at a railway station.
Daniel Wu Professional Career
Wu was offered a role in Yonfan’s Bishonen in 1998. He successfully completed the movie, even though he had problems reading and understanding Honk Kong Cantonese.
The day after Bishonen’s wrap-up, he was offered a leading role for the City of Glass. He was nominated as Best New Actor at the 18th Honk Kong Film Awards for the role he played in this movie.
During this time, he met actor Jackie Chan, who quickly signed him to Chan’s JC Group with agent Willie Chan. He then received many key roles in many movies, namely the big-budget thriller Purple Storm, pony Pavillion, and the successful Love Undercover.
Wu was faced with many criticisms for his sex scenes with Suki Kwan in the film Cop on a Mission in 2001. The criticisms later gained him attention from other directors, which proved to be a turning point for him.
We entered the film production line when he was starring in Julian Lee’s, Night Corridor. The movie was released in 2003, and Wu was nominated for best actor at Taiwan’s 40TH Golden Horse Film Awards.
In 2005, Daniel was nominated as best actor for his role in Derek Yee’s, One Nite in Mongkok at the 24th Honk Kong Film Awards. He was also nominated as the best supporting actor for New Police Story. He won the award for best supporting actor for New Police Story at the 41st Golden Horse Film Awards.
In 2005, the Chinese media reported THAT Wu had formed a boy band ALIVE along with Terence Yin, Andrew Lin, and Conroy Chan. In 2006, he made his writing and directorial debut by filming The Heavenly Kings, a Mockumentary of the Hong Kong pop music industry. He later stated that the move was made just to fuel the movie. He won the award for Best New director at the 26th Honk Kong Film Awards for this movie.
He then started starring as Sunny for his AMC action series Into the Badlands in November 2015. He also serves as an executive director for the series.
Daniel Wu Personal Life: Marriage, Wife
Daniel stays mostly in China these days. He has residences at Honk Kong Shangai, and Beijing. He still continues to train actively in wushu, and also other martial arts. His height is 5 feet 8 inches.
Wu is married to his wife Lisa Selesner. They got married in South Africa in 2010. The marriage was quite lowkey, and was conducted in a small village because the couple was in love with the natural beauty in and around South Africa. Together they have a daughter named Raven. She is now 4 years old.
Daniel Wu Networth
Wu has a net worth of $20 million. The actor has not announced anything concerning his belongings and has not been listed in the online sources, but his career in AMC tells us that he must be pretty well covered.
