Chen Kun

Chen Kun (born February 4, 1976), sometimes credited as Aloys Chen, is a Chinese actor, singer and producer.

He gained recognition from television dramas Love Story in Shanghai and The Story of a Noble Family and rose to international prominence with the films The Knot and Painted Skin.

Chen has won the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actor, Huabiao Award for Outstanding Actor, and received a Golden Horse Award nomination for Best Actor.

He showed early talent in singing and was strongly recommended by his vocal trainer and mentor to join the China Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble (now China National Song and Dance Ensemble) at Beijing in 1995.

In 1996, he was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy, where he began taking acting classes.

Chen debuted in the 1999 film The National Anthem.

He rose to prominence with the 2001 television drama Love in Shanghai.

His role as a poor clock repairer who manages to get through to a girl from a wealthy family suffering from infantile autism, made him an audience favorite.

Although he is not married, Chen has one son born in 2002 named Chen Zunyou (Youyou).

Chen does not intend to reveal the identity of Youyou's mother.

Chen gained more international recognition in 2002, after starring in Franco-Chinese romance film Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.

The film was nominated at the Golden Globe Awards for Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

He then starred in the Republican series The Story of a Noble Family (2003), adapted from the novel of the same name by Zhang Henshui.

The series was a commercial success, and recorded the highest ratings of the year.

The role of Jin Yanxi became his most prolific work in his earlier years.

Chen then starred in A West Lake Moment (2005), playing a love-seeking and idealistic young man who is not easily satisfied.

He was nominated as Best Actor for his performance at the Golden Horse Awards.

He next starred in The Music Box (2006), which earned him the Best Actor accolade at the Shanghai Film Critics Awards for capturing his screen character's years of arduous life and as well as his struggles and joys.

Chen rose to international prominence with The Knot (2007).

He described the role as a "big challenge" to him, as he had to portray the maturing process of his character over 20 years.

He also won Best Actor at the 2007 Huabiao Film Awards.

He next starred in Gordon Chan's horror-adventure film Painted Skin (2008), which won him the Best Actor award at the Hundred Flowers Awards.

To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chen participated in the patriotic tribute The Founding of a Republic (2009).

He played Chiang Ching-kuo, and was praised by the media and critics alike for his excellent portrayal of a passionate nationalist who was unable to prevent the fall of his party.

In 2010, Chen established his own agency K Pictures (Dongshen Tonghua).

He then set up a series of public charities named "Power to Go", aimed to encourage people to simply go outside and walk, in an effort to improve their health and spirit.

The events were held on separate occasions in Qinghai and Tibet.

His first book Suddenly Walked to Tibet (突然就走到了西藏) was published in 2011, and contains a collection of autobiographical essays.

It was a huge commercial success, and Chen became the first and only actor to make it on to China's Writers Rich List.

In 2012, he published and co-authored the book Heading East, in the Direction of Peace (往西，宁静的方向), the first in a series of five books promoting the charity program.

Chen was crowned as the "Weibo King" at the 2013 Sina Weibo Night for his popularity, influence and philanthropy work on the micro-blogging site.

Chen ranked 68th on Forbes China Celebrity 100 list in 2014, 28th in 2014, 15th in 2017, and 52nd in 2019.

Chen Kun was born in Chongqing.

He was raised by his maternal grandmother.

His parents divorced soon after Chen's second younger brother was born, and Chen began working part-time in high school to support his mother.

He started as a typist at the municipal office and later as a solo singer at night clubs.

He was also the "Philanthropy King" at the 2014 iQiyi Awards Night.

Chen is also a keen writer, having published and co-authored several books.

In 2014, he also published Strange Aquarius (鬼水瓶录), a short-story collection that takes inspiration from his Weibo posts and life story.

The film was a huge success and garnered 8 nominations at the 16th Golden Rooster Awards, including Best Actor for Chen.