Wei Zhao

Born and brought up in Wuhu, Anhui, Zhao is the second child to Zhao Jiahai, an engineer, and Wei Qiying , a primary school teacher, She has an elder brother Zhao Jian (born 1971).

After secondary school, Zhao entered Wuhu Normal School, a local education institution training students to become pre-school teachers.

She also received training in piano, dance, and Chinese ink wash painting.

Zhao Wei (born 12 March 1976), also known as Vicky Zhao or Vicki Zhao, is a Chinese actress, businesswoman, film director, producer and pop singer.

She is considered one of the most popular actresses in China and Chinese-speaking regions, and one of the highest paid actresses as well.

My Fair Princess enjoyed unprecedented success in East and Southeast Asian countries, and Zhao was regarded by many as Mainland China's first "national idol" since the economic reform began in 1978.

In 1993, while Zhao was still in school, the movie A Soul Haunted by Painting (1994), directed by Huang Shuqin, starring Gong Li and Derek Yee, was filming in Wuhu.

Zhao was cast in the role of a young prostitute in the brothel where Gong's character worked, her first acting experience.

She appeared briefly at the beginning of the film and had no dialogue.

Zhao developed a strong interest in acting after this first experience, and decided to become an actress.

In 1994, after graduating from the Wuhu Normal School, she gave up her job as an apprentice pre-school teacher.

She moved from her hometown to Shanghai and enrolled in the Shanghai Xie Jin-Hengtong Star Academy, an acting school founded by the Chinese director Xie Jin, where she received structured acting training during 1994–1995.

She was also selected by Xie to star in his movie Penitentiary Angel (1996).

This was her first substantial role.

Though she did not find her own performance fulfilling, Zhao considered it a valuable experience and a good start to her career.

The film landed her other roles in TV series including her first leading role in Sisters in Beijing (1996).

"I am too young to understand the role," she said, "but if you've been cast in a film by a famous director, no matter how well you did, other less-famous directors will also want to cast you."

In 1996, Zhao was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy (BFA) School of Performing Arts with the highest entrance examination score nation-wide.

She graduated four years later with a Bachelor’s Degree in performing arts as one of the most outstanding graduates – Zhao scored five "A"s and nine "A−"s out of the 14 courses.

Her graduation thesis scored 90 (out of 100).

In 1997, novelist and producer Chiung Yao was casting the TV series My Fair Princess, a joint production by mainland China and Taiwan which was adapted from Chiung Yao's own novel.

She identified Zhao Wei as a talent after watching Sisters in Beijing and offered Zhao the title role of Huan Zhu Ge Ge (Princess Pearl) a.k.a. Xiao Yanzi ("Little Swallow"), a rebellious and funny princess who dared to challenge authority and rules in the palace.

Filming the series was an arduous task for Zhao and her co-stars; Zhao herself acknowledged the intensity of filming: "We shot 18 to 20 hours a day. There were two groups of actors. One shot during the day, one at night. Frequently I'd have to do both. A few times I worked so hard that I actually threw up from the exertion. But I was young then. I didn't get tired easily. And I never complained about the working conditions. I thought that's just how it was supposed to be. Now I know that's wrong. But at the time I had no clue. Whatever they'd give me, I'd do. And as soon as I was done working I could just fall asleep. They'd say, 'Go to sleep', and I'd go right to sleep."

The hard work of the cast yielded unexpected results.

This comedic period drama quickly became a phenomenal sensation and swept TV ratings in Taiwan, mainland China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore and Vietnam.

While studying at the Beijing Film Academy, Zhao rose to national and regional prominence overnight for her role as Xiaoyanzi ("Little Swallow") in the hit TV series My Fair Princess (1998–1999), for which she also won Golden Eagle Award for Best Actress.

She has a music career, starting with her debut album Swallow (1999), and has released seven albums.

Zhao has starred in many box-office hits, including Shaolin Soccer (2001), Red Cliff (2008–2009), Painted Skin (2008), Painted Skin: The Resurrection (2012), and Lost in Hong Kong (2015).

While focusing mostly on films, her works also include television series such as Romance in the Rain (2001), Moment in Peking (2005) and Tiger Mom (2015).

She has received numerous awards from the Shanghai International Film Festival, Huabiao Awards, Changchun Film Festival, Hundred Flowers Awards and Shanghai Film Critics Awards for films like A Time to Love (2005) and Mulan (2009).

In 2006, she won the MTV Asia Award for Favorite Artist from Mainland China, for her album Double.

Zhao received her master's degree in film directing from Beijing Film Academy in 2012.

Zhao ranked 80th on Forbes China Celebrity 100 list in 2013, 22nd in 2014, 7th in 2015, and 28th in 2017.

Her directorial debut So Young (2013) was both a box office and critical success.

It broke the box office record for films directed by female Chinese directors in a week, and eventually became one of the highest-grossing films in China.

The movie earned her multiple awards in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, including Golden Rooster Award for Best Directorial Debut, Hundred Flowers Award for Best Director and Hong Kong Film Award for Best Film from Mainland and Taiwan.

On 27 August 2021, all films and television series featuring Zhao disappeared from Chinese video streaming services like Tencent Video and IQIYI, and her Weibo Super Talk was deleted; no formal explanation was given by the Chinese government.

In 2014, after an almost two-year break from acting, she appeared in Peter Chan's film Dearest, and won the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Award and Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress.

In 2016, Zhao was named as member of the main jury at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival.

In September 2017, she was named as member of the main competition jury for the 30th Tokyo International Film Festival.