Daniel Wu

Wu was born in Berkeley, California, and grew up in Orinda; his parents were both Shanghai natives and first-generation Chinese immigrants educated in the United States. He loved films from childhood, admired Jackie Chan and Jet Li, and studied the Chinese martial arts discipline of wushu.⁠[1][2][1][2]

Wu studied in the architecture program at the University of Oregon, where he washed pots and pans in the kitchen at Carson Hall on campus and also took film and photography classes. In 1996, he founded the University of Oregon Wushu Club, recruiting members by giving demonstrations in the student center courtyard and visiting student associations to show videos.⁠[1][1][1]

In 1997, Wu received a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Oregon. He had originally planned a career in architecture, but in April of his final year he decided to go to Hong Kong to witness its handover to China, seeing it as a chance, as an American, to be part of a historic moment.⁠[1][1]

After arriving in Hong Kong, he took his sister’s advice and worked as a model; about four months later, a director invited him to star in a film. He initially turned it down for lack of confidence, agreeing only after the director had called him every day for a month. At the time, he had no acting training, could not speak Cantonese, and could not read Chinese.⁠[1][1][1]

In 1998, Wu completed his first film, Bishonen, and the next day was offered the lead role in City of Glass, for which he received a Hong Kong Film Award nomination for Best New Performer; that year he appeared in three Chinese-language films in total. He then met Jackie Chan, who helped him sign with a top agent, and his career quickly took off.⁠[1][2][1]

In 1999, Wu rose to fame in Hong Kong with the film Gen-X Cop, becoming a household face.⁠[3]

At the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards, Wu was nominated for Best Actor for One Nite in Mongkok and for Best Supporting Actor for New Police Story. He has also won the Best Supporting Actor award at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards.⁠[4][4][1]

In 2006, Wu made his debut as a writer and director with the mockumentary The Heavenly Kings, about the Hong Kong pop music industry, which he also produced. The film won him the Best New Director award at the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards and the Best Director award at the Chinese Film Media Awards.⁠[1][5][2][2]

In 2007, nearly a decade into his career, Wu went back to school and took an intensive acting workshop to put acting concepts into a more systematic form.⁠[1]

In 2012, Wu was invited as a featured artist to the Cinema Pacific Film Festival hosted by the University of Oregon, and both screenings of his films sold out. In a conversation with former teachers at the architecture department, he said his approach to filmmaking resembles architecture, treating scenes as if they were rooms, and that he had learned this way of thinking in the architecture program.⁠[1][1][1]

On December 19, 2014, AMC announced that Wu would star in and serve as an executive producer of the martial arts drama Badlands (working title, later titled Into the Badlands). The series is loosely based on Journey to the West, and Wu plays Sunny, a ruthless, well-trained warrior. By then, he had appeared in more than 60 films.⁠[2][2][2][2]

On November 15, 2015, Into the Badlands premiered on AMC, with a first season of six episodes. Under Nielsen Live+3 measurement, the premiere episode drew 8.2 million viewers, including 5.1 million adults aged 18 to 49, and AMC called it the third-highest series premiere in U.S. cable television history in that age group.⁠[6][6][7][7]

In 2016, Wu played the warlike orc warlock Gul’dan in the film Warcraft.⁠[8]

In January 2017, Wu joined the Tomb Raider reboot starring Alicia Vikander and directed by Roar Uthaug, playing Lu Ren, a ship’s captain who helps Lara search for her father.⁠[8][8][8]

On April 25, 2017, AMC announced that it had renewed Into the Badlands for an expanded third season of 16 episodes, to air in 2018; in making the announcement, AMC President Charlie Collier noted that the show’s cast was led by Wu.⁠[9][9]

On May 24, 2023, the Disney+ series American Born Chinese, adapted from Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel of the same name, was released, with Wu playing Sun Wukong; the cast also included Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan. He said that the show’s Sun Wukong is now a father who must guide a son whose personality resembles his own when he was younger.⁠[10][10][10][10]

In July 2026, Wu received the Best from the East Award at the New York Asian Film Festival and promoted the film Cold War 1994 at the festival, attending a press conference in New York on July 20. He said that although he was born and raised in the West, he has always represented Hong Kong film; he said he keeps working in the United States to show the next generation that opportunities exist for Asian actors, and to win them more representation and visibility.⁠[11][11][11][11][11]

He described his character in Cold War 1994 as morally ambiguous, an older mastermind, unlike the bad guys, good guys, or young cops he had played before.⁠[11]

His full name also appears in English as Daniel Wu Yin-cho.⁠[4][12]

As of 2012, Wu was still working as a model and endorsing brands including Seiko and L’Oréal; he continues to practice wushu and other martial arts.⁠[1][1]

He is married to model Lisa SelesnerLisa SelesnerLisa Selesner (professional name Lisa S) is a Hong Kong-based American model and television and radio host. She has been a video jockey on the music channel Channel [V] and host of the RTHK English-language program The In Show, and she co-founded the beauty subscription e-commerce company Glamabox; she is the wife of actor Daniel Wu.Open the full entry (Lisa S).⁠[13]