24 Facts About Stephen Chow

Stephen Chow Sing-chi is a Hong Kong filmmaker and former actor, known for his mo lei tau comedy.

Stephen Chow's career began in television, where he gained recognition through variety shows and TV dramas.

Stephen Chow consecutively broke Hong Kong's box office records in the next two years with films All for the Winner and Fight Back to School, cementing his status as one of the region's most popular comedic actors.

Since the early 1990s, Stephen Chow began working as a screenwriter and director, serving as a de facto director for Flirting Scholar before receiving his first directorial credit with From Beijing with Love.

Stephen Chow was born in Hong Kong on 22 June 1962 to Ling Po-yee, an alumna of Guangzhou Normal University, and Chow Yik-sheung, an immigrant from Ningbo, Zhejiang.

Stephen Chow's given name "Sing-chi" derives from Tang dynasty Chinese poet Wang Bo's essay Preface to the Prince of Teng's Pavilion.

Stephen Chow attended Heep Woh Primary School, a missionary school attached to the Hong Kong Council of the Church of Christ in China in Prince Edward Road, Kowloon Peninsula.

Stephen Chow entered San Marino Secondary School, where he studied alongside Lee Kin-yan.

Stephen Chow began his career as an extra for Rediffusion Television.

Stephen Chow captured the attention of the public as host of the TVB Jade children's program 430 Space Shuttle.

Stephen Chow shot to further television stardom in the TVB wuxia series, The Final Combat.

Stephen Chow was then trying to make a comeback as a character actor.

City Entertainment magazine reported that Stephen Chow's career was over and he was repeating himself after the hit that was All for the Winner.

In 1994, Stephen Chow teamed up with director Lee Lik-chi and writer Vincent Kok for Love On Delivery, a movie that would only be the sixth highest-grossing movie of the year, a significant step down in status.

Fortunately, Stephen Chow re-teamed with Kok and Lee again that same year for a James Bond parody he's credited as co-writing and co-directing, and From Beijing with Love became the number three movie at the annual box office, beaten only by Stephen Chow Yun-fat's return to the God of Gamblers franchise and Jackie Chan's return to the character of a young Wong Fei-hung in Drunken Master II, a character he'd last played in 1978 in the first Drunken Master.

Around this time, Stephen Chow established his own film production company, Choi Sing Company, and approached Jeff Lau about writing and directing his next movie.

Stephen Chow earned substantial money from the movie over the years through licensing and advertising opportunities and in the late '90s and early 2000s it became a cult favorite in the Mainland with phrases, expressions, and memes from the two films becoming a foundational part of early Chinese internet culture.

Stephen Chow won Best Director and Best Actor at the 2002 Hong Kong Film Awards, and the film went on to garner additional awards including a Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and the Golden Bauhinia Award for Best Picture and Best Director.

Stephen Chow won Best Director at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards and Best Picture of Imagine Film Festival as well as over twenty international awards.

Stephen Chow spent 4 years writing, directing and producing the remake of his 1999 film King of Comedy, the film was titled The New King of Comedy, released in February 2019.

From 1995 to 1998, Stephen Chow dated actress and singer Karen Mok, who has starred alongside him in several films.

Stephen Chow had a relationship with Alice Yu Man-fung, daughter of business mogul Yu Ching-Po, for 12 to 13 years until March 2010, during which Yu assisted Stephen Chow with personal investments and was paid a salary based on a written contract from 2002, initially at HK$20,000 a month.

In September 2012, Yu filed a lawsuit against Stephen Chow, asserting that there was an additional oral agreement purportedly reached around Christmas of 2002 for Stephen Chow to pay her a 10 per cent share of net profits on all successful investments she recommended.

In 2013, Stephen Chow was elected a member of the 11th Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.