Zhang Ziyi ([ʈʂáŋ tsɹ̩̀.ǐ]; Chinese: 章子怡; born 9 February 1979) is a Chinese actress, model, and former dancer. She is regarded as one of the Four Dan Actresses of China.
Born and raised in Beijing, Zhang studied at the Beijing Dance Academy and began her six-year study of folk dance in 1990. In 1994, she won the performance award in the National Taoli Cup Dance Competition. She was admitted to the Performance Department of the Central Academy of Drama in 1996. That year, she made her acting debut in the television film Touching Starlight (1996). After her breakout role in Zhang Yimou's The Road Home (1999), which won her the Best Actress Award at the 2000 Hundred Flowers Awards, Zhang gained international recognition for her performance in the wuxia martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), which was nominated for 10 Academy Awards.
Zhang made her Hollywood debut in 2001 opposite Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in the action comedy film Rush Hour 2 (2001). That year she also starred as a princess in the historical drama film Musa. She has also appeared in the critically acclaimed films Hero (2002), opposite Jet Li, and House of Flying Daggers (2004), opposite Andy Lau. For her work in 2046 (2004), she won best actress at the 2005 Hong Kong Film Awards. Her most critically acclaimed works are Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), which earned her nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role; and The Grandmaster (2013), for which she won 12 different Best Actress awards to become the most awarded Chinese actress for a single film.
From 2004 to 2010, Zhang ranked in the Top 5 of Forbes China Celebrity 100 list every year. In 2008, she was awarded with the Outstanding Contribution to Chinese Cinema award at the 11th Shanghai International Film Festival. In 2013, she received the French Cultural Order at the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Source : Wikipedia
