Brandon Chang (;

Pha̍k-fa-sṳ Pha̍k-fa-sṳ () is an orthography similar to Pe̍h-ōe-jī and used to write Hakka, a variety of Chinese. Hakka is a whole branch of Chinese, and Hakka dialects are not necessarily mutually intelligible with each other, considering the large geo ...

: Chong Tsok-nâm;

Hanyu Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means ' Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin'' literally ...

: Zhāng Zhuónán; born 28 December 1982) is a Taiwanese musician and actor.

Early life

Chang was born on 28 December 1982 in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. He began taking piano lessons at age five and guitar at age 10. Though he mainly spoke English with his siblings and friends, he also spoke Mandarin and Cantonese at home with his father, a Taiwanese, and his mother, a Hong Kong Chinese. At the age of 14, he moved to Hong Kong with his family, and by early 20s, he moved back to

Taipei, Taiwan , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

. His career began at the age of 16 when Brandon started modeling in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. His first casting landed him a commercial shoot with

Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...

in France. This was followed by several other shoots with fashionable brands. Within a year, Chang was cast to star in one of Hong Kong's popular teen dramas, then known as s

RTHK Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service of Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Econom ...

's ''Y2K''.

Career

By 2001, Chang signed under Media Asia Entertainment Group, one of Asia's largest and most successful Chinese language film studios It was then that

Michelle Yeoh Yeoh Choo Kheng (; born 6 August 1962), known professionally as Michelle Yeoh (), is a Malaysian actress. In a career spanning over four decades, Yeoh has appeared Michelle Yeoh filmography, in projects encompassing a wide array of genres, a ...

took notice of Chang and his talents. Brandon's family soon became very close to Michelle, and with the approval of his parents, Michelle took Chang as her apprentice. Chang started shooting his first film in the same year, ''The Touch'' (2002), starring Hollywood's Ben Chaplin and Richard Roxburgh, followed by ''Silver Hawk'' (2003). In 2005. Chang launched his own lifestyle sneaker brand "Greedy Genius" in the United States. Greedy Genius immediately captured a following with many celebrities and rappers around the globe and sold to top stores including well known fashion department store Barneys New York. In the recent years, Greedy Genius has become a household name in the sneaker market covered by leading magazines and websites throughout the world and has expanded its market throughout United States, Europe, Canada, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Eurasia. In 2009, Chang was chosen by

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

as one of Asia's Best Young Entrepreneurs. In 2010, Chang partnered with Mandopop singer songwriter

JJ Lin Wayne Lim Junjie (; born 27 March 1981), professionally known as JJ Lin, is a Singaporean singer, songwriter, record producer, and businessman. One of the most successful artists in the Sinophone, Chinese-speaking world, Lin achieved recogniti ...

to form fashion label Still Moving Under Gunfire (SMG). Retail stores and operations in Taiwan and China. In 2013, Chang partnered for the apparel brand MSFTSrep. Founded by celebrity

Jaden Smith Jaden Christopher Syre Smith (born July 8, 1998) is an American rapper and actor. The son of Jada Pinkett-Smith and Will Smith, he has received various accolades, including a Teen Choice Award, an MTV Movie Award, a BET Award and a Young A ...

In 2013, Chang signed with

Creative Artists Agency Creative Artists Agency, LLC (CAA) is an American talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, California. With 1,800 employees in March 2016, it is regarded as an influential company in the talent agency business and manages numerous client ...

(CAA), one of Hollywood's top talent agencies. In the same year he also joined Invincible Plan company founded by actor

Bolin Chen Chen Bolin (; born 27 August 1983), also known as Wilson Chen, is a Taiwanese actor. He is known for the films '' Blue Gate Crossing'' (2002), '' Buddha Mountain'' (2010), ''The Continent'' (2014), and '' 20 Once Again'' (2015), as well as the ...

and movie producer Maxx Tsai for management and film productions.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chang, Brandon 1982 births Living people Canadian people of Chinese descent Canadian people of Taiwanese descent Male actors from Toronto Musicians from Toronto Taiwanese male film actors 21st-century Taiwanese male singers 21st-century Taiwanese singers