Rebecca Zhu (; born 2 December 1987) is a

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

actress and a

beauty pageant A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the Physical attractiveness, physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of Per ...

titleholder who was crowned

Miss Hong Kong 2011 The Miss Hong Kong 2011 pageant was held in the TVB City on August 7, 2011. Fifteen delegates completed for the title. The winner was Rebecca Zhu, who competed at Miss Chinese International 2012. The first runner-up was Hyman Chu, and she repre ...

. As a result of her pageant win, Zhu was offered a starring role in the 2012

TVB Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong SAR. The Company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Cantonese language service, and TVB ...

television drama '' Silver Spoon, Sterling Shackles'', which was also her acting debut.

Early life

Zhu was born in

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trad ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its c ...

, China. Following her mother's wishes, Zhu started dancing lessons as early as the age of 3, taking

Latin dance Latin dance is a general label, and a term in partner dance competition jargon. It refers to types of ballroom dance and folk dance that mainly originated in Latin America. The category of Latin dances in the international dancesport compet ...

and Chinese dance courses. When she was 10, Zhu moved to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

after earning the opportunity to perform for a ballet dance troupe there. At age 16, Zhu was accepted by the

Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) (Chinese: 香港演藝學院) is a provider of tertiary education in Hong Kong. Located near the north coast of Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island, the main campus also functions as a venue for ...

and moved to Hong Kong, where she continued to study ballet. Zhu earned full scholarship to study abroad at the

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Upon graduation, Zhu became a member of The Hong Kong Ballet Company.

Career

Pageant debut

In 2011, Rebecca Zhu entered the

Miss Hong Kong The Miss Hong Kong Pageant (), or Miss HK () for short, is an annual beauty pageant organised by local Hong Kong television station, TVB. The pageant was established in 1946, and acquired by TVB in 1973. The current Miss Hong Kong is Denice La ...

pageant as contestant #5, a local delegate. Zhu stayed as one of the most popular contestants throughout the competition. She eventually won the title, also winning Miss Trendy Vision, Happiness Ambassador, and the Most Popular Award. Zhu then went on to compete in the Miss Chinese International Pageant the following year. Although she failed to get placed in the pageant, she won the Greater China Elegance Award.

Acting career

In November 2011, Zhu was cast in the TVB blockbuster drama '' Silver Spoon, Sterling Shackles'', which also became Zhu's acting debut. The role was originally meant for

Fala Chen Fala Chen (; born 24 February 1982) is a Chinese American actress. She is known for her roles in Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film ''Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings'' and HBO miniseries ''Irma Vep'' and ''The Undoing''. Che ...

, who turned down the offer last-minute due to health reasons. The drama's producer stated that Zhu's resemblance to Chen was one of the reasons why he decided to replace her with Zhu. The drama aired in 2012. Zhu's first performance was not well-received, which many critics reasoned was because of the language barrier (Zhu's native tongue is

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...

), as well as her lack of acting experience prior to taking on the role. Zhu pursued supporting roles for the next few years. Her performances in 2013 dramas ''

Triumph in the Skies II ''Triumph in the Skies II'' () is a 2013 television drama produced by TVB under executive producer Tommy Leung. It is a direct sequel to TVB's 2003 blockbuster television drama ''Triumph in the Skies''. It stars Francis Ng, Julian Cheung, Myolie ...

'' and ''

Always and Ever ''Always and Ever'' () is a 2013 Hong Kong TVB television romance drama serial starring Bobby Au-yeung and Esther Kwan and produced by Chong Wai-kin. The drama follows a love story which spans three lifetimes, from Song dynasty in the 13th Cen ...

'' earned her nominations for Most Promising Female Artiste and Favourite Supporting Actress at the

2013 TVB Star Awards Malaysia The 2013 TVB Star Awards Malaysia (), presented by TVB Entertainment News, Astro, and MY FM in Malaysia, was an awards ceremony that recognised the best Hong Kong television programmes that had aired on Malaysia's Astro Wah Lai Toi in 2013. It r ...

, which were her first acting nominations. In 2017, Zhu won the Best Supporting Actress award at the 2017

TVB Anniversary Awards The TVB Anniversary Awards (), officially known as the TVB Awards Presentation, is an annual awards ceremony honoring TVB's programming achievements in Hong Kong television; despite claims that it is the region's equivalent to the American E ...

with her role in the drama ''

A General, a Scholar, and a Eunuch ''A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch'' (Traditional Chinese: 超時空男臣; literally "Time-Travelling Male Official") is a 2017 Hong Kong television costume historical, science fiction comedy drama produced by Marco Law for TVB, starring Edwin ...

''. However, this stirred up controversies among audience and netizens. In 2018, she played her first female leading role in the drama '' The Stunt''. With her role in the drama ''

Fist Fight Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

'', Zhu garnered her first Best Actress nomination at the 2018

. Zhu is good friends with ''Wonder Women'' co-actresses

Miriam Yeung Miriam Yeung (born 3 February 1974) is a Hong Kong actress and Cantopop diva. As of 2020, she has released more than 35 albums and has starred in more than 40 films. In 2012, Yeung won the Award for Best Actress at the 32nd Hong Kong Film Award ...

and

Alice Chan Alice Chan Wai (born 21 November 1973) is a Hong Kong actress currently contracted to TVB. Early life Alice Chan was born in Beijing, with ancestry in the county-level city of Puning in Guangdong. She settled in Hong Kong with her parents a ...

Filmography

Television dramas (
TVB Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong SAR. The Company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Cantonese language service, and TVB ...
)

Television dramas (
Shaw Brothers Studio Shaw Brothers (HK) Ltd. () was the largest film production company in Hong Kong, and operated from 1925 to 2011. In 1925, three Shaw brothers— Runje, Runme, and Runde—founded Tianyi Film Company (also called "Unique") in Shangh ...
)

Film

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Rebecca Zhu
at Official TVB Blog
Rebecca Zhu
at Official

website
Rebecca Zhu
at

Sina Weibo Sina Weibo (新浪微博) is a Chinese microblogging ( weibo) website. Launched by Sina Corporation on 14 August 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 582 million monthly active users (252 million daily ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhu, Rebecca 1987 births Alumni of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts Living people Actresses from Suzhou Miss Hong Kong winners TVB actors Hong Kong film actresses Hong Kong television actresses Actresses from Jiangsu 21st-century Hong Kong actresses