Eddie Peng

For someone who never considered entering showbiz, Eddie Peng has certainly carved out an amazing acting career. He is arguably the Chinese film industry’s most recognizable and bankable star today, having starred in over 30 box-office hits – a canny mix of epic blockbusters and indie projects.

Peng migrated to Canada when he was 13 and spent the next 10 years there. In 2002, the Economics major (University of British Columbia) returned to Taipei to attend his grandmother’s funeral, and was cast in the TV series Tomorrow as the second male lead.

This serendipitous casting marked the beginning of his swift rise to fame. Peng made his big screen debut in Exit No. 6 in 2006, and quickly proved just how committed he was to his newfound profession. To play a gymnast in Jump Ashin! (2011), Peng spent 12 hours a day over an eight-month period practicing gymnastics. The film was a box-office hit and he went on to star in police thriller Cold War (2012) and Unbeatable (2013), for which he endured rigorous workout regimes to play an MMA athlete.

Peng’s dedication to the craft did not go unnoticed. He earned nominations for Best Newcomer at Golden Horse Awards for My DNA Says I Love You (2007), Best Actor for Jump Ashin! (2011), and Best Supporting Actor for Unbeatable (2013) at the Golden Horse and Hong Kong Film Awards.

In 2014, Peng landed the coveted role of martial arts legend Wong Fei Hung in Rise of The Legend, which earned him a Best Actor nomination at the Hong Kong Film Awards. Peng then put in months of grueling training to play a professional cyclist in To The Fore (2015), which was Hong Kong’s entry for the best foreign-language film at the 88th Academy Awards. Peng was also appointed the first Chinese Goodwill Ambassador of the 2015 Tour DE France.

Another breakthrough came in 2016 with Peng’s portrayal of an undercover cop in Operation Mekong, which received critical acclaim and became the highest-grossing Chinese crime action at that point. That same year, he also starred in romance drama Run for Love alongside Zhang Ziyi, police thriller Cold War II, war epic Call of Heroes, and Zhang Yimou’s historical epic The Great Wall.

In 2017, Peng starred in director Ann Hui’s war film Our Time Will Come, and scored a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the 12th Asian Film Awards. Peng then went on to headline fantasy epic Wu Kong. In 2018, Peng starred in director Jiang Wen’s Hidden Man, which was mainland China’s entry in the best foreign-language film category at the 91st Academy Awards. Jiang was highly complimentary of his leading man: “Eddie’s self-discipline is beyond imagination – he commands the body with his soul.”

After a year-long break, Peng returned to star in The Rescue in 2020, director Dante Lam’s action thriller about China’s emergency rescue ops teams. Peng also starred in Ann Hui’s Love After Love, adapted from novelist Eileen Chang’s romance classic. The film was selected for the out-of-competition category at the 77th Venice International Film Festival, where director Hui was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

For the film Are You Lonesome Tonight released in 2021, Peng stayed true to form and lost 35 pounds for his role. The film had its special screening in the official selection of the 74th Cannes Film Festival and was selected for the a Window on Asian Cinema category at the 26th Busan International Film Festival. In addition, it was also selected for the Contemporary World Cinema category at the 46th Toronto International Film Festival and the Perlak section at the 69th San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Off camera, Peng devotes time to causes close to his heart. He partnered with international organization WildAid to encourage protection of sea turtles, appearing in a campaign and documentary aired on World Wildlife Day in 2019. He is well-known for his charity work for children with cancer. Peng is also official ambassador for international brands Longines and Berluti.