Scriptwriter, director, comedian, actor and producer Stephen Chow was born in Hong Kong on June 22, 1962 . Raised largely in Shanghai, China, Chow has three sisters. He is the only boy of the family.

Chow grew up an avid fan of Bruce Lee and his work, thus filling the boy with a thirst for movies and martial arts prowess. Chow soon began to learn Wing Chun style martial arts, one of Lee’s specialties, and he eventually became a proficient fighter in the art. His skills have since worked their way into more than one of his projects.

After graduating from high school in 1982 Chow auditioned for an acting school operated by Hong Kong television station TVB. He was rejected, unfortunately, and forced to take night classes. He graduated a year later from these studies and soon found work on a children’s show called Space Shuttle 430 (this despite the fact that he wasn’t a huge fan of children). He soon became a hit as a co-host of the show, developing a wonderful rapport with his supporting actors and stretching the show to a respectable five seasons in length.

As Space Shuttle 430 drew to a close Chow started appearing in more dramatic roles on television, and went on to star in his first movie – Final Justice, which earned Chow an award for Best Supporting Actor at the Taiwanese Film Awards ceremony.

He began developing his comedic chops in 1990 when Chow appeared in All for the Winner. It was a success, and saw Chow appearing alongside star Chow Yun-Fat in the later sequel. Soon Chow was doing parodies of other movies, including From Beijing with Love and Justice, My Foot!. Typically Chow plays one of two characters in these movies: either he’s an underachiever who manages to come out on top in the end or a completely arrogant overachiever who is humbled before getting the chance to fight back against his enemies.

Also a director, Chow achieved international recognition with his decision to combine martial arts with sporting events to create a wholly physical form of comedy. The result was Shaolin Soccer, an extremely successful film with multiple action sequences the likes of which Chow has come to be associated with in recent years. Shaolin Soccer was the first (but not the last) of his films to garner heavy attention from foreign countries. It also led to an even more popular film in a similar vein, Kung-Fu Hustle, which managed to surpass its predecessor in popularity and sales.

Chow’s latest endeavor was a film called CJ7, a more family-friendly flick about a young boy, his father and an alien they adopt into their family. Unlike Chow’s previous films CJ7 has met with largely mixed reviews, despite the fact that it is one of the most expensive Chinese films created to date (thanks largely to the extensive amount of CG work needed to animate the alien).