Daniel Wu is a popular name in Hollywood and Chinese film industry, his versatile acting and great performance in the screen never failed to impress the audiences. He is best known for his roles in New Police Story and Naked Weapon. As of 2018, he starred in the AMC martial arts drama series Into the Badlands as Sunny, regent (head clipper) to the Badlands' most powerful baron, Quinn. He has worked in over 60 films since his debut in 1998.
Early Life And Education Of Daniel Wu
Daniel Wu was born Daniel Wu Yin-Cho on September 30, 1974, in Berkeley, California, and raised in Orinda, California to Diana Wu, a college professor, and George Wu, a retired engineer. Both of his parents were natives of Shanghai, China. He has two elder sisters, Greta Wu, and Gloria Wu and an older brother who died when he was just two years old.
Wu started learning martial arts at age 11 after seeing Jet Li in The Shaolin Temple and Donnie Yen in Iron Monkey. He attended the Head-Royce School in Oakland, California. Then he joined the University of Oregon and majored in architecture.
In 1994, he founded the University of Oregon Wushu Club and served as the team's first coach. He also took acting cla s ses and frequented local theaters.
After graduation, Wu traveled to Hong Kong in 1997 with no intention of taking on a movie career. But after the suggestion of his sister, he started modeling and four months later, film director Yonfan, approached Wu for the movie.
Daniel Wu's Career
Daniel Wu debuted in acting in 1998 in Chinese film, Yonfan's Bishonen. Soon after the completion of his first movie shotting, he landed a lead role in the Mabel Cheung's City of Gla s s. Then he appeared in a number of Chinese films including, Gen-X Cops, Love Undercover, Night Corridor, One Nite in Mongkok, New Police Story, Naked Weapon, Hidden Track, and others.
CAPTION: Daniel Wu's Career SOURCE: In 2005, Wu formed a boy band, Alive, with Terence Yin, Andrew Lin, and Conroy Chan. After two years, he re-launched his band's old website, AliveNotDead.com where musicians, filmmakers, and artists collaborated, received exposure, network, and interacted with fans.
Wu made his writing and directorial debut with The Heavenly Kings in 2006. He won 26th Hong Kong Film Awards in the category of best debut director. Wu made his English film debut in 2011 in Inseparable which also stars Kevin Spacey. He also modeled for a variety of products such as Seiko and L'Oréal. As of 2018, he starred in Into the Badlands and he is executive producer of the show as well.
Daniel Wu's Net Worth
Daniel Wu is entertaining the audiences since 1998, he maintained a good sum of the amount from his acting career. As of 2018, his estimated net worth is $20 million. He earns $500-$700k from his appearances in TV series and more than $1 million from movies. He also invests in Racks MDB Shanghai.
Wu has appeared in the number of box-office success movies and some of them are enlisted below;
| Year | Movie | Budget (US Dollar) | Box-office collection (US Dollar) | IMDb rating | Starring |
| 2012 | Tai Chi 0 | $12 million | $25 million | 6.1 stars | Tony Leung, Angelababy, Jayden Yuan |
| 2016 | Warcraft | $137 million | $433 million | 6.9 stars | Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper |
| 2017 | Geostorm | $120 million | $221.6 million | 5.3 stars | Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, Abbie Cornish, Alexandra Maria Lara |
| 2018 | Tomb Raider | $106 million | $237.5 million | 6.4 stars | Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Walton Goggins |
Daniel Wu's Personal Life
Daniel Wu is a married man, he tied the knot to the American model and an actress Lisa S. on April 6, 2010. Their wedding was small yet lavishing ceremony which was held in South Africa. The couple is proud parents of a baby girl, Raven Wu (born on June 2013).
Wu is pa s sionate about traveling and photography. He loves playing basketball, boxing, Wushu and boardsports. He shares a good bonding with the actor, Terence Yin with whom he created the Hong Kong boy band, Alive.
Wu often mentioned in his interviews, he is a huge Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan fan. His favorite movies include The Godfather (1972), Pulp Fiction (1994), Citizen Kane (1941).
Wu is the founder and first instructor of the University of Oregon Wushu club. In 2018, he attended the Irish Premiere of Tomb Raider in Dublin. Ireland. He posed for Singaporean photographer Leslie Kee for Kee's 2006 charity photo-book "Super Stars" to help 2004 Asian tsunami victims which include other 300 Asian celebrities as well.
Check out the video of Daniel Wu where he talked about Into the Badlands,
by Jyoti, 18 Sep, 2018
