The People’s Idol, Andy Lau Tak-Wah, was born on September 27, 1961. Over the years, Lau has solidified his position as not only a superstar and Heavenly Sky King, but also as the hardest working entertainer in Hong Kong. His dedication and work ethic has won the respect and admiration of fans and critics alike. In little more than twenty years time, Lau has made over one hundred films and has maintained a successful singing career, to boot.

Lau joined TVB’s Artist Training Program in 1981. He was a fairly popular TV star until contract disputes led to him to be put in the “freezer” (they barred him from working). This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it allowed him to focus on developing his film career. Working extensively with populist director Wong Jing, he soon became a bankable star. He also appeared as gangster Wah-Dee in A Moment of Romance (1990), a role which has come to be regarded as Lau's most career-defining.

However, for many years the one thing Lau really wanted was to be taken seriously as an actor. He was previously nominated for various awards for his roles in As Tears Go By (1988) and Full Throttle (1995), but it wasn’t until 1999 that Lau finally got the recognition he so craved. He was awarded with a Best Actor Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards for his performance in Johnnie To's Running Out of Time. In 2003, Lau won the award a second time, for his physically and emotionally demanding role as “Biggie”, a monk cursed with the ability to see the karmic fates of those around him, in Johnnie To’s Running on Karma (2003). In 2002, the Golden Horse Best Actor Award eluded Lau by the slimmest of margins (he lost by one vote to his IA co-star Tony Leung) for Infernal Affairs (2002), but the second time proved to be the charm and Lau was finally able to add the Golden Horse to his ginormous collection of awards when he won for his reprisal of the duplicitious triad mole Lau Kin-Ming in Infernal Affairs 3 (2003).

In recent years, Lau has also tried his hand at business, and started his own production company named Teamwork. Among the films produced by Teamwork have been the critically-acclaimed features Made in Hong Kong (1997) and The Longest Summer (1998), both directed by Fruit Chan. More recently, Lau has continued to demonstrate his ability as a box-office guarantee, headlining the Media Asia productions Infernal Affairs (2002), Cat and Mouse (2003), and Infernal Affairs 3 (2003). (Yinique 2004)