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Olivia Cheng

Actor

Recently featured in Vanity Fair for her upcoming role in Bruce Lee’s Warrior on Cinemax, Olivia Cheng will also be seen in the CBS All Access adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand by the end of the year.  The dynamic actress was born in Edmonton, Alberta to Cantonese-speaking immigrant parents, who were part of a co-founding group of parents that created the Edmonton Chinese Bilingual Education Association’s Mandarin program within the city’s public school system. After finishing school, she became a videographer for Global TV Lethbridge, before moving back to Edmonton to work as a broadcast and print journalist.  At this time, AMC was launching its original content division and came to Alberta with a Walter Hill-helmed mini-series executive produced by Robert Duvall. They were looking for five Chinese actresses, but were willing to look at non-professionals as well. Duvall saw Olivia’s audition out of over 100 performances and asked to bring her back. She was then cast in Broken Trail, which was nominated for 16 Primetime Emmy Awards and would go on to win four, including the Emmy for Outstanding Mini Series. Olivia went on to freelance as a correspondent for ET Canada, but soon realized that she wanted to pursue acting full-time.  She eventually booked her breakout, leading role in the Netflix series, “Marco Polo” in 2014, a show that set a precedent as the most expensive show ever made at the time.