Joe Ma

Biography

Joe Ma is a Hong Kong director and actor, born on 21 February 1964. He studied at Buddhist Sin Tak English Secondary School and graduated in 1982 and 1984. He was active in school drama activities from Secondary Two and competed in inter-school drama competitions in Secondary Four alongside Du Guo Wei and Situ Hui Chuo. In Secondary Six, he wrote and directed the play "Zhu Xiu Cai," winning Best Director and Best Overall Performance awards. Famous producer Huang Bai Ming purchased the rights and adapted it into the "Happy Ghost" film series. Despite poor academic results earlier, he excelled in his A-level exams and was admitted to the Chinese University of Hong Kong's History Department. He began writing scripts in 1983 while still a university student and was later discovered by Gao Zhi Sen, joining the production team at D&B Films. He worked as Assistant Creative Director at ATV, then moved to edit Japanese manga at a comics company. He directed his first films in the early 1990s and became known for commercial romantic comedies, earning the media title "Master of Love." However, "The Lion Roars 2" won him the "Most Disappointing Director" and "Most Disappointing Film" awards in 2013 from Youth Film Handbook. He founded "Xiao Ma Ge" studio between 2000 and 2017. He settled in Beijing in 2008 to enter the Chinese mainland market and now focuses on mentoring younger filmmakers, such as assisting in producing "Men On The Dragon." He is married to a flight attendant.