Michael Dao Tai-yu

Biography

Michael Dao Tai-yu is a Hong Kong actor born on August 26, 1963 in Hong Kong, raised in Kowloon City and Tsim Sha Tsui. His father was an academic and he has two brothers and an older sister. He studied at Hong Kong Christian School from kindergarten through fifth form secondary in 1982, was an average student but active in class events and excelled in sports like basketball, snooker, and swimming. Before entering TV training, he participated in 1982 in the "Most Similar" contest on "Enjoy Tonight" imitating Chow Yun-fat in "Crocodile Pond." After secondary school he worked three months as a delivery man at his half-sister's fashion store and one week as a waiter in a restaurant. In 1982 he joined the 12th TVB Artist Training Class with his father's help filling the form, alongside famous classmates like Carina Lau, Sheren Tang, Sandra Ng, Kitty Lau, and Andy Lau (Liu Qingyun). He graduated in 1983 as a TVB artist, got his first leading role in 1984 in "Rusty Bridge King." His roles remained limited until the early 1990s when he rose to fame in "File of Justice" and "Detective Investigation Files" after producer Deng Tixi noticed him in "Looking Back in Anger." He won the top TV artist title twice consecutively in 1996 and 1997 in the One TV Awards and became the first to be nicknamed "Housewife Killer" in Hong Kong. He and Kwok Ho-yung formed a classic on-screen duo through the "Detective Investigation Files" series. He left TVB in 1997 due to contract disputes and joined Wang Jing's film company; his 1999 ATV series "Across the Four Seas" beat TVB ratings. In the 1990s he co-opened the restaurant "Yue Hua Hui" in Causeway Bay with Ouyang Zhenhua and friends, opened a second branch in 2000 in Shau Kei Wan, and invested in a Shanghai restaurant in Wan Chai but lost money and left. He returned to TVB in 2003 after a period with China Star.