Timothy Zau

Biography

Shao Chuanyong (Timothy Zau) is a Hong Kong actor born on 13 April 1968 into a wealthy family that belongs to the same extended family as Run Run Shaw but from a different branch. His family has Semitic and Israeli ancestry, and his maternal grandfather was a famous actor and director in Shanghai while his maternal grandmother was a celebrated film star. After the family's financial decline, he was forced to leave his school in Scotland and returned to Hong Kong, where he joined an actor recruitment event organized by Sammo Hung in 1984, launching his career with the film "The Owl vs Bombo." He signed with D&B Films from 1985 to 1988, then moved to Pan Asia Films, and joined ATV in 1989. In the early 1990s, acclaimed director Chang Cheh cast him as the male lead in the 1993 TV drama "The Rebel" alongside Li Wah-hua and Chiang Da-wei. He switched to TVB in 1996 and became known for his role as "Ou Zhiqiang" (Shaisa) in the "Armed Reaction" series. He suffered two serious car accidents in 1997 and 1998, one resulting in a pedestrian's death and the other fracturing his neck vertebra and nearly paralyzing him. After his TVB contract ended in 2007, he shifted his career focus entirely to mainland China and settled in Shanghai. He signed with Shanghai Film & TV Company and later with Shanghai Yingyi Culture Communication in 2015. In 2016, he co-founded a vegetarian hotpot restaurant with Lui Chung-hin.