Zhang Ziyi was born on 9 February 1979 in Beijing, China. She grew up in the working-class part of the city and took interest in dancing and gymnastics. Zhang won several awards including that from the National Young Dancer competition. Despite the promising future she had as a professional dancer, Zhang directed her efforts to acting when she was 15 years old. She enrolled at the Central Drama Academy in Beijing, where she gained experience at dramatic acting. A very important role in her development as an actress played the Chinese film director Zhang Yimou. In 1999 they shot The Road Home, also known as Wo de fu qim mu qin. After the movie became very popular in China and won the Silver Bear award from the 2000 Berlin Film Festival, Zhang Ziyi was nicknamed "Little Gong Li". When the director of the popular film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon saw the young star in The Road Home he decided that Zhang is the actress he needs for Crouching Tiger. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon became the greatest movie hit for 2000 and won many awards including 4 Academy Awards.
Zhang Ziyi was cast to play the villain in the summer 2001 sequel to the successful comedy Rush Hour , appearing opposite the comedy duo Chris Tucker and martial arts supreme Jackie Chan . She was cast in the film without knowing a word of English, and despite having taken English lessons, she speaks strictly Chinese in the film (with subtitles).
She will next be seen in Sung-su Kim's Korean film entitled Warrior (a.k.a Musa ), in which she'll portray a princess taken hostage in the period of the war between the Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, as well as The Legend Of Zu and the futuristic 2046 . Zhang Ziyi is also set to co-star with kung-fu superstar Jet Li for the Zhang Yimou epic, Hero .