Leung was born on August 8, 1987 in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire. She is of Hong Kong descent; her father, Peter Leung, was a Hong Kong businessman, who opened a company in Glasgow, and her mother, Kar Wai Li, was a Hong Kong banker. Leung's parents divorced when she was three.
Katie Leung attended secondary school at Hamilton College, South Lanarkshire. Leung delayed plans to go to art college and university to film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. During this period, Leung had said she was undecided about pursuing an acting career after Harry Potter and wished to attend university to study art and design. In 2008, she attended University of the Arts London. Leung has expressed a passion for photography.
While appearing in Wild Swans, Leung worked to complete her photography degree. On the completion of the play Leung has said she will attend the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, where as of 2012, she was studying on the BA Acting course.
Leung's father saw an advertisement for a Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire casting call, and suggested she should try out. She waited four hours in line for a five-minute audition, despite feeling she had little likelihood of obtaining the role. Two weeks later, she was called back for a workshop and was cast as Cho Chang, beating out over 3,000 other girls for the part. In retrospect, she stated in an interview with the Daily Record that her Scottish accent probably gave her an advantage in the casting, as the casting director asked the girls who attended the audition, "Is there anyone here from Scotland?", to which only Leung raised her hand.
She appeared in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in which she and Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) shared an on-screen kiss that received much media coverage. Leung's voice was used in the video games Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
In July 2007, Leung was cast by Gold Label Records, a subsidiary of EMI in Hong Kong, to be the female lead in the music video Love Coming Home (愛回家) by Leo Ku. Leung filmed the video in London while promoting the new Harry Potter film. Ku described Leung's acting as "professional" and "mature."
Leung played Hsui Tai in the episode "Cat Among the Pigeons" of ITV1's Agatha Christie's Poirot, which premiered on ITV on 21 September 2008.
In December 2011, she was awarded the role of Jung Chang as her debut stage role in Jung Chang's autobiographical play Wild Swans. The play made its world premiere in Cambridge, Massachusetts in February 2012, before returning to Motherwell.
In June 2012, it was confirmed that Leung would be starring in Channel 4 four-part drama series called Run as leading character called Ying. She starred in The World of Extreme Happiness (The Shed at the National Theatre, 2013), in which she played Sunny, along with Vera Chok as Xiao Li, a female migrant worker, in a production about the world of migrant workers in rapidly emerging modern China. Leung has also appeared in the BBC's production Father Brown crime drama series.
In April 2014, it was announced that Leung is to play the role of Mei, a first-born Chinese girl adopted by an American mother and British father, in the TV miniseries One Child. The series is produced by BBC Drama production for BBC Two and is co-produced with Sundance TV. It was scheduled to begin production in May 2014 in London and Hong Kong and aired in February 2016. Leung received praise by Catherine Gee of The Daily Telegraph, who called her performance "beautifully understated".
In late 2016, Leung appeared in the Tony Kushner play The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures (iHo) at the Hampstead Theatre, London. In 2017, Leung co-starred with Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan in The Foreigner, playing Fan, Chan's character's daughter.
(The story of humble London businessman Quan (Chan), whose...)
2017(As Harry Potter begins his sixth year at Hogwarts, he dis...)
2009(When Harry Potter's name emerges from the Goblet of Fire,...)
2005(After betraying them, Renton has to return to the only pl...)
2017In 2007, Katie Liu Leung helped The Prince's Trust charity of Scotland raise £100,000 by launching a children's art competition and also donated one of her own paintings which were auctioned for £960. In 2009, she was one of two celebrities who donated a photo to Sightsavers International's I:Click 2009 competition. Sightsavers International is a charitable organization to combat blindness in poor countries.
Quotations:
"I am very indecisive. I'm always afraid of making the wrong decision."
"I'm not the type of person who enjoys the limelight."
"I thought acting was all about natural instinct but I've realized, through working with so many talented actors on 'Wild Swans' and 'Run,' that I can see the training. That's why I am back at drama school."
"I love theatre. It's far more satisfying than film. Sometimes there's a collective sigh from the audience, or it's so quiet you can hear a pin drop. I couldn't believe how easy acting was when there's an audience; after a few previews I almost couldn't do it without one."
"One of the things I liked about my character in 'Run' is that she can just disappear into the background if she wants, which is what I'm like. "
"I was born in Scotland and have lived there all my life. I speak conversational Cantonese with my dad when I'm at home, and very basic Mandarin."
While Leung was greeted warmly by most fans of the series, some Potter fans, jealous of Leung's relationship with Harry in the film, created a "I Hate Katie" website and racist messages posted on fan websites were upsetting to Leung at the time.
Katie considers herself boring, and a girl who does not like to talk much. So, she likes to listen instead.
Besides English, Leung can also speak Cantonese and some Mandarin.
Physical Characteristics:
Height - 5 ft 4½ in or 164 cm
Weight - 52 kg or 115 pounds
Hair color - black
Eye color - dark brown
Measurements - 34-23-34 in or 87-58.5-87 cm
Dress size - 4 (US) or 36 (EU)
Bra size - 32B
Shoe size - 7 (US)
Katie Leung is not married.
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