Kelly Cheung (張曦雯) has been heavily promoted by TVB in the last few years with her quick rise from supporting roles to being the female lead and now to being nominated for Best Actress at the 2020 TVB Anniversary Awards. Before joining the industry, Kelly Cheung started out as a model. She joined the Miss Chinese International pageant to network and get exposure in hopes of getting more work. The Chicago transplant eventually made the move back to Hong Kong because of love.
Recounting to when she first moved back to Hong Kong, Kelly Cheung was 20 at the time. She had just graduated from University of Illinois at Chicago with a degree in Business Management. She revealed, “I was vacationing in Hong Kong at the time. Then I met my first boyfriend, my first love. So I told my parents I wanted to move back [to Hong Kong]. When I first came back, I wasn’t a model. I was in school for a bit. Then I started to do modeling work.”
After staying in Hong Kong, she started to develop her modeling career. Kelly Cheung said when she first entered the industry, it was near the tail end of the glory days as all the major shows were moving to Shanghai and Beijing. While she did make money at the time with shows and several advertisements, there were lesser and lesser shows.
When she joined the pageant, she had no intentions of joining TVB. Kelly Cheung revealed, “I joined the Miss Chicago Chinatown pageant first. Every time I go back to the US to visit my parents, I stay for about 2-3 months. At the time, Chicago was doing the pageant. It’s actually a very small pageant, probably only 6-7 girls joined. I wanted to join to use another identity to continue being a model, to get more events and jobs. My family also had some businesses in Chinatown. My uncle was also the President of the Chicago Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. So I tried it.” After winning the crown, she signed with TVB for a year. She left the company after her contract ended, but signed with TVB again after a year. Now, she’s in contention for the Best Actress award at the TVB anniversary awards.
Credit: hk01, Kelly Cheung IG