Olivia Cheng (Chinese:鄭啟蕙,pinyin Zhèng Qǐhuì) is aCanadian actress, broadcast journalist, and former correspondent forEntertainment Tonight Canada. Some of her roles includeconcubine Mei Lin inMarco Polo,^[1] sinister Master Gao inDeadly Class,^[2] Ah Toy (amadam in San Francisco's Chinatown with a secret violent life) in the 1870s-set martial arts crime drama seriesWarrior, Dr. Sylvia Wen (Boulder Free Zone's main doctor) in the 2021 adaptation ofStephen King'sThe Stand^[3] and warrior Charlotte in the dystopian seriesSee.^[4]

Cheng was born inEdmonton,Alberta,^[5] to parents who immigrated fromGuangdong.^[6] They were part of a co-founding group of Chinese parents that created the Edmonton Mandarin Bilingual program within the city's public school system. Her father worked in software and her mother was a health aide.^[6]

Cheng enrolled in her first acting class at the age of six and booked her first commercial at nineteen. The following year, she attended NAIT's Radio and Television Arts program. After finishing school, she became a videographer for Global TV Lethbridge, before moving back to Edmonton to work as a broadcast and print journalist. She went on to freelance as a correspondent for ET Canada.^[1]

In the mid-2000s,AMC was launching its original content division and came to Alberta with a Walter Hill-helmed mini-series executive produced byRobert Duvall. They were looking for five Chinese actresses and were willing to consider amateurs. Duvall saw Cheng's audition and asked to bring her back. She was then cast inBroken Trail (2006), which was nominated for 16 Primetime Emmy Awards and won four, including the Emmy for Outstanding Mini Series.^[7]

In 2007, Cheng portrayedIris Chang in the documentaryIris Chang: The Rape of Nanking, based on Chang's best-selling 1997 bookThe Rape of Nanking.^[8][9]

Cheng has appeared inSupernatural andEureka, as well as in the episode "The New World" of the television showThe 4400. In 2013, she appeared asLinda Park in the TV seriesArrow.

In 2014, Cheng landed a role inNetflix's seriesMarco Polo, a lavish television drama aboutMarco Polo's journey as he travels from his home inVenice to the court ofKublai Khan, where he finds himself in the middle of awar in 13th-centuryChina.^[10] The show was one of the most expensive TV series ever produced. Cheng portrayed Mei Lin, aSong dynasty concubine and assassin, and the sister ofJia Sidao. In a December 2014 interview, Cheng joked that owing to her frequentnude scenes inMarco Polo, she would not be watching the series with her parents.^[11]

In October 2017, it was announced Cheng would be part of the main cast of theJustin Lin-producedWarrior, set against the backdrop of theTong Wars ofSan Francisco.^[12] In the series Cheng portrays Ah Toy, a madam in San Francisco's Chinatown during the 1870s, which is a fictionalised version ofthe real Ah Toy.^[13] The series, based on an original idea by the lateBruce Lee,^[14] premiered onCinemax on April 5, 2019.

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• 1979 births
• Actresses from Edmonton
• Living people
• Canadian actresses of Chinese descent
• Canadian film actresses
• Canadian television reporters and correspondents
• Canadian expatriate actresses in the United States
• Canadian women television journalists
• Journalists from Alberta

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