Daniel Wu Biography

Daniel Wu was born in Berkeley, California to Diana and George Wu, who are natives of Shanghai, China. His father immigrated to the United States from China and met his mother while she was a student.

Daniel became interested in martial arts when he saw Jet Li in The Shaolin Temple (1982) and Donnie Yen in Iron Monkey (1993). Daniel began studying wushu at the age of 11, and his idol growing up was Jackie Chan. Daniel went on to study architecture at the University of Oregon. While he was there, he founded and coached the University of Oregon Wushu Club. He also began taking an interest in film by taking classes and going to local theaters. After graduating, Daniel traveled to Hong Kong in 1997 where he began a career in modeling, and was eventually approached to star in a film.

His first film was Bishonen (1998) by Chinese filmmaker Yonfan, about an ill-fated gay romance. Despite being unable to speak Cantonese, Daniel was able to perform the role. Immediately upon wrapping the film he was offered his next role as the lead in City of Glass (1998) by director Mabel Cheung, which released the same year. For his performance, Daniel was nominated for Best New Actor at the 18th Hong Kong Film Awards.

Daniel became one of the premiere actors in Chinese cinema after appearing in films such as Gen-X Cops (1999), Purple Storm (1999) and playing a small role in Around the World in 80 Days (2004) with his idol Jackie Chan.

In 2011, he appeared in his first English-language role in Inseparable (2011) with Kevin Spacey. From there he started to make inroads into Hollywood. In 2015 he starred as Sunny on the AMC action series Into the Badlands. Daniel appeared in 32 episodes from 2015 to 2019. He was also executive producer on the series.

Other films include starring as the central antagonist in the action fantasy film Warcraft (2016), based on the popular video game. He also appeared in Geostorm (2017) with Gerard Butler and Tomb Raider (2018) with Academy Award-winning actress Alicia Vikander.

In 2022 he returned to television during the fourth season of the HBO series Westworld, playing the character of Jay for four episodes. The next year he appeared as Sun Wukong/The Monkey King on the Disney+ series American Born Chinese with Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan. Daniel said his experience on the show was the first time that everyone he was working with came from similar backgrounds. He said that while he was accepted in Asia, he was still kind of an outsider, while on the earlier series Into the Badlands he was the only person on set of Asian descent.

In 2025, Daniel teamed up again with Ke Huy Quan in the action-romance film Love Hurts (2025), which also starred Ariana DeBose. He played Quan’s brother and the central villain of the film.

Daniel married his wife Lisa Selesner in South Africa. They have a daughter who was born in 2013.

Filmography:

Love Hurts (2025)
Decoded (2024)
Reminiscence (2021)
Caught in Time (2020)
No.7 Cherry Lane (2019)
Tomb Raider (2018)
Geostorm (2017)
Wished (2017)
Sky on Fire (2016)
Warcraft (2016)
Go Away Mr. Timor (2015)
Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2 (2014)
Overheard 3 (2014)
That Demon Within (2014)
Control (2013)
Europa Report (2013)
Chinese Zodiac (2012)
Tai Chi Hero (2012)
The Man with the Iron Fists (2012)
The Last Supper (2012)
Tai Chi Zero (2012)
The Great Magician (2011)
Inseparable (2011)
Overheard 2 (2011)
Beginning of the Great Revival (2011)
Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (2011)
Triple Trap (2010)
Hot Summer Days (2010)
Jump (2009)
Like a Dream (2009)
Overheard (2009)
Shinjuku Incident (2009)
Blood Brothers (2007)
Protégé (2007)
Ming Ming (2006)
Rob-B-Hood (2006)
The Banquet (2006)
The Heavenly Kings (2006)
Everlasting Regret (2005)
Drink-Drank-Drunk (2005)
Divergence (2005)
House of Fury (2005)
Lung do kei yuen (2005)
Beyond Our Ken (2004)
New Police Story (2004)
The Twins Effect II (2004)
Around the World in 80 Days (2004)
One Nite in Mongkok (2004)
Enter the Phoenix (2004)
Magic Kitchen (2004)
Miss Du Shi Niang (2003)
Hidden Track (2003)
Night Corridor (2003)
Love Undercover 2: Love Mission (2003)
Naked Weapon (2002)
Bin lim mai ching (2002)
Princess D (2002)
The Peeping (2002)
Love Undercover (2002)
Beauty and the Breast (2002)
Beijing Rocks (2001)
Born Wild (2001)
Peony Pavilion (2001)
Ji fat faan fat (2001)
Chung chong ging chaat (2001)
Headlines (2001)
Undercover Blues (2000)
2000 AD (2000)
Purple Storm (1999)
Gen-X Cops (1999)
Gorgeous (1999)
City of Glass (1998)
Young & Dangerous (1998)
Bishonen (1998)