Athena Chu is an actress and singer. She has appeared in a great number of Hong Kong movies, but has not so far made the transition to greater international recognition.
Athena Chu was born in Hong Kong on October 25, 1971. At age nineteen she attended the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. She graduated two years later, during which time she made the money to go to school by working as a host for children's television shows. After graduating, she was quickly nominated for the Best New Artist Hong Kong Film Award for her film debut in "Fight Back to School 2". While filming that movie, she encountered Hong Kong film star Stephen Chow, with whom she would have a romantic relationship of several years. Over the nineties she appeared in a large number of Hong Kong movies, mainly appearing in "flower vase" roles cast primarily for her attractiveness. The films she appeared in during this period include "Easy Money", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "Tricky King", "Shaolin Kung Fu Kids", "The Feeling of Love", "Trouble Maker" and "The Conman". In the late nineties she began to have greater success, with a complex role in the 1999 film "The Boss Up There" as a drug addict who finds religion. For this role, she was nominated for the Best Actress category of the Golden Horse Film Awards.
Within recent years, Athena Chu has continued to appear in a range of Hong Kong movie roles. She has also appeared on the internet series "20/30 Dictionary", a Hong Kong comedy / drama said to be similar to America's "Sex and the City". She has also pursued a music career, which has nonetheless not met with great success. Athena Chu is a devout Christian and as of early 2007 is dating the guitarist Paul Wong from the band Beyond.