Vanness Wu (born on August 7, 1978) is an American actor, singer, director, and producer.
Early life
Wu was born in Santa Monica, California and lived in Newport Beach in his mid-to-late teens. He made his move to Taiwan at the early age of 21 to "search for more to life".
Career beginnings
Wu starred as Mei Zuo (美作), one of the F4 members, in the Taiwanese drama series Meteor Garden. At the conclusion of the series, they continued to perform together and released three studio albums as the boy band F4. Before the series, he studied performance arts and acting classes in Hollywood, and became a polyglot fluent in Cantonese, Korean, Japanese, and Spanish, as well as English and Mandarin. In 2002, Wu was the second F4 member, after Vic Chou, to release his debut solo album, Body Will Sing. The track, "æˆ'討åŽæˆ'自己" (I Hate Myself) is listed at number 95 on Hit Fm Taiwan's Hit Fm Annual Top 100 Singles Chart (Hit-Fm年度百首單曲) for 2002. The album was awarded one of the Top 10 Selling Mandarin Albums of the Year at the 2002 IFPI Hong Kong Album Sales Awards, presented by the Hong Kong branch of IFPI.
He has collaborated with Korean singer Kangta to produce one album, Scandal and is featured on singles by Beyoncé and Coco Lee. Wu has directed two music videos from his second album V.DUBB, as well as a video for Nike's "This is Love" campaign in Hong Kong. He was also the executive producer, along with Terry Tye Lee, on the Nike track "She's Not Sorry." In addition, Wu has collaborated with other Chinese artists including Wang Lee Hom and made an appearance in Wang's music video for "Ai cuo." Opened up and performed alongside with Kanye West, for his Glow In The Dark Tour in Shang Hai.
Wu has appeared in several Taiwanese dramas both with and without other members of F4, and has starred in three motion pictures. In 2009, Vanness performed in Autumn's Concerto, which is one of the highest rating Taiwanese Idol Drama
Wu’s third Chinese solo album C'est La "V" was released July 2011 under Universal Music Taiwan. It features international artistes such as Vic Chou from F4, Ryan Tedder from OneRepublic, and Knockin' was written by Bruno Mars and Justin Michael.
Besides directing, producing, acting, and singing, Wu is also the creator/designer of his own jewelry line 3.V.O.7. and the creative director of Reebok (greater China division).
On November 15, 2013, Wu married longtime girlfriend, Singaporean heiress and entrepreneur Arissa Cheo.
Filmography
Television series
Film
Discography
Studio album
Singles
With Kangta & Vanness
2006 - Scandal - Kangta & Vanness Collaboration
Other collaborations
- Beyoncé Knowles - "Crazy in Love" (Asian releases only) [2004]
- Coco Lee - "Hip Hop Tonight" [2006]
- Brian Joo - "Everything to Me" [2010] - 3rd Wave Music - I WILL BE THERE Album - www.3rdwavemusic.org
- Sammi Cheng - "Forgiveness" (In both English and Chinese) [2010]
- Lee Junho - "Undefeated" [2012] (M/V)
- Avicii - "Levels" (Mandarin Version) [2013]
- With Anggun, David Foster & Melanie C - "Let's Groove" (charity single for the victims of earthquakes in Nepal) [2015]
Endorsements
- Walkman
- Siemens 2118
- Legend Computers (China region)
- Mingle Shoes (China region)
- Lu Piao Shampoo (China region)
- Samuel & Kevin
- Bicowave & Bicogirl
- Pepsi - 2002~2005 (Taiwan, Hong Kong, China)
- Yamaha - 2003 (Southeast Asia)
- Hang Ten - 2012
- Hyundai - 2012
- G-Shock - 2014
- Casio - 2014
- Levi - 2014
References
External links
- Vanness Wu on Facebook