Daniel Yin-Cho Wu ( Born September 30, 1974 ) is an American-born Chinese Hong Kong film actor, director, and producer. Since his film debut in 1998, he has been featured in over 40 films. Wu has been called "the young Andy Lau", and is known as a "flexible and distinctive" leading actor in the Chinese-language film industry. Despite his inability at the time to speak the Cantonese dialect of Hong Kong or read Chinese, Wu successfully completed his first movie, Yonfan's Bishonen in 1998. The day after Bishonen wrapped, Wu was offered the leading role in Mabel Cheung's City of Glass (for which Wu was nominated as best new actor at the 18th Hong Kong Film Awards), and later, a supporting part in Young and Dangerous: The Prequel, from Andrew Lau's gangster film series. Around this time, Wu met superstar Jackie Chan at a restaurant opening, and was quickly signed to Chan's JC Group with agent Willie Chan. Wu's breakthrough performance came in 1999 with his role in Benny Chan's Gen-X Cops. He followed this success with roles in a variety of movies including big-budget thriller Purple Storm, art-house production Peony Pavilion, and the extremely successful Love Undercover. In 2001, Wu received criticism from the Hong Kong media for sexual scenes with Suki Kwan in Cop on a Mission, but Wu says that same criticism attracted the attention of directors and the film represented a turning point in the types of roles he chose in the future.