Chung Suet Ying

Chung was born on 17 December 1994.^[1] She became interested in films and comics when she was young, especially Pixar animated movies and Hong Kong comics.^[2] She was motivated to become an actress after watching Japanese actress Fumi Nikaido's films.^[3] Chung joined Asian Millionstar 3 [zh], a talent show program hosted by Asia Television, in 2010 when she was 15 years old. She was eliminated in the round of 16.^[4] She later attended Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) in 2014 and featured as a background actor in Heiward Mak's 2014 romance film Uncertain Relationship Society [zh].^[2] However, as her grades in freshman year did not meet the requirements for a film major, she chose to pursue a financial journalism major instead. Nevertheless, her passion for films persisted and she even set her graduation thesis topic related to the development of creative media.^[2] She had also attended lyrics writing classes taught by Chow Yiu-fai [zh] during her university years.^[5]

After graduating with a Bachelor of Communication from HKBU, Chung joined Commercial Radio Hong Kong as a production assistant of ILUB [zh]'s program.^[2] In 2019, she began to host her own late night program.^[4] However, she quit the job in early 2020 to pursue a longed-for acting career.^[2][4] She also started her lyricist career under the pen name "Chung Said" (Chinese: 鍾說) in late 2019 and wrote Jace Chan's "Born to Be Different [zh]", Janice Vidal's "Little Miss Janice" and Joey Hung [zh]'s "Dirty".^[6]

Chung landed her first onscreen role in 2019 ViuTV drama series Limited Education [zh] and received public attention.^[2][7] Wong Chi-yeung, the director and writer of the series, offered her the role without casting as Chung left him with a deep impression while auditioning for the 2016 drama film Weeds on Fire.^[7] In 2021, Chung was cast in lead role in the black comedy film Time, portraying an orphaned schoolgirl who forms an uncanny bonding with a retired assassin.^[8] She received nominations for Best New Performer and Best Supporting Actress in the 40th Hong Kong Film Awards with her performance.^[9] From 2021 to 2022, she also featured in lead roles in the biographical film Zero to Hero, sports film Life Must Go On [zh] and horror thriller Let It Ghost [zh].^[10]

In 2024, Chung was cast in the lead and titular role in the drama film The Lyricist Wannabe,^[11] for which she was nominated for Best Leading Actress and Best Actress in the 60th Golden Horse Awards and 42nd Hong Kong Film Awards respectively.^[12][13] She also starred in The Way We Talk,^[14] which again earned her a nomination for Best Leading Actress in the 61st Golden Horse Awards, marking the second year in a row that Chung was up for the award in the Golden Horse Awards.^[15] Chung eventually won the award, which is her first major cinematic award.^[16]