Samuel Pang

Pang was born on 30 December 1976 in Hong Kong.^[a][1] He has a younger sister.^[4] He began learning jazz and hip hop at age 16 while in secondary school, spending most of his time after school and on weekends practicing.^[1][4] He said that dancing was not considered a respectable profession at the time, though his parents were supportive of his passion.^[1] He began working as a professional dancer in 1996, performing as a backup dancer in concerts.^[1] While performing as a backup dancer for Andy Hui, an apprentice of Anita Mui, Pang performed a solo segment with Hui that impressed Mui, who felt he suited a segment she was conceptualizing for one of her concerts and invited him to dance in her show.^[1][3] Following the performance, Mui recruited Pang as her apprentice and encouraged him to pursue careers as both a singer and actor.^[1] Although Pang was interested in singing, he was initially skeptical about acting due to his lack of experience.^[1] Mui later recommended him to director Dante Lam, who cast him in his acting debut in the film Jiang hu: The Triad Zone as Tiger, a young gangster wannabe.^[1][5]

In 2001, Pang appeared in Wong Jing's school-themed comedy film My School Mate, the Barbarian [zh], playing Mantis, the rival student of the character portrayed by Nicholas Tse, where film critic Sek Kei described him as "the film's most stylish performer".^[6] He also portrayed a gangster who flees to Phuket alongside the character played by Nick Cheung in Runaway,^[7] and appeared as a police officer in the action film Hit Team [zh], where film critic Lau Man-gau praised his slight comedic touch.^[8] Pang later appeared in supporting roles in Heroic Duo,^[9] Explosive City,^[10] New Police Story,^[11] and Bet to Basic [zh],^[12] before landing leading roles in another Wong Jing film My Wife Is a Gambling Maestro,^[13] the crime film Tactical Unit – Comrades in Arms,^[3] and the comedy film The Vampire Who Admires Me.^[14] On 2 January 2007, Pang was involved in a car crash on Kwai Chung Road and fled the scene before later reporting to a police station to assist with the investigation 18 hours later.^[4][15]

In 2009, Pang appeared in A Very Short Life as the boyfriend of the character played by Leila Tong, with James Mudge of EasternKicks describing his performance as "particularly loathsome".^[16] He also appeared in Black Ransom and The Assassins,^[17][16] before shifting part of his career to mainland China,^[3] where he played a main role in the Zhejiang Television series Fall in Love [zh].^[18] He later starred in the Chinese films Justice in Northwest as a silent assassin,^[19] and Summer of Fire – Dragon & Tiger [zh] as an orphaned gangster.^[20][21] Pang also took on a main role as Pang, a police officer, in the Netflix series OCTB [zh].^[22] In 2019, he starred in A City Called Macau,^[23] explaining that he accepted the role because he had frequently portrayed villains in the past and wanted to challenge himself with a more realistic film.^[24]

In 2024, Pang and Timmy Hung became embroiled in controversy after a video of them smoking inside a banquet hall was leaked online, drawing criticism from netizens for smoking indoors.^[25][26] In 2026, Pang appeared in the crime thriller film Cold War 1994 as Tiger Fong, an ex-gangster-turned-kidnapper,^[27] which gained public attention.^[3] Ho Tak of Harper's Bazaar wrote that "the most pleasantly surprising performance came from Samuel Pang, who has rarely appeared in Hong Kong films in recent years", describing him as "perfectly suited to the role";^[28] while film critic Calvin Choi described him as "the person who left the deepest impression on [him]" in the film.^[29]