{{Short description|Indonesian actor, screenwriter and martial artist (born 1995)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Ken Zheng | image = Ken_zheng.jpg | caption = | birth_name = <!--Do Not add here, per Template:Infobox_person, when it's the same as Name above--> | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1995|4|05|df=y}} | birth_place = Jakarta, Indonesia | occupation = {{flat list| *Actor *Screenwriter *Martial artist }} | years_active = 2011–present | website = {{URL|brushwithdanger.com}} }}
'''Ken Zheng''' (born 5 April 1995) is an Indonesian actor, screenwriter and martial artist.<ref name=imdb>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5398504/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm|accessdate=10 August 2014|title=IMDB Ken Zheng Biography|website=IMDb|archive-date=22 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150322195722/http://www.imdb.com/name/nm5398504/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm|url-status=live}}</ref> He began his career as a martial artist at a young age, and has since starred in ''Brush with Danger'' (2014)<ref name=LosAngelesTimes>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-brush-with-danger-movie-review-20140926-story.html|title=Brush with Danger mixes art and martial arts|website=Los Angeles Times|accessdate=25 September 2014|archive-date=17 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230917184258/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-brush-with-danger-movie-review-20140926-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and an action thriller entitled ''Insight'' (2021) <ref name=Tempo>{{cite web|url=https://en.tempo.co/read/794700/livi-zheng-announces-new-movie-insight|title=Livi Zheng Announces New Movie Insight|accessdate=10 August 2016}}</ref> starring Tony Todd, John Savage, Keith David, Madeline Zima, Sean Patrick Flanery, and directed by his sister Livi Zheng.<ref name=SeattleTimes>{{cite web|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/movies/martial-arts-film-lsquobrush-with-dangerrsquo-shot-in-seattle/|title=Martial arts film Brush with Danger Shot in Seattle|date=29 September 2014|accessdate=29 September 2014|archive-date=17 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230917184315/https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/movies/martial-arts-film-lsquobrush-with-dangerrsquo-shot-in-seattle/|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Early life== Ken Zheng was born in Jakarta on 5 April 1995. At 10 years old, he moved to Beijing, China with his older sister Livi Zheng.<ref name=BeijingKids>{{cite web|url=http://www.beijing-kids.com/blog/2015/04/16/modern-families-part-2-sibling-revelry-from-beijing-to-hollywood-livi-and-ken-zheng-stick-together/|title=Sibling Revelry – From Beijing to Hollywood, Livi and Ken Zheng stick together|date=16 April 2015|accessdate=16 April 2015|archive-date=1 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191001194702/http://www.beijing-kids.com/blog/2015/04/16/modern-families-part-2-sibling-revelry-from-beijing-to-hollywood-livi-and-ken-zheng-stick-together/|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Martial arts and stunt work== Zheng began training in martial arts at an early age, joined the Indonesian National Kick-boxing team in 2010, and when Zheng turned 16, he became the youngest kickboxing champion in Indonesia's history.<ref name=LightsCameraAustin>{{cite web|url=http://www.lightscameraaustin.net/ken-zheng-october-2014.html|title=Interview Ken Zheng Brush with Danger|accessdate=16 October 2014}}</ref> Zheng would go to win the championship once more, and also placed 5th in the 2012 World Kick Boxing Championship in Macau.
==Education== While attending the Western Academy of Beijing, Zheng began creating his own films and documentaries, co-founding and building an educational outreach service group for poorly funded rural Chinese schools, and shooting and assembling the school's special event coverage for the Academy's Film department. At the academy, Zheng also began making documentaries focusing on another one of his passions: Education for children of poor and migrant workers. He wrote and directed a documentary about the Book-a-Book Foundation, a group he co-founded composed of high school students who raised money to create a mobile library service for under-developed migrant schools around Beijing. Zheng also shot a documentary about Children’s Hope Foundation, which serves Beijing’s most impoverished schools, and the Hearts 4 Arts Foundation about high school students who provides arts education to migrant students.
Zheng graduated with a bachelor's degree in Radio, TV and Film Production at the University of Texas-Austin.<ref name=CityLivingSeattle>{{cite web|url=https://citylivingseattle.com/PrintArticle.aspx?aid=90397&uid=bd959de5-2d92-46bf-bfa8-c4bdbb61bad5|title=Siblings Team Up to Present Brush with Danger|accessdate=22 September 2014}}{{Dead link|date=May 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
==Filmography==
===Film=== {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- |2021 | ''Insight'' | Jian | Writer, Actor |- | 2014 | ''Brush with Danger'' | Qiang Ken | Writer, actor |- |}<ref name=imdb/><ref name=NewYorkTimes>{{cite news|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/movies/brush-with-danger-mixes-kickboxing-and-painting.html|title= They Know Martial and Other Arts|work= The New York Times|date= 18 September 2014|accessdate= 18 September 2014|last1= Gates|first1= Anita|archive-date= 19 September 2014|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140919112726/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/movies/brush-with-danger-mixes-kickboxing-and-painting.html|url-status= live}}</ref>
===Television=== {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! Featured episodes ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 2013 | ''A Day with a Star'' | Self | 1 | Interview |- |}
===''Brush with Danger''=== Zheng wrote, starred in and did stunt work for ''Brush with Danger'', which was shot in Seattle and Los Angeles. The film tells a story about a painter and a fighter, both artists in their own way, who are also brother and sister, forced to flee their home. They arrive in Seattle, the Emerald City, inside a shipping container. Trying to make their way in a strange new world, the pair struggles to survive. Until one day an art dealer takes an interest in the sister's painting, and the pair find themselves living a dream come true. The sister loses herself in her painting, and the brother seizes the opportunity to express himself as a fighter.
But it really is all just a dream. Conned by her patron into forging a long-lost Van Gogh, purchased by a ruthless criminal with a passion for fine art, the sister and her brother soon find themselves embroiled in Seattle's criminal underworld and a brush With danger.
''Brush With Danger'' was released theatrically in the United States starting 19 September 2014. Following the release in the United States, ''Brush With Danger'' was distributed internationally.
===Insight=== Recently, Livi Zheng reassembled her filmmaking team from Brush with Danger to shoot the Los Angeles-set action thriller, starring Ken Zheng, Tony Todd, John Savage, Keith David, Madeline Zima and Sean Patrick Flanery.
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|5398504}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zheng, Ken}} Category:Indonesian male kickboxers Category:1995 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century Indonesian male actors Category:Indonesian screenwriters Category:Indonesian people of Chinese descent Category:21st-century Indonesian sportsmen