Benedict Wong (born 3 June 1971) is a British actor. He has appeared on film, television, and also on stage. Wong is best known for portraying Bruce Ng in The Martian (2015) and Wong in Marvel’s film adaptation of Doctor Strange (2016), and will reprise that role in Avengers: Infinity War (2018).

Early life

Wong was born in Eccles, Greater Manchester, north-west England, to parents who had emigrated from Hong Kong to the UK via Ireland. He was brought up in Salford and is a fan of Manchester United.

He took a two-year performing arts course at Salford City College, and, while there, worked as an usher at Manchester’s now defunct Green Room Theatre.

Career

His first role was in a 1993 BBC Radio play called Kai Mei Sauce, written by Kevin Wong. He appeared alongside Sean Lock in the situation comedy 15 Storeys High, and as Franklin Fu in the second series of Look Around You.

In 2007, Wong starred in the feature film Grow Your Own.

Wong went on to appear in the second episode of Series 4 of the Channel 4 comedy The IT Crowd, playing the character Prime, a previous Countdown contestant who had won the sixteenth Countdown teapot when he was known as Harold Tong. Wong also appeared in the movie Shanghai playing the character Juso Kita and the BBC series Spirit Warriors in the role of Li.

In 2012, Wong appeared in the Ridley Scott film Prometheus.

In 2013, it was announced that Wong had been cast in the lead role of #aww: The Arrest of Ai WeiWei at the Hampstead Theatre. Shortly after, the Almeida Theatre announced that Wong had joined the cast of the play Chimerica.

Also in 2013, Wong played the role of gangster Lau in the BBC Two comedy-drama The Wrong Mans.

In 2014, Wong played the role of Kublai Khan in the Netflix series Marco Polo, which on 7 January 2015 was renewed by Netflix for a 10-episode second series.

The next year, he appeared in another Ridley Scott science fiction film, playing Bruce Ng in The Martian. In 2016, he co-starred as Wong in the superhero film Doctor Strange, and has been confirmed to reprise his role in the crossover film Avengers: Infinity War.

In 2016, he appeared in “Hated in the Nation”, an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror, playing Shaun Li, an agent with the National Crime Agency.

Awards

In 2003, Wong was nominated at the British Independent Film Awards for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Guo Yi in Dirty Pretty Things.

In 2013, Wong was nominated for the West End Frame award for Best Dramatic Performance 2013, for his role as Zhang Lin in Chimerica.

Credits

Television

Film

Theatre