Dayo Wong Tze Wah (born 5 September 1960) is a Hong Kong actor and standup comedian. Known as a pioneer of stand-up comedy in Hong Kong, he is known for his stadium shows integrating political satire and social commentary.[1][2] He has performed at the Hong Kong Coliseum, including 26 sold-out shows at his farewell stand-up performance.[3]
He began his career in the entertainment industry in Hong Kong in 1984, but he is best known for his works in live stand-up comedy which he started performing regularly since 1990. Since then he has starred in TV dramas and films and has recorded several albums.
Television
Dayo had his TVB TV series debut in 1999, acting as "Lai Sam" in "Justice Sung 2".[4] A year later, he reached a milestone as a lazy law firm assistant in War of the Genders,[5] winning the "My Favourite Television Character Award" in 2002. He won two awards in 2004: the My Favourite On-Screen Partners (with Ada Choi in "Catch the Uncatchable") and again, the My Favourite Television Character Award (also in "Catch the Uncatchable").
He was nominated for the TV King Award in 2007 and 2009. He was finally crowned as TV King with "Bounty Lady" in 2013.[6] To Dayo, the award was an accumulative result of his TVB dramas. In that year, Julian Cheung started as the clear favourite of the audience due to his popularity in "Triumph in the Skies 2".[7] Though Chilam ended up winning the Most Popular Male Character, he sounded disappointed in his acceptance speech (the price is widely recognised as a consolation prize to The Best Actor Award). Chilam did not stay behind the ceremony for the TVB official interview. He explained that he was not informed to stay behind for any interview. The discord rumours between Chilam and Dayo begin to spread out widely. However, the rumour was shot down when Chilam surprised Dayo by his sudden appearance at a meal gathering of the Bounty Lady.[8]
Stand-up
Besides the TVB drama career, Dayo is also well known to be a stand-up comedian. He introduced stand-up comedy to Hong Kong and is well known for including a lot of political and philosophical content in his sets. "Hong Kong's housing issue is absolutely ridiculous. I have discussed this in my stand-up shows too. Hong Kong residents need to have 13 to 14 times their current annual salary to finally be qualified for home ownership."[9] said the comedian. He has performed in Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, and the United States.[10]
Film
In comparison with his stand-up comedy and TV dramas, his movies are not as successful. When asked the reasons behind, he explained that his ultimate goal is to look for something new in his movies. His visions make his work good to watch, but it is not good enough to attract people to pay for a cinema ticket. Additionally, he hates doing promotion for his work.[11]
However, this situation has changed recently with his last four movies namely, Agent Mr Chan (2018), The Grand Grandmaster (2020), Table for Six (2022) and A Guilty Conscience (2023) helping to break him out of the box-office poison moniker. He is nominated for Best Leading Actor for Hong Kong Film Awards because of this film. Table for Six in particular, has become the most successful comedy release in Hong Kong and the second highest-grossing Chinese film in Hong Kong.
