What is Katie Leung's net worth?
Katie Leung is a Chinese-Scottish actress who has a net worth of $5 million. Katie Leung gained international recognition for her role as Cho Chang in the Harry Potter film series. Her portrayal of Cho Chang, Harry Potter's first romantic interest, spanned four films in the series: "Goblet of Fire," "Order of the Phoenix," "Half-Blood Prince," and "Deathly Hallows – Part 2." During this period, she faced significant racist harassment from some members of the Harry Potter fandom, an experience she has spoken about openly in recent years to raise awareness about racism in the entertainment industry.
After Harry Potter, Leung made a conscious decision to develop her craft, studying acting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She began building a diverse portfolio of work, particularly in British television and theater. Her stage work includes performances at the Young Vic and Royal Court Theatre, demonstrating her commitment to serious dramatic roles.
In television, Leung has taken on several notable roles that have helped establish her as a versatile actress beyond her Harry Potter fame. She starred in the BBC series "One Child" (2014) as an adopted Chinese woman searching for her birth family, and appeared in "The Foreigner" (2017) alongside Jackie Chan. She played a leading role in ITV's "White Dragon" (also known as "Strangers") in 2018, and starred in the drama series "Roadkill" (2020) with Hugh Laurie.
More recent projects have included roles in "The Nest" (2020) and "Annika" (2021), further establishing her presence in British television drama. She also provided voice acting for the video game "Total War: Three Kingdoms" (2019), showcasing another dimension of her talent.
Early Years
Katie Leung was born on August 8, 1987, in Dundee, Scotland, the daughter of restaurant owner Peter Leung and banker Kar Wai Li. When she was three years old, her parents divorced, and her mother moved back to Hong Kong. She and her siblings were raised by her father and her stepmother. She attended Hamilton College – a Christian private school in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Photography from Edinburgh College of Art and another Bachelor of Arts in Acting from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Leung's parents had been separated for quite some time when she auditioned for a role in the 2005 fantasy film "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" but both turned up to support her.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
In 2004, Katie Leung was encouraged by her father to attend auditions for the future film "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Two weeks after the auditions, she was called back to attend a workshop, after which she was cast as Cho Chang—a role that more than 3,000 girls had been vying for.
The film, based on the 2000 novel by J.K. Rowling, was the fourth in the Harry Potter film series. Directed by English film and television director Michael Newell, it starred Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter and followed Harry's fourth year as a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As Cho Chang, Leung was a Ravenclaw student.
The highest-grossing film of 2005, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction and won a British Academy Film Award for Best Production Design.
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
In 2007, Katie Leung reprised her role as Cho Chang in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the next film in the series where her character became Harry's first love interest. The romantic pairing of the two actors onscreen resulted in racist backlash on social media and harassment, which upset Leung greatly. Fifteen years later, she would pen an essay titled "Getting into Character," which documented how her ethnicity had impacted her personal and professional life through the years. The essay was published in the book "East Side Voices: Essays Celebrating East & Southeast Asian Identity in Britain." Leung continued playing Cho Chang in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part II)."
Music Videos, Television, and Stage
In the summer of 2007, Katie Leung was hired by Chinese entertainment company Gold Label Records to appear in the music video for Hong Kong singer Leo Ku's single "Love Coming Home."
In 2008, she played the character Hsui Tai on an episode of the British mystery drama television show "Agatha Christie's Poirot" which aired on the British public broadcast station ITV1.
In December 2011, Leung won the role of Chinese-born British author Jung Chang in Chang's autobiographical stage play Wild Swans. Based on Chang's 1991 book "Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China," the play documents three generations of females in Chang's family and premiered in 2012 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In 2013, Leung played Ying in the four-episode British serial drama "Run" and starred as Sunny in London's National Theatre production of "The World of Extreme Happiness."
On the 2014 BBC and Sundance TV drama miniseries "One Child," Leung scored the lead role of Mei Ashley, a Chinese girl adopted by a British father and American mother. The show follows the journey of Mei after she discovers she has a brother in China who is being sentenced to death for a murder he didn't commit. That same year, Leung played Jia-Li Gerard in an episode of the British detective television series "Father Brown" and appeared as Beline in a stage production of "The Hypochondriac" at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. The following year, she played Junhee in the Royal Court Theatre's "You For Me For You."
Leung played Sooze in the play "The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures" by American playwright Tony Kushner in 2016. The following year, she played a nurse in the black comedy-drama "T2 Trainspotting" and portrayed the character of Fan Quan in the action thriller film "The Foreigner," based on the 1992 novel "The Chinaman" by British author Stephen Leather. The film stars Jackie Chan and follows a restaurant owner and former soldier who wants retribution after the death of his daughter. That same year, she played Dou Yi in a stage production of "Snow in Midsummer" performed at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.
In 2018, Leung won the role of Lau Chen in the British television crime drama series "Strangers" and played an assistant in the British comedy short film "Leading Lady Parts." The following year, she portrayed Sunny in the Royal Court Theatre's production of "White Pearl." That year and the next, she voiced the character of Too-Ticky in the British-Finnish animated family drama series "Moominvalley." She then appeared as Eleanor in five episodes of the British miniseries "The Nest" and Margaret Moore in three episodes of the miniseries "Roadkill."
The 2021 romantic comedy "Lockdown" featured Leung playing the role of Natasha while she also played data and technical investigator Blair Ferguson in the Scottish comedy crime drama "Annika." The following year, she voiced the character of Piltover enforcer and former lab assistant Caitlyn Kiramman in the steampunk action-adventure television series "Arcane: League of Legends" on Netflix. In addition, she played Ash in the American science fiction television series "The Peripheral" on Amazon Prime Video.
In 2023, Leung starred in the Paramount+ television adaption of the 2006 novel "The Chemistry of Death" by British journalist Simon Beckett and appeared as Yasicca in three episodes of the American fantasy television series "The Wheel of Time." In 2024, she won the role of lifestyle trends reporter Rachel Li in the six-part British television series "Nightsleeper" on BBC1 and that of Lady Araminta Gun in the American historical romance series "Bridgerton." She also played Kristina in a "The Comeuppance" production at the Almeida Theatre in London.
Accolades
In 2006, Katie Leung was nominated for an Asian Excellence Award for Outstanding Newcomer and a Young Scot Award for Achievement in Entertainment. In 2008, she was nominated for an MTV Award for Best Kiss (with Daniel Radcliffe). In 2007, she won a Scottish Style Award for Most Stylish Female and a Cosmo Girl Award as one of the Hot 100. In 2014, she was honored with a BAFTA Award for "Breakthrough Brit."
Philanthropy
Katie Leung ran a marathon in 2018 to support My Body Back, a network for survivors of sexual assault. She has also helped raise funds for the United Kingdom-based charity The King's Trust, which helps vulnerable young people stay on the right track. As a supporter of Sightsavers International, she helps to prevent and treat avoidable blindness in developing countries.
