Joey LEUNG
Joey graduated from the School of Drama at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2001 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours), majoring in Acting. In 2011, he received the Hong Kong Federation of Drama Societies’ “Most Memorable Actor of the Past 20 Years” award. In 2009, CNN named him one of “Hong Kong’s 20 People to Watch”. He won Best Actor (Comedy/Farce) at the 2004–2005 Hong Kong Drama Awards for Queer Show, and received four nominations in the same category for I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!, Spider in Meditation, and All in the Timing. In 2020, he was nominated for Best Actor (Tragedy/Drama) for The Normal Heart and for Best Script for The Best Day in my Life. In 2025, he won Best Actor (Comedy/Farce) for Di-Dar, and was also nominated for Best Director (Comedy/Farce) for Di-Dar and Best Script for ANA. In 2003, he co-founded Windmill Grass Theatre with Luna Shaw and Edmond Tong, and serves as the company’s Creative Director.
Stage appearances include: Windmill Grass Theatre’s A Taste of Home, SuBeDoWa in Concert (4 runs), The Perfect Teamwork, Fragments of Solitude (also playwright and director), Di-Dar (2024 premiere and 2025 re-run, also playwright and director), ANA (2024 premiere, 2025 re-run and London tour, also playwright and director), The Restaurant, Parting is Never Easy (also playwright for the scene Love at the Last Sight), Never-ending Hong Kong (2019 premiere, 2021 re-run, 2022 re-run and 2023 London tour), The Little Mermaid of Sam Shing Estate (also playwright and director), Switch Off, Rent A Human, Bye-Bye Your Tale (also playwright and co-director), War of Tung Choi Guys (2021 premiere and Spiced Up Edition; also playwright and director), Falsettoland, and No News is True News 2.
Other performances include: Lam1hey’s Big Fantod Day; Theatre Horizon’s Requiem; Princess’ Blackbox's The Truth About Lying (re-run); Big Stage Theatre’s Enigma Variations (with Anthony Wong); W Theatre’s Hate You in a Second, Little People of Hong Kong (Season 1-6), Paranoia, I Want It That Way, Unknown, Les Hommes et les Femmes, Shuraba, Open Relationship, Unhappy, Queer Show (five runs; also co-director), Last Smile, First Tear (with Fiona Sit), Mr Snow White & Mr. Cinderella (with Wyman Wong), Octave (with Ivana Wong and Hins Cheung), Butterfly Lovers (with Denise Ho), Love Dies Slowly, Naturally and Silently (2009 premiere and 2010 re-run) and Once in a Lifetime (with Chet Lam).
His stage-play translations include Boy Gets Girl, Third and Oak: The Laundromat, Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love, Proof, Bent, Frankie and Johnny, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!, etc.
In addition to his stage work, Joey has written a gardening column for Headline Daily, the “Pumpkin Life” column for Hong Kong Economic Journal, the “Joey’s Kitchen” column for U-Magazine, and produced a vegetarian food channel for Eat and Travel Weekly. In 2008, he published the cookbook Inherited Flavours and Memories with his grandmother. He followed this with Success in the Kitchen on Your First Try in 2012 and Even Greater Success in the Kitchen on Your Second Try in 2013. In 2014, he published The Later It Gets, the Hungrier You Become and Joey’s Kitchen, donating all author royalties to Orbis to support sight-saving work. In 2020, he wrote the new cookbook Hong Kong People Eat Hong Kong Food, promoting high-quality local ingredients and farming culture.
In recent years, Joey has also taken part in a range of television productions. He co-hosted the ViuTV reality show Business Run with Edmond Tong, hosted the late night show Talker: Food Talkies, and appeared in the reality programmes Be a Better Man, King Maker III, Be a Better MIRROR, King Maker IV, and King Maker VI. More recently, he collaborated with the local cultural enterprise Walk in Hong Kong to organise the themed guided tour “Joey’s Tsuen Wan Banquet,” introducing participants to the community’s food culture.
In 2015, Joey completed the French Disciples Escoffier Diploma in Culinary Arts with distinction, followed by the Disciples Escoffier Diploma in Pastry Arts in 2018. During his studies, he interned at Michelin-starred restaurants and was awarded a Level 5 Certificate in French Culinary Training by the French Ministry of Education, qualifying him to work as a professional chef or open a French restaurant in France.
Work enquiries: job.pumpkinjojo@gmail.com
