Kenneth Ma

The youngest of a three-child family, he has older twin sisters. He attended Salesian English School before immigrating with his family to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1992. His father, who worked as a mechanical engineer, would travel back and forth between Hong Kong and Vancouver for work. At first his family lived in Richmond before settling in Port Coquitlam. After attending one semester at Douglas College, he transferred to University of British Columbia majoring in Mechanical engineering. During college, Ma joined an acting troupe that would perform sketches. After graduating from college in 1998, Ma and his entire family decided to return to Hong Kong.[2]

When Ma returned to Hong Kong he initially worked at a glass manufacture as a quality surveillance inspector but found his job boring.[3] Hoping to find something more of his interest he sent out over 70 resumes but only received a response from TVB for an interview notice to their 14th Artist Training Class. His starting salary at TVB was a meager estimated HK$4000.00 a month, one third of his former job salary, but since he found acting to be more suitable for him he decided to join TVB.

In the beginning his career at TVB was often playing supporting roles as extras, passers-by and fill ins. One of Ma's early roles was playing the giant cockroach Sui Kung in Dayo Wong's music video "Blue Sky". However within 5 years since graduating from TVB's training course the company started to promote him when he was chosen as one of the S4's for 2003's drama Triumph in the Skies[4] and later as one of the six sui sangs to be the "Olympic 6" (the others being Sammul Chan, Ron Ng, Bosco Wong, Raymond Lam and Lai Lok-yi) during the 2004 Athens Olympic games. In 2006, he won the Most Improved Actor award at the 2006 TVB Anniversary Awards. He was handed his first leading role in the drama serial Survivor's Law II opposite Hong Kong singer Ella Koon. The drama aired in 2008 and achieved favorable ratings and reception. Ma's role in The Hippocratic Crush, earned him awards both from Malaysia (Most Favorite Leading Actor) and Hong Kong (Most Favorite Male Character).

In 2013 after starring in Triumph in the Skies II, Ma caught the eye of international star Jackie Chan and was invited to star in the romantic comedy Fate Is a Game.[5]

In 2017, he starred in the critically acclaimed 'The Exorcist's Meter' and he won Most Favourite TV Male Character award at the TVB Anniversary Awards 2017 for his popular role as 'Ma Kwai' in that series. It is his second win in that category. Acknowledging his strong performance in that series, Kenneth Ma is labelled as the citizen's best actor pick and became a strong contender for Best Actor award in the TVB Anniversary Awards 2017, but he lost to the eventual winner, Vincent Wong.

Ma lives with his parents in a 900 square feet flat located in Tai Koo City, Hong Kong. He has said that his future wife must get along with his parents and be able to live together with them.[6]

He is known to commute to work via mass transit even though he owns a car.[7]

During his youth Ma and his mother were Leslie Cheung's fans. Ma's mother even named her western name after Cheung's hit song "Monica". At age 14 Ma was featured in Cheung's 1988 Pepsi commercial.[8]

Ma is an avid soccer fan. His favorite teams are Real Madrid, Manchester United, and AC Milan.[9]

Ma met Jacqueline Wong in 2015 during the filming of Inspector Gourmet. The two announced their relationship in 2017. but broke up after Wong was discovered to be cheating on him with married star Andy Hui in April 2019.[10][11][12]

• Kenneth Ma on IMDb