Au Cheuk-man, nicknamed A-men, born on 26 April 1975, is a Hong Kong director, screenwriter, actor and television presenter, a former actor and presenter at Hong Kong Cable Television and an ambassador of World Vision's Friends of China. He studied at Tsuen Wan St. Francis Xavier's Secondary School and then took a performance diploma at the School of Drama of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, attended the third directing course run by the Hong Kong Film Directors' Guild, later studied directing at the New York Film Academy in the United States and art at Blake College in London. In 1999 he joined Star East, a company founded by entertainers such as Natalis Chan, Eric Tsang and Alan Tam, working as an MC in its restaurants and discos, and began appearing in films including City of Lights (1999) and Twins Mission (2007). Three years later a friend introduced him to Cable TV's children's channel, where he hosted Atypical IQ Show with Lau Suk-wing; the show was renamed Atypical IQ Show Again in February 2004 and he stayed on as host, and his light, humorous style became a shared memory for many young viewers, with ratings climbing during the 2003 SARS period when children stayed at home. He was later moved to Cable TV's entertainment channel to host a fortune-telling programme, drew many complaints for his flippant manner and had his contract terminated in 2009; after three years out of work he turned to film, in 2013 serving as executive director on the production and writing the screenplay for Lan Kwai Fong 3, and his 2015 film The Gigolo, which used the nightclub world to depict marginal lives, took more than HK$6 million at the Hong Kong and Macau box office and turned his fortunes around. His subject matter then shifted toward social concern: in 2018 he self-financed and directed a film about animal welfare, starring Tats Lau and Lai-wun Chan, focusing on stray animals; in 2023 he directed a father-and-son story; in 2024 he co-directed Papa with Philip Yung, which was selected for the main competition of the 37th Tokyo International Film Festival and given a world premiere there, and he directed another project, Diary of a Mountain Village, that year. He has also made cameo appearances, including in In Broad Daylight. Moving between presenting, writing and directing, he has increasingly turned his films toward grassroots life and human feeling.
Moving from a Cable TV children's host to film director, Au Cheuk-man turned after The Gigolo (2015) to animal welfare in A Fox in the City (2018) and to a father-and-son story in Someone's Speaking (2023), reshaping his own low point into subjects close to grassroots life, before co-directing Papa in 2024.
Achievements
- 2015 · Directed The Gigolo, which took over HK$6 million at the Hong Kong and Macau box office
- 2018 · Self-financed and directed a film about animal welfare
- 2024 · Co-directed Papa, which was selected for the Tokyo International Film Festival