Roy Szeto Wai-cheuk was born on 12 October 1967, with ancestral roots in Kaiping, Guangdong, and grew up in Kwun Tong. He is one of the few Hong Kong directors to have worked seriously in both theatre and film. He graduated from the School of Drama at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 1990 and joined Tsui Hark's Film Workshop in 1991, co-writing the screenplays for A Chinese Ghost Story III and The Wicked City. That screenwriting training gave him a feel for how the film industry works and taught him to bring editing and visual staging into his later stage work. He then made theatre his main career, becoming a long-serving resident director of the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre and directing large-scale productions such as Deling and Cixi, The Top Restaurant and The Witness. From 2012 he has also taught at the Academy for Performing Arts, passing on years of practical experience to a new generation. He has won Best Director at the Hong Kong Drama Awards four times: for The War of the Beans in the comedy category in 2010, for Papa in the same category in 2012, for The Emperor, His Mom, a Eunuch and a Man in the tragedy category in 2014, and for Dear Hu Xueyan in 2017, which took four major awards, the same year he was named Best Director at the Shanghai One Drama Awards. His historical productions are noted for distinctive stage design and staging and have toured the mainland and overseas; his 2016 Academy production of Lantern Festival won the audience favourite prize and the best fusion performance award at a Slovak festival. On screen he wrote and directed Papa (2016), starring Louis Koo and Francis Ng, which competed at the 29th Tokyo International Film Festival, and he appeared in Love in a Puff as the character Li Gonggong.
Szeto moves between film and the stage, and is one of the few Hong Kong directors to have won the Best Director prize at the Drama Awards four times. His historical productions, including The Emperor, His Mom, a Eunuch and a Man and Dear Hu Xueyan, are known for their striking design and have toured the mainland. His early screenwriting with Tsui Hark gives his stage work a cinematic quality.
Achievements
- 1991 · Joined Tsui Hark's Film Workshop and co-wrote A Chinese Ghost Story III and The Wicked City
- 2012 · Won Best Director (Comedy/Farce) at the Hong Kong Drama Awards for Papa
- 2014 · Won Best Director (Tragedy) at the Hong Kong Drama Awards for The Emperor, His Mom, a Eunuch and a Man
- 2017 · Won four major awards for Dear Hu Xueyan and was named Best Director at the Shanghai One Drama Awards