Gary Tang Tuck-hei is a Hong Kong television scriptwriter, director and producer known for dramas about middle-class professionals, active since 1981. He grew up in Wan Chai and Quarry Bay and studied at primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong; after finishing Form Five he volunteered as a projectionist at the Hong Kong Film Culture Centre, and a story treatment he called The Miraculous Thief won him a place through TVB's scriptwriting recruitment class, joining the station as a writer. His early credits included two of TVB's biggest 1980s serials, Police Cadet '84 and Blood of Good and Evil. He moved to Asia Television in 1989 and returned to TVB in 1991 as a creative director, being promoted to producer in 1992, when he launched the legal drama Files of Justice, set in a law firm; it ran to five instalments between 1992 and 1997, several of them among TVB's top ten programmes of the year, with a familiar cast including Lawrence Ng, Bowie Lam, Ada Choi, Flora Chan and William So. In 1998 he produced the medical drama Healing Hands, reusing part of that cast, which took TVB's Anniversary Gala award for favourite drama programme of the year. He left TVB in 2000 to found Gary Tang Studio, briefly partnered with Wong Jing and Andrew Lau, worked in the Singapore market and later directed the feature Healing Hearts. After producing a series for Asia Television in 2008–09, unpaid wages led to a labour prosecution; he pleaded guilty in 2011 and was fined HK$4,000.
With Files of Justice and Healing Hands, Tang opened prime-time routes for legal and medical drama, putting professionals' working and private lives on television and building storylines around an extended cast — a model followed by many later Hong Kong workplace dramas.
Achievements
- 1981 · Joined TVB as a scriptwriter through its recruitment class, with early credits on Police Cadet '84 and Blood of Good and Evil
- 1992 · Promoted to producer and launched the legal drama Files of Justice, which ran to five instalments from 1992 to 1997
- 1998 · Produced the medical drama Healing Hands, which won TVB's favourite drama programme award that year
- 2000 · Left TVB to found Gary Tang Studio and later directed the feature Healing Hearts