China Chow

Chow made her acting debut in 1998, starring opposite Mark Wahlberg in The Big Hit. In 2004, she appeared in Frankenfish. Three years later, Chow appeared on USA Network's first season of Burn Notice. She was the host and a judge of Bravo's Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, which premiered on 9 June 2010.

In 2000, she posed for Maxim and was featured in their gallery, Girls of Maxim. She was ranked No. 22 and No. 54 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women (2000 and 2001, respectively).

Chow was in a relationship with actor Mark Wahlberg for four years after meeting on the set of the 1998 film The Big Hit. She was in a relationship with actor Steve Koogan from 2007 to 2011. In June 2008, she was linked to actor Keanu Reeves after they were spotted on vacation together, but Koogan's representative stated that Chow and Reeves were just friends. She has been in a relationship with musician Billy Idol since February 2018.

She attended the Lycée Français de Los Angeles. After graduating, she went to Boston University for two years before transferring to Scripps College in Claremont, California, where she graduated with a psychology degree in May 1997. She was the first in her family to graduate from college.

In modeling, Chow was discovered by Roger Museenden. She spent several years following in her mother's footsteps working as a model for Shiseido cosmetics, Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. Her modeling led to her being named one of Harper's Bazaar's "It Girls" in 1996 and an appearance in the December 1996 edition of Vogue's "The Next Best-Dressed List".

In 1992, Chow's mother died of AIDS. The same year, Chow's father married Eva Chun, a Korean fashion designer and Chow gained a half-sister, Asia Chow (b. 1994). In February 2019, her father married his fourth wife, Vanessa Rano, who is 49 years his junior. Through this marriage, Chow has a half-brother, Phoenix Chow (b. 2019).

Chow was born in London to restaurateur Michael Chow and his wife, model/designer Tina Chow. Her paternal grandfather is the Peking opera's Zhou Xinfang. Her paternal aunt is actress and former "Bond girl" Tsai Chin. Her maternal aunt is the artist Adelle Lutz. Through Lutz's 1987 marriage, her uncle is David Byrne.

Her parents left London for New York in 1980, when she was 5 years old. They then relocated to Los Angeles in 1985. Her mother, who was born in Ohio, was of German and Japanese ancestry and her father is Chinese. She has a younger brother, Maximilian (b. 1978). Her parents divorced in November 1989.

China Chow (Chinese: 周佳納 ; born 15 April 1974) is an English-born American actress and model of German, Chinese, and Japanese ancestry.