Benny Chan Ho-Man 陳浩民
Benny Chan came to TVB from a soy milk commercial and became popular after his very first series role, playing Duan Yu in The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils. He went on to play Sun Wu-Kong and Nezha, and after moving to mainland television, the monk Ji Gong became another of his signature characters. In 2024, Chan returned to TVB in Justice Sung Begins as a master of courtroom litigation — a three-minute verbal duel in court featuring him was shot in a single take.
Benny Chan Ho-Man (陳浩民) was born on 7 October 1969 in Hong Kong. His father's family comes from Fuzhou. Chan attended Raymondi College and later studied social sciences at Lingnan. He first appeared on television in 1994 in a Vitasoy soy milk commercial. In the ad he played a young man recalling how, before they parted, his grandfather crossed the railway tracks to buy him a drink. The young actor caught the attention of TVB producer Lee Tim-Sing. He entrusted Chan with one of the three lead roles in the adaptation of Jin Yong's novel The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (天龍八部), which TVB aired in 1997. Prince Duan Yu, devoted to Buddhist teachings and unwilling to learn to fight, by chance becomes a master of martial arts. It was Chan's first dramatic role on television. In mainland China the series circulated widely on videocassettes, and Chan was remembered there long before he began regularly filming there.
In Journey to the West 2 (西遊記 2, 1998) Chan replaced Dicky Cheung in the role of Sun Wu-Kong. Next, in Dragon Love (人龍傳說, 1999) he played Ye Xi, a physician who falls in love with a girl from a dragon clan. Chan recorded the series' theme song himself. In Gods of Honour (封神榜, 2001) he played Nezha, a youth endowed with supernatural power, while Kingdom Yuen King-Tan took the role of his mother. Fairy-tale heroes alternated with detective characters. In A Pillow Case of Mystery (施公奇案, 2006) Chan played Huang Tianba, assistant to Judge Shi. Alongside this he was recording songs, and in 2004 he released his first Mandarin album, 愛海滔滔.
In 2007, when his contract with TVB expired, Chan focused on filming on the mainland. Offers had already come his way, and in a good year, by his own reckoning, he managed to appear in three or four series. In The Legend of Crazy Monk (活佛濟公, 2010) he played Ji Gong, a monk who wanders, protects people and does battle with evil spirits. Chan rewatched earlier versions, including those with Yu Benchang and Stephen Chow, and decided to show the hero as a young man. His Ji Gong is still only learning to deal with demons and at first wins far from every fight. Some viewers were irritated by the monk's modern slang. Chan said such lines bring the old legend closer to audiences. He went on to play Ji Gong in the next two seasons, and then in New Mad Monk (新濟公活佛, 2014).
In 2011 Chan married the model Jiang Lisha, whom, by his account, he met at a gathering of friends. In November that same year he was filming the series Mystery Of The Blue Butterfly (藍蝶之謎) in Zhejiang. After a dinner with colleagues in Hengdian, the actress Rose Chan Ka-Wun told journalists that Benny Chan had hugged her and tried to kiss her, and that she had pushed him away. Back in Hong Kong, she went to the police. On 24 November Benny Chan came out to journalists together with his wife, bowed and apologized. He said he had had too much to drink and behaved unacceptably, and asked forgiveness from the actress and her family. In December he published a letter of apology in which he rejected suggestions that the actress had been seeking attention and asked his fans to stop attacking her and her family. Later Checkley Sin Kwok-Lam, the actress's mentor and manager, said he had discussed the matter with her and her mother, accepted Chan's apology and dropped any further legal steps.
Between 2011 and 2016 the couple had three daughters and a son. Four pregnancies in five years and caesarean sections were discussed in the press. The couple talked about their children and family decisions in joint interviews. During the pandemic the family lived in Shanghai, and reports of a move to Thailand appeared later. In interviews Chan joked that at their home the main things are playing, sleeping and eating.
In Three Unusual Detectives (長安三怪探), Chan played Du Gu Zhongping, an impoverished painter who can reconstruct the course of a crime from circumstantial evidence. Alongside him, the trio of sleuths includes a young woman with an extraordinary memory and a master of disguise. In the second half of the 2010s, Chan frequently appeared in films for online platforms together with Lam Tze-Chung, with whom he had already worked on The Legend of Crazy Monk. They met again on the set of Winning Buddha (斗戰勝佛, 2017). In internet films, Chan also returned to the role of Ji Gong, including in The Incredible Monk (濟公之英雄歸位, 2018). That same year, the actor played Sun Wu-Kong again in Qi Tian Da Sheng (齊天大聖·萬妖之城). He said he loves comedies that children and adults can watch together, and explained his work through the example of slipping on a banana peel — to make it funny, an actor has to work hard, though the audience usually doesn't notice. Among his later roles there are detectives too. In Di Gong Mie Shu (狄公滅鼠, 2020) and Enigmatic Blossom (狄仁傑之彼岸奇花, 2025) he played Di Renjie.
After a seventeen-year break, Chan appeared again in a TVB series. In Justice Sung Begins (狀王之王, 2024) he played Chen Mengji, an expert in court cases. Because of his tight schedule, he agreed to appear only briefly, although he was offered a role in four episodes. Four days were allotted for filming. The three-minute verbal duel in court with Vincent Wong's character was shot in one continuous take. According to Chan, after that scene both were so exhausted that they cancelled dinner and went home to gather strength for the next round of sparring.
