Katie Leung

Profile last updated 11th July

The Basics

Age: 20

Birthday: August 8th 1987

Height: 5 ft 4.5

Siblings: Two brothers and one younger sister

Education: Reportedly, a Glasgow college with an annual fee of 5000 pounds.

Location: Motherwell, Scotland


Claim to fame

Katie Leung plays the role of Harry's first romance in the Harry Potter films. The character, Cho Chang, although appearing in the third novel by J.K Rowling, "The Prisoner of Azkaban", only appeared in the screenplay until the fourth film, The Goblet of Fire. 

This role was won by Katie after much speculation. The Cho Chang Casting Call in 2004 was the first open casting for a major Harry Potter character since the auditions for the trio (Harry, Ron and Hermione), back in 2001. For more information on these castings, why not take a look at our Harry Potter Casting Timeline. 

So how did she get the role?

In February 2004, the Cho Chang auditions attracted thousands of hopefuls. You can find images from the queues from photos here and in our gallery.

It was actually Katie's father who saw an advertisement on a Chinese television channel for the casting call. Katie thought it might be quite "fun" to go along and try her luck, although that day she was more interested in going shopping! No doubt queuing for three hours was not so appealing.

"It had never been of interest to me because I thought if you wanted to be an actor you had to be confident in front of so many people and I'd always been really shy at school." Source

"On the day of the casting, Katie joined the queue of thousands of young girls desperate to win the part of Cho Chang. After the initial casting call, Katie was extremely shocked to hear that she had been short listed and that the casting director wanted her back for further auditions; with no prior acting experience she was convinced that she wouldn't get the role. After more auditions and screen tests, her mother was called to say that Katie would be playing Cho Chang in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."Source

What Else?

Apart from the entire Harry Potter franchise, where Katie will be reviving her role as Cho Chang, in which she played a huge part in Harry's first kiss in the 2007 summer hit Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, nothing seems to be set in stone for Katie.

"I'm now thinking about going to university and my career. I have no set plans at the moment. I would like to go to university - even if I hadn't got the part, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity so I'm not going to miss that...I definitely want to carry on with acting, but I don't want to rely on it. So maybe after school I am going to apply to university or art school because I like art." Source

Despite this, Katie has been involved in non-Harry Potter projects such as working alongside Leo Ku for his music video "Love's Coming Home" which you can watch on You Tube here.

"In July 2007, Leung was asked by Gold Label Records, a well known record company under EMI in Hong Kong, to play a main female character in a music video for a song called Love Coming Home by Leo Ku. Leung agreed as soon as she received the invitation, and filmed the movie in London in between busily promoting the new Harry Potter film. Leo described Leung's acting as "professional" and "mature". Source

What's Next?

Providing Katie's role is written into the screenplays, Katie will be finishing the rest of the Harry Potter series. The latest installment is, of course, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince which has been filming over late 2007 and early 2008. 

Katie has been active finding other non-Harry Potter projects however and is due to appear in an episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot. The series is a detective drama set in the 1930s, and you can find out more about the show and episodes since it's first broadcast (in 1989) at the ITV official site. As Katie has a 'cameo' role, she does not appear as a regular to the series, and is therefore not listed as a full time cast member.

"She plays Hsui Tai, a pupil at a private all-girls school who helps the legendary sleuth solve a murder at the school and the mystery of a kidnapped Middle Eastern princess." Source

It shall be screened sometime in 2008 but precisely when is not known yet. For updates for when ITV1 will be showing the series, check back to Katie Leung Fan.

Other facts

Katie said "It was like a crazy dream, being on set, meeting all these famous people, I was so starstruck."

If she could be given any magical power, she says she would like to be able to read boys' minds.

Katie, who plays the piano, is a huge music fan and listens to all kinds of music including R & B, Pop, Rock and Hip Hop.

Katie in the galleries

There are too many pictures of Katie for me to hold in my gallery, but there are lots of excellent photo galleries online dedicated to Katie. For a list of Katie Fansites click here. Check these out:

Katie Leung Fan Gallery

Katie Czech Source Photos

Credits for this profile

CBBC Newsround - in general for great information!

Katie Leung Fan for info and images

Harry Potter.com

IMDB

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