Huang Xiaoming or Mark Huang (, born 13 November 1977) is a Chinese actor, singer, and model. He graduated from the Performance Institute of the Beijing Film Academy in 2000. Huang first rose to prominence in 2001 for playing Emperor Wu of Han in the television series The Prince of Han Dynasty. In 2007, Huang signed a contract with Huayi Brothers and began focusing on his film career, appearing in films like The Sniper (2009), The Message (2010), and Sacrifice (2010). Huang is best known for his roles in television as Yang Guo in The Return of the Condor Heroes (2006), Xu Wenqiang in Shanghai Bund (2007), Luo Xi in Summer's Desire (2010), Yue Fei in The Patriot Yue Fei (2013) and Zuo Zhen in Cruel Romance (2015); as well as his roles in films American Dreams in China (2013) and Xuanzang (2016). Early life and education Huang was born in Qingdao, Shandong and is an only child. His father was an engineer while his mother was an accountant. At age nine, he was selected by a film studio to play the child protagonist in a movie. Throughout his school life, Huang planned to become a scientist, but his language teacher encouraged him to apply to the Beijing Film Academy, which infrequently came to Qingdao to recruit students. A week before his entrance examination, his foot was run over and crushed by a jeep; the injury was not serious because he was wearing army boots. While studying at the Beijing Film Academy, Huang recalls the person who had the greatest influence on him, a teacher named Cui Xinqin. He was close friends and classmates with Zhao Wei and Chen Kun; the trio was known as the "Three Musketeers". Career 1998–2007: Beginnings and success in television In 1984, Huang was initially chosen by a producer to star in a drama as a child actor, but was dropped later because of his shy and introverted personality. In 1996, Huang auditioned for Beijing Film Academy and joined in the same year. He later debuted in the 1998 drama Love is Not a Game. Huang began to gain attention when he was chosen to replace Lu Yi for the leading role in The Prince of Han Dynasty, which earned high ratings. He later starred in all three installments of the series from 2001 to 2005, and went from an unknown newbie to a front-line