Michael Tse Tin-wah is a Hong Kong actor and singer.
Background
Michael Tse graduated from TVB's Dance Training Class and worked with TVB as a dancer for five years. He then left TVB and formed a boy band group called 風火海 with Jordan Chan and Jason Chu. Two CDs were then released in 1994 and 1995 accordingly by the boy band group. In 1996's Young and Dangerous, Tse acted as a character called "Tai Tin Yee" in the triad genre. The film was a huge success, which led to nine sequels and spinoffs before the series concluded in 2000. The boy band group was dismissed later then. Tse participated Hong Kong's first modern musical Snow.Wolf.Lake in 1997. In 1998, Tse participated in the TV seriesA Kindred Spirit and officially becoming a TVB artist/ television actor. He was featured as the important supporting actor in many TV dramas like Detective Investigation Files, Virtues of Harmony and Legal Entanglement.
Breakout role
His breakout role was that of Man King-leung in the TVB drama series La Femme Desperado, which gained him his popularity with the audience. In 2007, he was cast as the leading role of Ho Yee in the TV series Best Bet. Also in 2007, he participated in the joint partnership production between TVB and Henan TV spinoff of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, and was the winner. Other TVB participants included Joe Ma, Carlo Ng, Mandy Cho, Sharon Chan, Sonija Kwok, Shirley Yeung, and others totaling a group of 5 females and 5 males competing against the 5 females and 5 males from the Henan TV side.
His performance as gangster "Laughing Gor" in E.U. became a breakout character. His Role "Laughing Gor" became very popular with netizens and audiences of E.U.. Due to his popularity, a prequel/spin-off film of E.U. featuring "Laughing Gor", entitled Turning Point, was produced. Continuing popularity enabled the production of a 30-episode sequel series, Lives of Omission, in 2011 and a film sequel titled Turning Point 2 began filming in October 2011 and was released on 29 December 2011. Lives of Omission also won the TVB Anniversary Award for Best Drama at the 2011 TVB Anniversary Awards.
Departing TVB for a second time
After the arrival of rival broadcasters Hong Kong Television Network, many TVB stars went on to join HKTV. After months of speculation whether Michael was going to join his former celebrities, he decided to not to renew his contract with TVB which expired on 30 June. Michael insists talks were amicable and will continue his working relationship with TVB as there will be more opportunities in the future. Since announcing his departure with TVB, Michael has openly expressed his disappointment in not winning the TVB Best Actor award in 2011 with his breakout role, Laughing Gor, which led many to believe the main reason why Michael did not extend his contract. Rumors speculated that he would join either Eric Tsang or Ricky Wong promotional company but instead Michael set up his own company, The Laughing Workshop, to focus on more the Mainland market.
Controversy
In December 2008, Michael Tse was involved in a car accident in the West Harbour Crossing and was arrested for drunk driving after an alcohol content examination. On 11 March 2009, he was found guilty at Eastern Magistracy and is sentenced to six weeks imprisonment with one year probation and fined $9500. His driving license was also suspended for eighteen months.
