Born YauMing Kwei in 1966 in Hong Kong, Ming Beaver Kwei or Beaver Kwei is the son of famed Shaw Brothers Studio director Chih-Hung Kuei . Kwei grew up on the Shaw Brothers backlot, living in studio-subsidized housing with his family, where he counted Hong Kong filmmakers Chang Cheh, Ching Gang, father of Tony Ching Siu-Tung and Derek Yee Tung-sing as neighbors. “Shaw kept everybody in their little kingdom,” Kwei told The Hollywood Reporter in 2011. “Directors in one block and stars in the next building... My mother was a Foley artist and I was used to coconut shells, buckets of gravel and doors that led nowhere on a sound stage. My math tutor was the projectionist. I grew up there." After relocating to the United States with his family in the 1980s, Kwei attended St. Michael’s, a Catholic boys boarding school in southern Orange County, California. His father discouraged Kwei to pursue a career in film. Nonetheless, while working part-time at his father's pizza store, Kwei was accepted into the film program at the University of California, Irvine. After graduating from the university, Kwei became active in the industry, first as a personal assistant to Jet Li on such popular movies as Hero, Romeo Must Die and Kiss of the Dragon. From 2005 to 2008, he was the director of development for Warner China Film. Kwei collaborated with his friend, Chinese director Ning Hao, on three projects, Crazy Stone, Crazy Racer and No Man's Land . Currently based in Los Angeles and Beijing, he was one of the producing teams spearheading the hit 2009 comedy, Sophie's Revenge, starring Zhang Ziyi. Kwei has also worked as an associate producer on the Edward Norton-Naomi Watts film, The Painted Veil, shot on location in China, and Slam, a youth basketball drama. His next production, My Lucky Star, a follow-up to Sophie's Revenge, starring Zhang and pop star Leehom Wang, was released internationally in September 2013. It is the first Chinese-language production to be directed by an American woman and was the No. 1 film during its opening weekend in China. Kwei co-produced with Ling Lucas, William Cheng, Zhang Ziyi, Jonathan Hua Lang Lim and Second Chan. Kwei also received a story credit along with writer Amy Snow and director Gordon. In December 2013, Kwei participated in a seminar on the future of the Asian film industry at the 54th annual Asia-Pacific Film Festival in Macau. In 2015, Kwei produced an ultra low budgeted Chinese horror thriller The Precipice Game with first time director Wang Zao for Shanghai-based Fundamental Films. This is the third time Kwei has worked with a first time director in China. Kwei is an avid long distance runner. He ran and completed the Hokkaido Marathon in 2014, and in 2015.
