Zhao Tao

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Zhao Tao (born 28 January 1977) is a Chinese actress and producer. She was born in Taiyuan, Shanxi, and trained in classical Chinese dance before studying folk dance at the Beijing Dance Academy in 1996. After graduating, she taught dance in Taiyuan until director Jia Zhangke spotted her and cast her in Platform (2000). They have often collaborated, and they were married on 7 January 2012.

She has appeared in about a dozen films since her screen debut in 1999, mainly in China with some work in Europe. She is best known for Platform (2000) and Still Life (2006). In 2011 she starred in Shun Li and the Poet, directed by Andrea Segre, and won the David di Donatello Award for Best Actress in 2012, becoming the first Asian actress to win that prize. She received Golden Horse Award nominations for Mountains May Depart (2015) and Ash Is Purest White (2018). The New York Times ranked her 8th on its 2020 list of the 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century.