Zhu was born on 4 April 1999 in Taichung, Taiwan.[1][2] He studied at Shin Min High School [zh] and took horticulture classes due to the influence of his father, who loves gardening.[3][4] When he was in high school, a junior student recommended him to an artist agent who visited their school to look for talents.[3] He was chosen and made his debut in a minor role in the 2018 romance film How to Train Our Dragon [zh].[3][5] He moved to Taipei alone at the age of eighteen to pursue studies at Shih Chien University, majoring in fashion design.[6][7]
Career
Zhu auditioned while studying in university and landed a lead role as Tung-hao, a high school basketball player competing with his half-brother on a rival team played by Fandy Fan, in the 2019 sports film We Are Champions [zh].[6][8] He received nominations for both Best Supporting Actor and Best New Talent in the 22nd Taipei Film Awards and began receiving film role offers after the release of the film.[5][9] He then starred as Jim, a young husband searching for his wife when a virus that caused people to become cannibalistic broke out, in the 2021 horror film The Sadness.[10][11] The same year, he was cast as Pi Tse, a tuxedo tailor, in the fantasy series The Magician on the Skywalk [zh],[12] and credited his performance as drawing inspiration from Tony Leung Chiu-wai's character in the 1990 film Days of Being Wild.[13] He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series in the 56th Golden Bell Awards.[14] Zhu was also cast as the co-leading actor in the crime thriller series Danger Zone [zh] later in the same year.[15] He portrayed Ren Fei, a rookie police detective alongside Christopher Lee, who played his veteran supervisor.[16] Zhu performed his own stunts in the series and earned a nomination for Best Male Lead in a Television Series in the 57th Golden Bell Awards the following year.[17] Zhu suspended his university studies after the production of Danger Zone to focus on his acting career.[3][18] He landed a main role as Lin Shan-jun in the 2022 medical drama Mad Doctor [zh] alongside Janel Tsai,[19] and is set to reprise his role in the upcoming sequel.[20]
In 2022, Zhu received his breakout role in the crime mystery film Bad Education as Chang, a high school graduate who becomes entangled with a gang boss alongside his two friends played by Kent Tsai and Edison Song.[21] John Berra of Screen Daily noted that despite being a fresh-faced lead, Zhu acquitted himself well with his "ringleader" character traits, and lauded the collective strength of the trio's performance.[22] Hai Nan, writing for The News Lens, praised Zhu's performance in the final scenes of the film, which maintained the momentum of the entire "bad education" narrative.[23] Zhu won Best Supporting Actor in the 59th Golden Horse Awards and received a nomination for Best Actor in the 25th Taipei Film Awards for his role.[24] In 2023, Zhu starred in the Netflix romance anthology series At The Moment [zh] alongside Gingle Wang as a pair of young bird lovers in a pandemic era.[25] He is also set to star in a lead role alongside Kai Ko and Leon Dai in Giddens Ko's upcoming fantasy action film Kung Fu.[26]
Personal life
Zhu splits his time and work between Taipei and Taichung.[27] Zhu began dating media personality Cindy He prior to his acting debut.[28] On 28 March 2024, Zhu was spotted by paparazzi dating singer Julia Wu in Taipei while He was out of Taiwan for work.[29][30] Zhu ended his five-year relationship with He before the news was publicly released in April.[31][32]
