Châu Belle Dinh

Châu Belle Dinh (1977-    ) is a French film actor, stunt performer and martial artist of Vietnamese descent.  He is on of nine original founding members of Yamakasi, a group dedicated to practicing the art of Parkour, the training discipline created by David Belle in France using movement which developed from military obstacle course training.  The Yamakasi had gained much notoriety from the films, Yamakasi - Les Samourais des Temps Modernes (2001) and Les Fils du Vent (2004).

Born on September 8, 1977 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Châu Belle Dinh and his two brothers, Williams and Phung, were raised primarily in France.  In 2001, he starred alongside six of his fellow co-founding members of Yamakasi, Williams Belle, his brother, Yann H'Nautra, Laurent Premontesi, Charles Perriére, Guylain N'Guba Buyeke, Malik Diouf in the film, Yamakasi - Les Samourais des Temps Modernes, in which the screenplay had been written by Luc Besson, former husband of Vietnamese-French actress Maiwenn, based on their group's philosophy and directed by Airel Zeitoun.  The film was a major box office success all over Europe, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.  The following year, he worked as stunt performer along with fellow Yamakasi members and was stunts coordinator for another film written by Luc Besson, Taxi 2.  In 2004, Châu Belle Dinh starred in Les Fils du Vent (The Great Challenge), which would be the second film featuring the Yamakasi and directed by Julien Seri.

His other acting credits on the silver screen without the participation of the Yamakasi include starring roles in L'Éveil du moine (A Monk's Awakenings) (2005), a short film which featured Tran Ngoc Kim and Der Ruf der Geckos (2007), a film written and directed by up and coming German-Vietnamese filmmaker Van Phuong La.  

Châu Belle Dinh along with three other Yamakasi original members founded the ADD Academy in Paris, France in 2005 which offers classes teaching both adults and youths the art of movement.  He is also the co-founder of Majestic Force, an independent film production company.

Link(s):

ADD Academy à Paris (Official Website)