Biography
Olivia Cheng began her career interviewing actors for "ET Canada" (Global, 2005-) before becoming one herself with roles in "Broken Trail" (AMC, 2006), "Arrow" (The CW, 2012-) and "Marco Polo" (Netflix, 2014-). Born in Edmonton, Alberta, to Chinese-speaking immigrant parents, Cheng attended her first acting class aged six, and after graduating from NAIT's Radio and Television Arts program, landed her first job as a videographer for Global TV Lethbridge. During her subsequent stints as a broadcast and print journalist back in her hometown, Cheng also began to pursue her acting ambitions, making brief cameos in various TV movies, and following a short-lived foray into presenting on "ET Canada" (Global, 2005-), she landed her first notable role as Ye-Fung in the Emmy-winning western "Broken Trail" (AMC, 2006). Cheng then made one-off appearances in sci-fi drama "The 4400," (USA Network, 2004-07), detective hit "Psych" (USA Network, 2006-2014) and supernatural drama "Blood Ties" (Lifetime, 2007) before portraying the titular late historian in feature-length documentary "Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking" (2007). Following a minor role in Wesley Snipes vehicle "The Art of War II: Betrayal" (2008), Cheng played Det. Liz Alberta in Nora Roberts' crime drama "High Noon," Myrna in revenge thriller "Messages Deleted" (2010) and a reporter in seasonal TV movie "On Strike For Christmas" (2010), while also racking up credits in "Shattered" (Global, 2010), "Fringe" (Fox, 2008-2013) and "Flashpoint" (CTV, 2008-2012). Cheng then added psychological thriller "The House" (2011), action drama "Skye & Chang" (2012) and crime TV movies "Broken Trust" (2012), "A Killer Among Us" (2012) and "Libelle" (2012) to her resume before landing a recurring role as Leviathan Susan in "Supernatural" (The WB, 2005-). After returning to festive fare for "It's Christmas, Carol" (2012) and "Guess Who's Coming To Christmas" (2013), Cheng played a TV host in Uwe Boll's "Assault on Wall Street" (2013), appeared in horror "Embrace of the Vampire" (2013), and portrayed Wally West's girlfriend Linda Park in both "Arrow" (The CW, 2012-) and "The Flash" (The CW, 2014-). In 2014, Cheng landed her most high-profile role when she was cast as Jia Sidao's assassin sister Mei Lin in the lavish historical epic "Marco Polo" (Netflix, 2014-), and in the same year also made appearances in Canadian horror "Deeper" (2014), eco-action thriller "Mission NinetyTwo: Dragonfly" (2014) and crime drama "Stolen From The Womb" (2014).
