Karena was working at her Vancouver family restaurant when she was discovered by a talent scout from Taiwan in 1993, at age fifteen. The scout persuaded her to fly to Taiwan that Christmas, alone, for a singing audition in the hope of securing a professional contract. The audition was a success and she released two albums, her debut album in 1995 and her second album later in 1999. However both were met with modest success. Her film debut in 2002 changed all this and propelled her to real stardom. Karena starred in three successful Hong Kong films in the same year, winning the awards of Best Supporting Actress and Best New Performer for her role in July Rhapsody directed by Ann Hui (at the 2002 Hong Kong Film Awards) and for Inner Senses by Lo Chi Leung (at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards), gaining her recognition as a talented young actress and marking the start of her film career. In recent months she has been taking on much more challenging roles, as witnessed in the 2005 horror film Home Sweet Home, where she plays an insane and horribly deformed "phantom" monster who kidnaps a boy from his genetic mother to claim as its own, and was nominated for major awards again.

Filmography

• 2026Our Child — Madam "Sarah"
• The Season — Fiona Hext
• 2025Beyond the Sin — Bo Kwan
• 2025Worth the Wait — Teresa
• 2024Customs Frontline — Athena Siu
• 2024Daughter's Daughter — Emma
• 2024Tales of Taipei — Yu (segment "Breeder")
• 2023Red Line — Wang Le's wife
• 2023Tales from the Occult: Body and Soul
• 2022Man on the Edge — Mrs Lam
• 2021American Girl — Lily Wang
• 2020Bad Acting
• 2019Integrity — Kong Suet Yee
• 2019Legally Declared Dead — Shum Chi Ling
• 2019The White Storm 2: Drug Lords — Chow Man-fung
• 2017The Liquidator — Wei Wei
• 2016Heaven in the Dark — Michelle
• 2015Dragon Blade
• 2015Keeper of Darkness — Fatt's Mother
• 2015Zinnia Flower — Ming
• Keep Running
• 2010Don Quixote — Sang Cuihua
• 2010Lover's Discourse — Nancy
• 2008Candy Rain — Ricky
• 2008Claustrophobia — Pearl
• 2008Fit Lover — Nie Bing
• 2008Happy Funeral — Karena
• 2007Anna & Anna — Anna / Siyu
• 2007Kidnap — Lam Hiu Yeung
• On the Road (Sr. 1)
• 2006Silk — Wei
• 2005Home Sweet Home — Yim Hung
• 2005It Had To Be You — Jill
• 2005Mob Sister — Nova
• 2004Koma — Suen Ling
• 2004Moon Wall
• 2004Six Strong Guys — 丁丁
• 2004Super Model — Inspector Karena Zhang
• 2003Heroic Duo — Brenda
• 2003The Floating Landscape — Maan
• 2003Truth or Dare : 6th Floor Rear Flat — Karena
• 2002Inner Senses — Cheung Yan
• 2002July Rhapsody — Woo Choy-lam
• 2002Tiramisu — Jane Chan
• 1971

Appearances as themselves (2)

• 2009Let the Wind Carry Me — Self
• Golden Horse Awards — Self