Zhou Dongyu, born in 1992 in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, is an actress from Chinese mainland that graduated from the Beijing Film Academy.
　　She rose to stardom for the leading role in the Under the Hawthorn Tree directed by Zhang Yimou in 2010, and won the Outstanding New Actress at the 14th Huabiao Film Awards. She was named the Favorite Actress at the 15th Chinese Film Media Awards for the film My Old Classmate in 2014. Zhou starred in the SoulMate, and won the Best Actress at the 23rd Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards and 2nd BRICS Film Festival among other awards in 2016. She was named the Best Actress at the 8th Macau International Movie Festival for the romance Never Said Goodbye in the same year. She won the Best Actress at the 9th China Film Directors’ Guild for the film This Is Not What I Expected in 2017. She was nominated for the Best Actress at the 32nd Golden Rooster Awards for the film Us and Them in 2018. She played a leading role in the Better Days, and won the Best Actress at the 33rd Golden Rooster Awards, 39th Hong Kong Film Awards, 35th People’s Hundred Flowers Awards and 11th China Film Directors’ Guild among other awards in 2019.
　　She was appointed a jury member of the Golden Goblet Awards — the Main Competition Section at the 24th Shanghai International Film Festival in 2021