Sharla Cheung Man is of Shanghainese origin. She was discovered by Jing Wong, who cast her in many of his productions in the early 1990s. After appearing in Dou san (1989), Cheung was propelled to stardom for her role in the Stephen Chow smash hit Dou sing (1990). She soon became a highly popular Hong Kong actress and immediately found herself working almost non-stop.
"All for the Winner" also launched Stephen Chow's career, and the two were subsequently paired in many early 90's comedies, in which Cheung usually starred as Chow's love interest. Her pairings with Stephen Chow were huge box office hits such as Dou hap (1991), the To hok wai lung (1991) trilogy, Royal Tramp (1992), and Mo jong yuen So Hat-Yi (1992). They teamed up for about 10 films, however their collaboration came to an end in 1994 with Gau ban ji ma goon ji baak min bau ching tin (1994). Another frequent co-star was Andy Lau, alongside whom she appeared in such films as Dou san (1989), Dou hap (1991), Yu long gong wu (1991), the Ng yi taam jeung: Lui Lok juen (1991) trilogy, and Jue dai shuang jiao (1992).
Cheung is known for the many fantasy/martial arts films she's starred in, that include several adaptations of Louis Cha's novels, such as King Hu's Xiao ao jiang hu (1990) (as Ren Yingying, the beautiful Sacred Maiden of the Sun-Moon Sect), Royal Tramp (1992) (as the Divine Lady of the Dragon Sect posing as the Empress Dowager), Evil Cult (1993) (opposite Jet Li, as a beautiful and mysterious Mongolian princess), Xin bi xue jian (1993) (opposite Biao Yuen, as a princess posing as a thief), Fei hu wai zhuan (1993) (alongside Leon Lai), and Xin tian long ba bu zhi tian shan tong lao (1994) (as a semi-godess, alongside Brigitte Lin and Li Gong). Other notable roles include Wu xia qi gong zhu (1993) (as a spider ninja, along with Michelle Yeoh and Maggie Cheung), Flying Dagger (1993) (as 'Tony Leung Ka Fai''s rival), Siu hap Cho Lau Heung (1993) (along with Aaron Kwok), and the "Wong Fei Hung" serial's parody Les griffes d'acier (1993) (as Jet Li's love interest).
After an impressive body of work in the early 1990s (she starred in about 50 films between 1990 and 1995), Sharla Cheung moved into producing in 1995 with Yi qian ling yi ye zhi meng zhong ren (1995), which starred 'Tony Leung Ka Fai' and Chien-Lien Wu. However, she was unhappy with it and remade the film as Zhui nui zi 95: Zhi qi meng (1995). The films were commercial failures, and Cheung subsequently retired from the film industry to focus on various business interests.
In the early 2000s, Cheung made a comeback in acting with Liang ge du li bao zhuang de nu ren (2003), a modern urban drama about women facing difficult romantic choices. She also turned to television and portrayed Diao Chan, one of the Four Beauties of ancient China in Diao Chan (2002), opposite Ray Lui. She subsequently starred in such TV shows as Feng man lou (2005) alongside Nicky Wu, and Fan fu da yuan (2006) along with Honglei Sun.
