Ning Hao was born in the province of Shanxi in China in 1977. He graduated in directing from the Beijing Film Academy. In 2003, his debut feature film Incense had its world premiere at Locarno where it received awards and praise, as did his following film, Mongolian Ping-pong, presented at the Berlinale in 2005, where it won the Audience Award. He then made some box-office hits in China such as the comedies Crazy Racer (2009), No Man’s Land (2013) and Breakup Buddies(2014).