Jessie Mei Li

Biography

Jessie Mei Li (born Jessica Mei Li on August 27, 1995) is an English actress who has quickly risen to prominence, particularly in the realm of fantasy and action productions.

🌟 Biography and Early Life

Born in Brighton, East Sussex, England, Li grew up in Redhill, Surrey, with an older brother. She is of mixed heritage, with an English mother and a Chinese father who was raised in Hong Kong. Li briefly studied French and Spanish at the University of Sussex before leaving. Before her acting breakthrough, she worked as a teaching assistant for children with special needs at a secondary school for nearly two years. She furthered her acting training by joining the National Youth Theatre in 2015 and later training part-time at the Identity School of Acting.

🎭 Breakthrough and Career

Li's career began on the stage, making her professional debut in 2019 as Claudia Casswell in the production of All About Eve at the Noël Coward Theatre, where she performed alongside Gillian Anderson and Lily James.

Her breakout role came in 2021 when she was cast as the lead character and protagonist, Alina Starkov, in the Netflix fantasy series Shadow and Bone, based on Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse novels. Her portrayal of the Sun Summoner, a character of mixed racial and ethnic heritage, earned her global recognition.

Other notable screen credits include:

Film: Playing Lara in Edgar Wright's psychological horror film Last Night in Soho (2021) and the role of Ellie in the 2025 Netflix action thriller Havoc, directed by Gareth Evans and starring Tom Hardy.

Television: Appearing in the docuseries Locked Up Abroad and the series Strangers.

In addition to her professional life, Li has been open about her diagnosis of ADHD as an adult and her use of she/her and they/them pronouns, identifying as gender nonconforming. She has also spoken about the importance of nuanced representation for East Asian and biracial individuals in media.