Jessie Mei Li

Jessica Mei Li (born 27 August 1995) is an English actress. She stars as Alina Starkov in the Netflix fantasy series Shadow and Bone. She also appeared in the 2019 production of All About Eve and will appear in Edgar Wright's upcoming film Last Night in Soho. 2Early life and education Li was born in Brighton, East Sussex to an English mother, who is a nurse, and a Chinese father who was born in mainland China and raised in Hong Kong. She grew up in Redhill, Surrey and has an older brother who is a doctor in the NHS. On growing up in a predominantly white area in the south of England, Li commented that "racism towards Asian people in the U.K. [...] is so weird and not taken seriously." Li stated that during childhood, people were "outright racist and mocking" towards her.Li attended Reigate College from 2010 to 2012. She began studying French and Spanish at the University of Sussex, but eventually dropped out. For nearly two years, Li worked as a teaching assistant for children with special needs at a local secondary school.Li joined the National Youth Theatre in 2015 and trained part-time at Identity School of Acting from 2016 to 2017. 2Career Li made her professional stage debut in February 2019 playing the role of Claudia Casswell in All About Eve at Noel Coward Theatre, directed and adapted for the stage by Ivo van Hove, alongside Gillian Anderson and Lily James. The production was broadcast live internationally via National Theatre Live on 11 April 2019.In October 2019, it was announced Li would star in the lead role of Alina Starkov in the 2021 Netflix series Shadow and Bone, an adaptation of Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse fantasy book series Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows. Bardugo voiced support for Li's casting, saying, "In many ways, Jessie is the person Alina grows into―confident, joyful, brav