Who Is Jessie Mei Li? Facts About Shadow and Bone Star

Who Is Jessie Mei Li? Here's What You Need to Know About the Shadow and Bone Star

Apr 21 2021 by Navi Ahluwalia

Everyone's talking about Jessie Mei Li right now, and it's for a good reason. She's the star of Netflix's latest book-to-TV adaptation, Shadow and Bone, which is set for release on 23 April. The show is based on a series of Grishaverse novels written by author Leigh Bardugo, and it covers themes like friendship, sexuality, and race. Li plays the character of Alina Starkov, a "sun summoner" who is one of the most powerful beings that ever lived.

In a roundtable interview, the actor told POPSUGAR that her lived experience helped to inform her role as Alina. "[Alina] wants to save the world to validate herself as a member of this nation. It really felt true to my life. As a mixed-race person, it's part of who I am. It shaped who I am. It shapes my personality, but it's not everything that I am. I think that's what they've done in this show, and I really, really like that."

Read on to discover all there is to know about Jessie Mei Li.

Image Source: Netflix

She Was Born in Brighton

Jessie Mei Li is an English actor, and she was born in Brighton in 1995. She grew up in Redhill in Surrey and went on to attend Reigate College before attending university. Since dropping out, Li has gone on to pursue a career in acting that's led her to joining the cast of Shadow and Bone, playing Alina Starkov.

She Worked as a Teaching Assistant Before Becoming an Actor

After leaving university, Li began to spend her days teaching special needs children. In a roundtable interview, the actor told POPSUGAR that she'd been well aware of the Shadow and Bone franchise before joining the cast, thanks to her students. "Before becoming an actor, I dropped out of university, and I was working as a teaching assistant in a secondary school. This was the age group that Shadow and Bone is very popular with, and I remember lots of my students reading the books."

She Joined the National Youth Theatre in 2015

During her acting (and teaching) career, Li joined the National Youth Theatre in 2015, before beginning to train part-time with Identity School of Acting in 2016 for a year. Li initially began studying languages at university, but dropped out to pursue her love of acting.

Fun fact: Helen Mirren, Rosamund Pike, and Daniel Craig also attended NYT in the past!

Her Stage Debut Involved Working With Gillian Anderson and Lily James

Shadow and Bone is actually not Li's first acting role. Back in 2019, the actor played Claudia Casswell in a production of All About Eve at the Noël Coward Theatre in London. She starred alongside Sex Education's Gillian Anderson and Mamma Mia's Lily James, which is not bad for a first gig if you ask us!

Image Source: Netflix

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She'll Soon Star in Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho

Li is set to play the character of Lara Chung in Edgar Wright's upcoming psychological thriller, Last Night in Soho. She'll be starring alongside The Queen's Gambit's Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, and Diana Rigg (who died in September 2020, shortly after filming).

The film was initially set to air earlier this year, but Wright recently confirmed that as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the release date has been pushed back to October.

She's Open About Her ADHD Diagnosis

Li recently shared a post on her Instagram reflecting on Neurodiversity day. The actor explained that she was diagnosed with ADHD at age 24, and that the diagnosis "answered many life long questions, and I feel like I'm finally understanding myself".

She also recently spoke about her experience in an interview with The Guardian, explaining that "[the diagnosis] completely changed how I viewed loads of things in my life, and made me really reconsider the way I think about things. In the past I was constantly late for things and forgetting things and losing things, and I remember as a teenager, my mum being like, 'Oh, you just need to be more careful.' And I'm like, 'I am really careful'. I felt like no one believed me ever. People, especially people who've just been diagnosed, go through a grieving period for who they were before. I'd love to be someone they can look at and say, 'OK, that person has been through that as well.'"