Yang Yang (actor)

Yang Yang (, born September 9, 1991) is a Chinese actor. He made his acting debut in the Chinese television drama The Dream of Red Mansions (2010). Since then, he has received recognition for his roles in television dramas The Lost Tomb (2015), The Whirlwind Girl (2015), Love O2O (2016), Martial Universe (2018), The King's Avatar (2019), You Are My Glory (2021), Glory of Special Forces (2022), Who Rules The World (2022), Fireworks of My Heart (2023) and films The Left Ear (2015), I Belonged to You (2016), Once Upon a Time (2017), Vanguard (2020).

He was ranked 5th on the 2017 Forbes China Celebrity 100 list, 27th in 2019 and 44th in 2020. He was China's first Olympic flame torch bearer for the Rio Olympic Games in Greece, on April 22, 2016. He also became the first artist to be featured on the China Post postage stamp in January 2016.

Early life
At the young age of 12, Yang was enrolled in the Department of Dance in People's Liberation Army Arts College in China. He also studied at the Central Academy of Drama for a period of time.

2007–2014: Beginning
In December 2007, he was chosen to play the lead role Jia Baoyu by director Li Shaohong in The Dream of Red Mansions. One of the most expensive Chinese TV series produced at RMB118 million (US$17.55 million), the 50-episode drama premiered on July 6, 2010.

In 2011, Yang featured in The Founding of a Party, a patriotic tribute detailing the process of establishing the Chinese Communist Party. He continued to build up his filmography, featuring in war dramas The War Doesn't Believe in Tears (2012) and Ultimate Conquest (2013), and romance series Flowers of Pinellia Ternata (2013). On April 29, 2014, Yang ended his contract of 7 years with his company Rosat Entertainment.

2015–2016: Rising popularity and breakthrough
In 2015, Yang started to gain recognition for his performance in The Left Ear, a coming-of-age film which is also the directorial debut of Alec Su. The film was a box-office hit, and Yang received positive for his performance as Xu Yi. He then participated in travel-reality show Divas Hit the Road, which was a huge topic online when it aired and helped Yang top the "2015 Chinese Reality Show Star Ranking". He next starred in action-adventure web-drama The Lost Tomb based on the novel of the same name. The Lost Tomb was the most watched web drama of the year, and Yang gained acclaim from novel fans and audience for his portrayal of Zhang Qiling. Yang then played the male lead in youth sports drama The Whirlwind Girl, which gained one of the highest viewership ratings of the year. He also released his first single, "Tender Love". At the end of the year, Yang won several awards including the Most Popular Actor of the Year at iQiyi All-Star Carnival; and the Most Talked About Actor and Most Influential Actor awards at the China TV Drama Awards.

In 2016, Yang appeared in CCTV New Year's Gala for the first time, where his song item "Father and Son" alongside Tong Tiexin was voted the most popular program. He starred in youth romance drama Love O2O, based on Gu Man's novel of the same name. The drama was an international hit, and is the most viewed modern drama in China. Following the airing of Love O2O, Yang experienced a huge surge in popularity and successfully broke into the mainstream. To thank his fans, Yang released the song "Love is Crazy", a jazz/rock single. He next starred in romance film I Belonged to You, which was a huge success and broke the box-office sales record for mainland-produced romance films. He was named as one of the Top 10 Chinese celebrities with most commercial value by CBN Weekly.

2017–present: Continued success
In 2017, Yang starred alongside Liu Yifei in fantasy romance film Once Upon a Time. Forbes China listed Yang under their 30 Under 30 Asia 2017 list which consisted of 30 influential people under 30 years old who have had a substantial effect in their fields. In 2018, Yang starred in the fantasy action drama Martial Universe. In 2019, Yang played the leading role Ye Xiu in the eSports drama The King's Avatar. The series The King’s Avatar was reported as the most profitable series by Tencent in 2019. In 2020, Yang starred in action film Vanguard alongside Jackie Chan. In 2021, Yang was cast in You Are My Glory as Yu Tu, an aerospace engineer. As a much-anticipated drama due to popularity of its original work (novel of the same name), this show has successfully gathered a total of 5 billion views worldwide. This show also won the Tencent Business Breakthrough award in 2021.

In 2022, a drama based on military genre, Glory of the Special Forces (directed by Xu Jizhou) cast him as the lead role Yan Poyue. The series Glory of the Special Forces contributed to a market share of 34.11% and with the highest overall rating of 1.006% in recent years for any military series. In the same year, Yang starred in the wuxia fantasy romance drama titled Who Rules the World as Feng Lanxi, based on the novel by Qing Lengyue. The only foreign show to rank 4th in Netflix Korea's Top 10 Most viewed series on July 24, 2022. In 2023, Yang starred in the action romance drama Fireworks of My Heart adapted from the web novel Waiting for You in a City by Jiu Yue Xi. He played the lead role as Song Yan, Chief of the Shilitai Fire Station.

Other activities
On February 19, 2017, Yang had his wax figure displayed at Madam Tussauds Shanghai. His second wax figure was displayed at Madame Tussauds Beijing on July 19, 2017.

Endorsements
Yang Yang has 20 active endorsements as of January 2024.