Li Bingbing

Li Bingbing was born to a workers' family in a small town of Wuchang, Heilongjiang, China. She has a younger sister Li Xue. At 16, she enrolled in a secondary specialized school, Jixi Normal School (now Heilongjiang University Of Technology). Upon graduation in 1992, she became a probationary music teacher at an elementary school in Harbin for one year. In 1993, she enrolled in the Shanghai Theatre Academy to study acting.

Li gained critical acclaim for her role in Zhang Yuan's Seventeen Years (1999), for which she and Liu Lin shared the Best Actress Award at the 13th Singapore International Film Festival. However, the film went unnoticed in China due to a domestic ban. In 2001, Li gained attention for starring in the popular television series Young Justice Bao. She followed with a number of wuxia television series, such as Taiji Prodigy and Eight Heroes, earning her a label of "action actress."

In 2004, Li achieved breakthrough with her performance in Feng Xiaogang's A World Without Thieves, for which she received a nomination of Best Supporting Actress at the Hundred Flowers Awards. She then starred in Dayyan Eng's romantic comedy film Waiting Alone, for which she received her first Best Actress nomination at the Golden Rooster Awards. In the same year, her sister, Li Xue, became her manager.

In 2009, Li won Best Actress at the 46th Golden Horse Film Awards for her performance in The Message. Li then starred in Tsui Hark's 2010 action-mystery film Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame. She played Shangguan Jing'er, a fictional character based on Shangguan Wan'er, a prestigious politician during the Tang Dynasty. She, along with other partners including Li Xue, established a studio Hesong Entertainment in the same year, co-starring and co-producing the film 1911 with Jackie Chan, which was released in September 2011 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution.