Wu Jinyan

Wu Jinyan is a Chinese actress born on August 16, 1990. She is best known for her roles in television series including Beauties at the Crossfire, Story of Yanxi Palace, The Legend of Haolan, and The Double.

Wu was born in Chengdu, Sichuan, and began studying ballet at the age of three. In 2000, she moved from her hometown to train at the Dance School Affiliated to Beijing Dance Academy to become a professional ballerina. After seven years of boarding school, she joined the National Ballet of China, where she suffered repeated foot fractures that eventually led her to change career paths. In 2009, she entered the Beijing Film Academy to major in acting. Earlier during her time at the affiliated school, she was offered an acting opportunity but declined because the role required shaving her head, which would have affected her dance presentation.

Wu began her acting career during her sophomore year of college by filming an unaired time-travel television series. In 2011, she signed with Zijun Entertainment to secure more acting roles. She played a dual role in the 2013 period political drama Beauties at the Crossfire, which achieved the highest ratings of the year for Anhui TV and earned her a nomination for Most Popular Actress at the Shanghai Television Festival. In 2015, she appeared opposite Feng Xiaogang as a college student begging for money in Guan Hu's crime film Mr. Six. While shooting Waitan Zhong Sheng in 2016, she met screenwriter and producer Yu Zheng, after which she joined Huanyu Entertainment and was cast in the lead role of the historical drama Zhaoge.

In 2018, Wu starred as Wei Yingluo in the historical drama Story of Yanxi Palace. The show attained widespread popularity across China and Asia, accumulated over 15 billion streams, and became the most Googled show of 2018, bringing Wu increased attention. She achieved further prominence in 2019 by playing Li Haolan / Zhao Ji in the historical fiction series The Legend of Haolan.

Wu joined the cast of the Zhejiang Television variety show Youth Periplous in 2019 and portrayed a scriptwriter in the Hunan Television suspense romance drama You Are My Answer. That year, she placed 65th on the Forbes China Celebrity 100 list and was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 China list. On January 1, 2020, she starred in her first music video for JJ Lin's song The Story of Us, following an invitation from the singer. Around that time, she reprised her role as consort Wei Yingluo in the Netflix spin-off Yanxi Palace: Princess Adventures.

Wu was cast in the 1920s-set period drama series Legacy for HBO Go, depicting three sisters vying to inherit their family's shopping mall business. In her personal life, Wu posted a marriage registration photo on Weibo with actor Hong Yao on September 13, 2024.