Top 10 Foreign Actors in China (2024)

Yuri Khlystov is a Professional Actor, Model, Producer, & Casting Director. Known for Chinese Zodiac (2012), Unstoppable (2018), and Operation Red Sea (2018), he has worked with top Chinese/Hong Kong actors and global movie stars, including Andy Lao, Gong Li, Bo Huang, Xiaoming Huang, Ma Dong-seok, Song Ji-Hyo, Yi Zhang, Lee Jung-jae, and Liam Neeson. In the last decade, Yuri has acted in 20+ movies and worked with China's leading directors and producers like Chen Kaige, Li Jun, Zhang Yimou, and Jackie Chan.

Born in Minsk, Belarus, Yuri moved to Finland at age 18 to study Film and Television and graduated from the University of Helsinki in 2009. He had always been fascinated by the Chinese film industry and Kung-fu and spent his childhood watching Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, and Andy Lao.

With the hopes of experiencing the China film industry and culture first-hand, Yuri traveled to Beijing, China, in 2008, following Beijing Olympics, and moved permanently a year later. In 2010, he entered the Chinese Showbiz industry to realize his lifelong dream and launched his entertainment career. Since then, Yuri has appeared in numerous movies, TV shows, documentaries, commercials, 3D/online games, and animated films and has also been featured on CCTV News and China Radio International (CRI). Fluent in English, Russian, and Chinese (Mandarin), Yuri is a highly versatile actor skilled in Martial Arts and Chinese Kung-Fu. He is also trained in Mixed Martial Arts and Boxing and is an adept swimmer, racer, shooter, and rock climber. Yuri also knows how to ski/snowboard and plays and avidly follows sports like Ping Pong, Karts Racing, Football, Tennis, Volleyball, Basketball, and Badminton. Additionally, he can also dance and knows Yoga.

Following his idols, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Andy Lao, Yuri remains open to different roles and has played diverse characters. He acted as a Russian Mercenary in Chinese Zodiac (2012), British Council Employee in Deng Xiaoping at History's Crossroads (2014), Military Man in Battle for Incheon: Operation Chromite (2016), Wedding Photographer in Bad Daughter (2018), Serviceman in Operation Red Sea (2018), Santa Clause in Begin, Again (2019), Casino Staff Member in Unstoppable (2019), Army Officer in Ocean Rescue (2020), Referee in Leap (2020), Booker's Assistant in Kun Lun Gui (2020), and US Marine Corp Soldier in The Battle at Lake Changjin (2021).

In addition, Yuri has acted in multiple TV series, including Ivy Monsters and The Silicon Wave, and TV commercials for CICC, Foton Motor Corp, Mengniu Dairy, Steakhouse, Dettol, & Visa, portraying a range of characters like engineer, creative designer, and assistant. He has also been featured as an animated character and voiceover artist in 3D/Online games like Cash Frenzy Casino and D-War.

During his career, Yuri has acted in numerous action-thriller and dramas. He is a fitness enthusiast who follows a vigorous lifestyle and works out regularly. And this helped him land roles as a soldier, spy, military man, and mercenary in numerous movies and TV series.

An actor, entertainer, and artist, Yuri is passionate about delivering memorable experiences and is always ready for new challenges. Adamant to grow as an artist and performer, he never limits himself to a genre or style and loves to live beyond his comfort zone. Yuri's latest work includes a stint as a US Army Soldier in the movie The Great War (2023), directed by Kaige Chen, a surgeon in a popular Chinese drama Ta De Sheng Cun Zhi Dao (2023) and is acting alongside Andy Lau, Xuan Huang, and Jason Gu in Mosike xingdong (2023).

Mathieu Jaquet is known for Mad Heidi (2022), Iron Mask (2019) and Vanguard (2020).

Bill Neenan recently returned to Atlanta from Beijing, China, where he worked with both Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige. As an actor he is known particularly for his playing of villainous, stern, and sardonic authority figures - some with redeeming qualities, and some without. He trained in London at Drama Studio and the Central School of Speech and Drama, and has previously worked in both the UK and US.

Zina Blahusova is a Czech actress/ singer/ musician/ artist and animal activist living in Prague -Shanghai-Los Angeles.

She is known for her dramatic and action roles in Khepri Cockroach Tide (2020), Unstoppable (2022), The Monkey is Back (2021), Hostel (2005), Psych Hunter (2020), Fox Hunting (2020) and Moscow Mission (2023).

She can speak English, Chinese, Czech, Japanese and Russian, besides having consistent acting, martial arts, and dance training. She is currently training with The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute online, as well as actively being involved in various Shanghai productions that include theatre plays, variety shows, musical performances, and commercials.

Zina scripts and produces several short videos every week since she has 15 million followers on social media platforms, such as Chinese Tiktok (Douyin), Kwaishou, Red, Weibo, Instagram, YouTube etc.

She plays violin, bass, Chinese instrument Erhu, musical saw, and she sings and writes songs.

Coming from a mother who has had years of classic theatre training and a well received acting career, Zina has inherited only the passion for acting, but also the right attitude and dedication for all the necessary training. Besides her training with the Lee Strasberg technique, she had also trained at Ivana Chubbuck Theatre School, Czech Conservatory of art-Teplice, and with acting coach Zinaida Blagouch Bobricheva.

Instagram: Zinapunx

John F. Cruz is known for The Battle at Lake Changjin (2021), Water Gate Bridge (2022) and Wai jiao feng yun (2019).

Steven Dasz was born in 1977 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He started Tae Kwoon Do training when he was ten years old and soon after joined tournaments. In 1992 Steven initiated his training in Japanese martial arts "Ninjitsu" and "Aikido" and participated in competitive gymnastics. Two years after, Steven joined the competitive gymnastics team for the River Plate Athletic Sports club. In 1996 Mr. Dasz travelled to Sao Paulo, Brazil in order to train Ving Tsun Kung Fu directly from the master Leo Imamura which was followed by subsequent trips to Brazil for further training. Steven also trained in Capoeira and at the same time kept in touch with different masters. In 2004, he played the main role in the short action film "The Contact." He also directed the action scenes, choreographed the fights, and co-edited the film entirely. Afterwards, Steven wrote, directed and starred in the short "Evolucion". He then played a Ninja in the short film "The New Guy" which had the honor of being screened in the Egyptian Theatre of Hollywood. Steven also participated in the film of Pedro Jaen "Tras los Pasos Del Bandolero" as the Kung Fu Intructor in October of 2009.

Gustavo Andres Rilo Lacquaniti was born on May 29th, 1977 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Going by the name Andrew Dasz, he began training in Tae Kwon Do (ITF) at the age of 10 after being inspired by watching Chuck Norris on TV. His studies continued on in 1993, where he practiced Ving Tsun Kung Fu and Hung Gar.

In the same year, Andrew began working as a model for martial-arts related mediums. This created an interest in working with cameras as well as other types of media.

In 1997, Andrew moved to São Paulo, Brasil, and continued training Ving Tsun Kung Fu under Master Leo Imamura, at Moy Yat Ving Tsun Martial Intelligence.

Dasz moved to Madrid, Spain, in 2005 to work with his twin bother at a fight choreographer's group. He also began taking acting and modeling courses the following year to expand on his abilities both on and off the screen. Using the skills that he had acquired over the years, Andrew was able to become a fight choreographer, traveling around the world and doing what he loved.

Since then, Dasz has trained several actors while appearing in several films himself. He currently lives in Hong Kong where he is a personal trainer as well as martial arts instructor, where he teaches various martial arts to eager students each day of the week.

Andrew has trained in Tae Kwon Do, Ving Tsun Kung Fu, Hung Kuen, Lion Dance, Aikido, Kick Boxing, Muay Thai and Boxing. He also studied the Frank Dux System of stretching and can speak Spanish, Portugese, English and basic Chinese. He hopes to continue working in the film industry to hone his skills and create more of his own project, including a sequel to his film Stunt Games.

Matias Lorieri was born in Treviso, Italy. He is a polyglot actor and freelance Business Strategy Consultant with focus on the movie/entertainment & consumer goods sectors. Matias is perfectly trilingual in Italian, German, English and speaks fluent French, upper intermediate Mandarin Chinese and basic Spanish. He can also learn lines in Cantonese.

Matias earned an MBA with distinction from HKU in November 2019, focusing his capstone project on recalibrating the growth strategy of Netflix & his electives on business strategy of movie companies/OTT platforms. The choice to focus his MBA studies on the entertainment sector was due to both his academic interest in OTT platform business models and lifelong passion for movies (Matias is an avid film collector, in particular Hong Kong/Asian cinema, and owns a DVD/Blu-Ray library of 900+ titles). As a consequence, Matias focused his post-MBA efforts on the film sector in Mainland China, a country he has been living in for over 13 years. He gained insight into China's film production sector via a Project Management/Action team Member experience (1 of 80 selected of more than 800) for Bona Film Group's "The Battle at Lake Changjin" & "The Battle at Lake Changjin II: Watergate Bridge", China's biggest epic productions so far with over 7000 people involved in the production. During the shooting, Matias was also cast for a two-minute one-on-one scene with Chinese Superstar Jackson Yee (Better Days, 2019 & Full River Red, 2023). Subsequently Matias was cast as a Special Feature in "The Wandering Earth II" (2022) & Chen Kaige's "The Volunteers: to the War" (2023).

When he's not involved in actual productions, he's busy with his consulting work. Matias advised a leading Asian entertainment company that creates and distributes branded pay-TV channels on IP/content development & production.

Matias is committed to further developing his expertise in the film industry and is actively exploring opportunities both in front of and behind the camera. He is particularly interested in roles that leverage his globally acquired transferable skills in business strategy, project management, foreign languages, and his exceptional international versatility and cross-cultural awareness. In line with these aspirations, he co-founded Lucar Asia Films in Hong Kong in 2024, partnering with his friend, actor Gianluca Zoppa.

James Filbird was born in San Diego, California. He grew up in Orange County, where he lived most of his adult life in California. Filbird attended Orange Coast College and obtained a degree in International Business. With over 30 years of experience in marketing and business development. Filbird is passionate about business development, creative projects, health, fitness, and living a fulfilled life.

By 2000 Filbird set out on a journey to makeover his lifestyle by visiting China in 2002 for a business trip-cation. Again in 2004, he traveled to China, thus sealing his desire to move to China. By 2006, Filbird packed his bags flying onto a whirlwind journey of over 7,000 miles to Shenzhen, China. His quest to experience a new culture, expand his horizons, where he'd ultimately seek out a purposeful life he loved. Filbird traveled to every major city in China, where he intimately experienced the country, its people, and his appreciation for the Chinese culture.

Filbird has 25 years of experience as a; model, actor, public speaker, and serial entrepreneur. Professionally, he has been a financial advisor for retired investors. He founded the first virtual pet adoption toy company. He co-founded Turing Robotics Industries, integrative blockchain technology into a smartphone operating system. The former co-founder of VapeEze Inc, an American premium e-cigarette company. Filbird is the CMO of DDEX, a DAO Decentralized Exchange, a cryptocurrency project based in Malaysia.

Filbird's philosophy resonates with the Ancient Chinese proverb, "opportunities don't just happen, you create them." Taking this to heart, that is what Filbird did. He manifested stardom in entertainment when he got a supporting role as General Douglas MacArthur in the blockbuster Battle at Lake Changjin. The biggest-budgeted Chinese film ever made, boasting a production budget of $200 million, is heading to the 2021 Cannes Marche du Film, due out August 2021. The film is a Korean War epic is co-directed by A-list Chinese filmmakers Chen Kaige, Hark Tsui, and Dante Lam. The film's leading actors, Wu Jing of Wolf Warrior 2 Fame, and Jackson Yee of the Oscar-nominated, Better Days.

What we know is Filbird has spread his wings soaring higher to new heights! The word is he landed a lead role in a sequel to the blockbuster film Wandering Earth, filming set to begin October 2021.

AJ Donnelly is a British host, voice artist and actor known for bringing complex, authentic characters to life on stage and screen.

Originally from Bedford in the UK, AJ discovered his love of performing at age 7, appearing in multiple school and community drama productions throughout his childhood and coming to discover his love of physical comedy with community theatre troupe Bedford Marionettes. After taking a break from acting to pursue new opportunities in China, AJ returned to the stage in 2011 with Beijing Playhouse, reigniting his passion for performance while also launching a successful career in film and TV.

Over the past 10 years, AJ, known in China as Anzhen (translated as 'Dark Truth'), has worked on over 40 productions, including stage, TV and feature films, collaborating with award-winning directors such as Zhang Yimou & Zhang Mo (playing Captain Williams in 'Snipers'), Li Shaohong (as drug cartel leader Andy in 'Hunting'), and Andrew Lau (appearing in 'The Battle of Shangganling' and 'The Dumpling Queen').

Most recently, AJ has worked with internationally renowned director Jiang Wen on his new movie 'Let the Music Fly' (portraying eccentric conductor Allenburg) and with record-breaking directors Chen Sicheng and Dai Mo on the latest entry in their hit 'Detective Chinatown' franchise (as Thomas Lewis in 'Detective Chinatown: 1900').

While most commonly cast as villainous or angry characters, AJ has showcased his diverse talents as a character actor in a wide range of roles across the full spectrum of genres, from dark dramas to light-hearted comedies, bringing his unique acting and improvisational skills to every project he has worked on.

Outside of acting, AJ is passionate about connecting with audiences through social media, often sharing unique insights into Chinese life, culture and tourism destinations through his online channels.

Whether on-screen, on-stage, online or in person, AJ is committed to pushing creative and personal boundaries and is always on the lookout for opportunities to portray characters, especially comedic, that challenge, entertain and inspire.