Wu Yi Fan, known professionally as Kris Wu, is a Chinese-Canadian actor, singer, and model. He was born as Li Jia Heng in Guangzhou, Guangdong, but later legally changed his name to Wu Yi Fan. He moved to Canada at the age of 10 and came back at 18. He holds dual citizenship and speaks fluent Cantonese, Mandarin, English, and Korean.
After returning to China at 14, he briefly attended Guangzhou No.7 Middle School. During his studies, he served as a captain of the school basketball team and was a part of the team that won 1st place in the China Junior NBA tournament-South China Region that year. He returned to Canada and graduated from Point Grey Secondary School and Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School.
At 18, he auditioned for S.M. Entertainment’s Global Auditions and passed, becoming a trainee and debuting as the eleventh member of the group in 2013. He left a year later after filing a lawsuit against SM to terminate his contract. A settlement was reached with SM agreeing that he will be under their management in only Korea and Japan.
Between 2014-2016, Kris continued as a solo artist, and made his film debut in Xu Jing Lei’s film “Somewhere Only We Know”. After his success in China, Kris made his Hollywood debut with D. J. Caruso’s 2017 film, “XXX: Return of Xander Cage”. Forbes listed Wu in their “30 Under 30 Asia” 2017 list of most influential people.
On July 31, 2021, Kris Wu was detained by Beijing police on rape allegations and was officially arrested on August 16, 2021. If convicted, Kris may face a ban and deportation. Several brands have dropped Wu from their contracts and social media platforms removed his accounts.
