Cathryn Lee

Lee was born on 17 July 1989 in Malaysia into a wealthy family.^[a][2] Her mother was a former Miss World Malaysia champion.^[3] At the age of 8, she began learning the piano and ballet.^[4] After completing high school at 17, Lee enrolled at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire to study classical piano and later obtained a Bachelor of Music.^[4][5] In 2007, she achieved a Licentiate in Piano Solo from Trinity College London,^[6][7] and was mentored by Chinese pianist Li Yundi in Munich, Germany, during several summers.^[4] In 2010, while performing at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, she caught the attention of Fan Bingbing's agent, who offered her a contract with GME [zh] as an artist.^[4][5]

Lee made her acting debut in 2012, starring in the lead role of the drama film My Dog Dou Dou.^[8] In 2014, she was cast as Jing Jing, a lead role and the younger half-sister with a strained relationship with Nick Cheung's character, in the Hong Kong-Malaysian horror film Hungry Ghost Ritual and garnered public recognition.^[9][10] She also took on lead roles in the 2016 Hong Kong action comedy film Special Female Force and the 2017 legal thriller series Legal Eagles.^[11][12] Subsequently, she focused on her career as pianist and media personality.^[13][14] In 2021, Lee received significant public backlash after making comments on women's physique in an Instagram story that were widely perceived as body-shaming. She was forced to apologize and temporarily deactivated her social media accounts.^[7][15]