Regina Lei

Lei was born in 2000 in Puli, Nantou, Taiwan,^[1] and grew up with a younger brother.^[2] She studied at a Buddhist school,^[3] and was a member of her high school cheerleading team.^[4] She later pursued applied Japanese at Kainan University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 2022.^[5][6] In her freshman year, a friend of her mother who worked as a talent agent encouraged Lei to film an audition tape, leading to her casting as an advertisement model.^[7] She began working part-time in advertising in 2018,^[8] and accumulated around 40 advertisements over the next three years.^[7] She also started filming music videos, which she found enjoyable and sparked her interest in acting.^[9]

Lei decided to pursue an acting career after graduating from university,^[10] and made her debut in the horror anthology series 76 Horror Bookstore [zh].^[11] She then made her feature film debut as the female lead,^[12] Kat, alongside Berant Zhu's character Jim, a couple trying to reconnect during a zombie apocalypse, in Rob Jabbaz's zombie film The Sadness.^[13] Han Cheung of Taipei Times praised her for doing a "satisfactory job" for a debut;^[14] while Jasneet Singh of Collider commended Lei's "emotional performances" that evoke sympathy from the audience as they "witness the ordeal through [her character's] eyes".^[15] She also appeared as the younger version of Christina Mok [zh]'s character in the SET series Love is Science? [zh].^[16] She was named Top Talent by Taipei Film Festival in 2022.^[17]

In 2023, Lei delivered a breakout performance in her starring role as Leena, an Indonesian caretaker appointed as a court translator for a fellow Indonesian accused of murder in the PTS series Port of Lies [zh].^[18][19] She was cast three weeks before filming after the original Indonesian actress was unable to travel to Taiwan due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Lei secured the role by auditioning while wearing a hijab.^[11] To prepare for her character, Lei learned Indonesian, Javanese, and Arabic,^[20] and practiced Muslim customs for a short period.^[21] Lu Hao-ping of Global Views Monthly described her acting as "perfect", making her "seem like an Indonesian migrant herself";^[22] while The Storm Media ranked her performance as the second best among the ensemble cast based on audience responses.^[23] She was also nominated for Best Leading Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film in the 59th Golden Bell Awards with the role.^[24] The same year, she landed another starring role as Wang Yu-fan, a girl loved by Huang Kuan-chih [zh]'s character who seeks sorcery to win her affection, in the horror film Antikalpa [zh].^[25]

In 2024, Lei made a cameo appearance as a sky lantern saleswoman in the fourth season of the Japanese TV Tokyo series Recommendations for Solo Live Girls [ja], which was filmed in Taiwan.^[26] She starred in a leading role in the Taiwanese-Indian comedy film Demon Hunters,^[27] and made her Korean debut with the U+ Mobile TV series Twelve.^[28][29] Lei studied Korean for a year and participated in auditions in South Korea to secure the role.^[30] Lei also would be starring in a romantic action film Wanted alongside Shin Hyun-joon.^[31]