Zine Tseng

Tseng was born in 1993 or 1994 in the Tamsui District of New Taipei City, Taiwan, to a Taiwanese father and Hunanese mother.^[1][2] She began practicing martial arts at a young age due to the influence of her grandfather, including learning Northern Praying Mantis and nunchucks.^[3] She split her childhood time between Taiwan and China,^[2] and later moved to the United States, where she completed high school.^[4] Tseng continued her studies at the USC School of Dramatic Arts in 2013 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in theater.^[5][6] From 2017 to 2019, she starred in David Henry Hwang's play Chinglish on the invitation of a friend, which sparked her interest in acting.^[2] Instead of returning to Taiwan to start a cafe in Taitung City as initially planned, she enrolled at USC again to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in acting and intended to pursue a career in stage performances.^[2][4] However, Tseng deferred her studies for a year in 2021 due to COVID-19; she ultimately quit the program in her second year when she was cast in 3 Body Problem.^[4]

Tseng made her onscreen acting debut with the Netflix sci-fi series 3 Body Problem, adapted from the Chinese novel of the same name.^[4] She shared a main role with Rosalind Chao, portraying the younger version of Ye Wenjie, a Chinese astrophysicist who contacted extraterrestrial beings during the Cultural Revolution.^[7][8] While still enrolled at USC in 2021, Tseng was invited by a classmate who majored in directing to audition for the role, and she was selected by director Derek Tsang from a pool of 3,000 contestants.^[2][4] She was required to move to London for an eight-month shoot, leading her to discontinue her master's studies.^[2][9] Her performance was critically acclaimed, with Palmer Haasch of Business Insider calling it "a brilliant debut performance" and Therese Lacson of Collider describing it as "magnificent",^[10][11] and it earned her Outstanding Performance in a Drama Series at the 1st Gotham TV Awards.^[12]

Tseng signed with Artist International Group in August 2023.^[13] In 2024, Tseng was cast in a lead role as Princess Gulun Shou'an, a Chinese scholar and martial artist, in Guy Ritchie's Amazon Prime Video series Young Sherlock.^[14][15]

After the filming of 3 Body Problem, Tseng returned to Taiwan and is currently residing in the mountain regions of Tamsui.^[4]