Salute to Rising Stars

It’s that time again to salute those actresses who are on the move, actresses who deserve a little extra attention for their latest work, those actresses who are rising stars. Landing that crucial role in a TV movie or guest appearance in a successful show or film makes all the difference for aspiring actors.

Let’s take a look at the next group of actresses who viewers should keep their eyes on:

Olivia Liang

The twentysomething actress, who is a graduate of the University of California in San Diego, has the lead role of Nicky Shen in the modern reboot of the 1970’s martial arts series Kung Fu on The CW, which debuted on April 7 this year.

In 2016 and 2017, Olivia worked on a few video short projects, including one called Sessions for which she wore several hats as actress, writer, producer and director. Over the last couple years, she has also guest starred in episodes of the remake of One Day at a Time, Grey’s Anatomy and the Hulu original series Into the Dark. Her credits also include a mini-series called Dating After College and the holiday short film Handle with Care. And, then last year she appeared as Alyssa Chang in Legacies before landing her current role in Kung Fu.

In fact, Olivia made a post on Twitter when the new series debuted, sharing that just “two years ago I was a barista, a substitute teacher and working at a spin studio all at once to survive and now I get to be Nicky Shen, and I am just grateful.”

While Olivia has a background in dance, martial arts was a completely new art form for her to learn; and while she has a great stunt double, about 65% of the action scenes are actually Olivia.

One of Olivia’s favorite hobbies is reading, naming “An Absolutely Remarkable Thing” by Hank Green and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho as two of her favorites; and she is known for her self-deprecating sense of humor.

Olivia can be followed on Twitter @olivialiang_ and on Instagram @itmeolive.

Congrats to Kung Fu, which just received a season two renewal. The next new episode of Kung Fu will air on The CW on May 5.

RELATED: A Salute to Rising Stars

Inde Navarrette

Inde is a native of Tucson, Arizona; but since her dad was in the military, she and her family moved around a great deal. The family eventually ended up in Visalia, California, a fairly large city in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley – about 230 miles from San Francisco and 190 miles from Los Angeles. Growing up and living in that area of California afforded Inde knowledge that would come to help her relate to the character, Sarah Cushing, she now plays on the new DC-based drama Superman & Lois, which debuted on the network on February 23 of this year. Sarah is the daughter of Lana Lang (Clark Kent’s high school girlfriend), and love interest to one of Clark and wife Lois’s twin sons. The one thing, however, that living in Visalia didn’t quite prepare Inde for her role was the weather, as the show films in the colder climes of Canada.

This 20-year-old caught the acting bug a few years ago, appearing in a couple of shorts and the Snap Original dark comedy Denton’s Death Date before she landed a role in the 4th season of the Netflix teen thriller 13 Reasons Why. It wasn’t long after that that she landed this polum role in The CW series that stars Tyler Hoechlin as Superman/Clark Kent and Elizabeth Tulloch as Lois Lane.

The next project for Inde will be appearing in an independent movie called Kids of the Black Hole that is currently in pre-production.

Inde can be followed on Twitter @indenavarrette and on Instagram @indenavarrette.

Superman & Lois will be back with new episodes starting on May 18 on The CW.

Jessie Mei Li

The twentysomething actress, who was born to an English mother and a Chinese-born, Hong Kong-raised father, grew up in Surrey, England and later joined the National Youth Theatre before training with the Identity School of Acting.

She is a newcomer to the scene, spending time as a teaching assistant for children with special needs (a job she loved, by the way) before making her stage debut in 2019 in the West End production of All About Eve where she played the role of Claudia Casswell alongside Gillian Anderson (The X-Files and The Crown) and Lily James (Downton Abbey and the box office film Cinderella).

She appeared in a docudrama called Locked Up Abroad and in a few short films before landing her first major TV role, that of lead character Alina Starkov, in the small-screen adaptation of Shadow and Bone – based on the Grishaverse books by Leigh Bardugo – on Netflix, which debuted on April 23 of this year.

Ironically, Jessie devoured the book franchise, finding a deep connection to the character and impressed the powers that be behind the series so much in her audition that her character was made multi-racial (rather than the blonde hair and fair skin for which the character has been depicted in posters and murals).

Jessie’s next project will be the Edgar Wright psychological horror film Last Night in Soho where she will star alongside Anya Taylor-Joy (Queen’s Gambit), Matt Smith (Doctor Who), the legendary Terrence Stamp and the late, great Diana Rigg.

Jessie can be followed on Instagram @jessie_mei_li.

Get over to Netflix now to check out all of the episodes of Shadow and Bone.