Yang Zi: The Life Story Behind China's Popular Star
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Yang Zi grew up in front of China. That is not a figure of speech. She was a child on television, a teenager on television, and then a young woman on television, and millions of people watched her grow up, year by year, as if she were a neighbour’s daughter. They first knew her as Xia Xue, the clever and lively girl in Home with Kids, a family comedy that played in homes across the country. Then they watched her struggle, as many child stars do, to be seen as an adult. Then they watched her succeed, in Ode to Joy, in Ashes of Love, in Go Go Squid, and in Lost You Forever, until she became one of the most popular actresses of her generation. Her story is about growing up in public, and about the hard work it takes to turn a childhood fame into an adult career.
She was born in Beijing in 1992, and she began acting as a child, when most children are still learning to read. Her parents supported her, and she learned the job early: how to hit a mark, how to remember lines, how to cry on cue, how to be cheerful when she was tired. Child acting is not a game. It is work, and it asks a child to be professional in a world built for adults. Yang Zi learned that work, and she learned it well, but she also paid a price for it. She missed parts of a normal childhood, and she had to learn, as a teenager, who she was when the cameras were off.
The hardest part of her story came after Home with Kids. She was famous as a child, but the industry did not know what to do with her as a young woman. She was told, in ways both direct and indirect, that she was not pretty enough, not tall enough, not right for leading roles. She heard those words, and she kept working. She studied at the Beijing Film Academy, she took supporting roles, she waited, and she improved. When Ode to Joy gave her a chance to play a modern young woman, she took it, and the audience saw her in a new light. From there, the roles came faster, and the girl from Home with Kids became a star in her own right, not only a memory from childhood.
A Child Actress in Beijing
Yang Zi was born on 6 November 1992 in Beijing, and she began her acting life as a child. Her family lived in the capital, and she was a lively, bright girl who liked to perform. As a young child, she was given small roles, and she learned quickly that acting is not only about being cute. It is about listening, about remembering, about doing the same scene again and again until it is right. A child who learns that lesson early grows up with a professional habit that many adult actors never learn.
Her first major success came with Home with Kids, a family sitcom that began in 2005, when she was still a child. She played Xia Xue, the eldest daughter in a blended family, a clever girl who is good at school, who argues with her brothers, and who loves her family deeply. The show was a huge success, and it played in homes across China for years. For many viewers, Xia Xue was not a character. She was a real girl, a daughter, a sister, a friend. Yang Zi became famous as that girl, and the fame followed her to school, to the shops, to every part of her young life.
Being a child star is a strange life. On one hand, it brings love, attention, and work. On the other hand, it takes away privacy, and it makes growing up harder. A child star cannot make mistakes in private. She cannot be clumsy, or shy, or angry, without people noticing. Yang Zi lived that life, and she lived it with the help of her family, who tried to keep her grounded. Her mother, in particular, was a steady presence, helping her to balance school and work, and reminding her that acting is a job, not a whole life.
As she grew older, the show ended, and she faced the question that every child star faces: what next? She was no longer a child, but the audience still saw her as one. She needed to study, to grow, and to find a new kind of role. That would take years, and it would not be easy. But she had already learned the most important lesson of her childhood: how to work, how to wait, and how to keep going when the path is not clear.
The Hard Years After Home with Kids
After Home with Kids, Yang Zi entered a difficult period. She was a teenager, then a young woman, and the industry did not offer her the leading roles that other young actresses received. She was told that her looks did not fit the usual idea of a leading lady, and she was given supporting parts, or roles that did not use her full talent. Those words hurt, and she has spoken about them in later interviews, about how it felt to be judged for her face rather than her work. It is a painful experience, and it is one that many young women in entertainment know well.
She did not give up. She entered the Beijing Film Academy, where she studied acting seriously, and she learned the craft in a deeper way. At school, she was not a star. She was a student, and she had to work like any other student, to learn voice, movement, history, and the art of building a character. That time at school was important, because it gave her a foundation that childhood fame had not given her. She learned to act as an adult, not only as a clever child, and she began to understand what kind of actress she wanted to be.
During these years, she took roles in dramas and films, often in supporting parts, and she kept improving. She played in war dramas, in family stories, in modern tales, and she learned how to play different kinds of women. She was patient, but patience is hard when you have already been famous and the fame has faded. She had to trust that her work would speak for itself, even when the industry seemed to have forgotten her. That trust was not easy, but it was necessary, and it kept her going through the quiet years.
The turning point came slowly, not in a single night, but in a series of roles that showed the audience a grown-up Yang Zi. She was no longer Xia Xue. She was a young woman with her own voice, her own humour, and her own way of playing a scene. When the right role arrived, she was ready for it, because she had spent years preparing, even when no one was watching.
Ode to Joy and a New Start
In 2016, Yang Zi appeared in Ode to Joy, a modern drama about five young women living in the same building in Shanghai, each with a different job, a different family, and a different dream. She played Qiu Yingying, a cheerful and sometimes naive young woman from a small town, who works hard, falls in love, and learns to stand up for herself. The role was a good fit for her, because Qiu Yingying is lively, funny, and full of heart, and Yang Zi played her with a natural warmth that viewers loved. The drama became a huge success, and it introduced her to a new audience as an adult actress.
Ode to Joy mattered because it showed Yang Zi in a modern setting, not in a costume drama, not as a child, but as a young woman living a life that many viewers recognised. Qiu Yingying works in a shop, worries about money, argues with her boyfriend, and tries to be brave. That ordinariness made her lovable, and it showed that Yang Zi could play a real person, not only a fantasy heroine. The drama’s success also proved to producers that she could carry a major role, and that the audience was ready to see her as a leading lady.
After Ode to Joy, the offers came faster. She took the leading role in Ashes of Love in 2018, a fantasy drama in which she played Jinmi, a flower spirit who does not understand love, and who must learn it through pain and sacrifice. The drama became one of the most popular of its year, and it made Yang Zi a star across Asia. Jinmi is a character who starts innocent and grows wise, and Yang Zi played that growth with a skill that surprised many people who had only seen her as Qiu Yingying. She could be funny, she could be sad, she could be brave, and she could carry a long fantasy epic on her own.
The years after Ode to Joy were the years when Yang Zi’s career truly took off. She was no longer the former child star trying to be noticed. She was a leading actress, with a string of successes, and with an audience that loved her for her warmth, her humour, and her honesty. The hard years had not been wasted. They had given her the depth that her later roles needed.
Ashes of Love and Go Go Squid
Ashes of Love, from 2018, was a landmark in Yang Zi’s career. She played Jinmi, the daughter of a flower goddess, who is given a pill that stops her from feeling love, and who must learn what love is through a long and painful journey. The drama is full of fantasy, of gods and demons, of beautiful costumes and sad songs, and it asks the actress to show a character changing from innocence to understanding. Yang Zi played Jinmi with a lightness that made the audience laugh, and with a sadness that made them cry. The drama became a major hit, and its scenes are still shared by fans today.
The success of Ashes of Love also showed that Yang Zi could handle a role that was both funny and tragic. Jinmi is not a simple heroine. She is naive, she makes mistakes, she hurts the people she loves, and she learns from those mistakes. Playing such a character requires a balance, and Yang Zi found it. She did not make Jinmi perfect. She made her human, even in a world of gods, and that humanity is what viewers remembered. The drama’s popularity also brought her new fans across Asia, and it made her one of the most in-demand actresses in China.
In 2019, she starred in Go Go Squid, a modern romance drama in which she played Tong Nian, a young woman who loves singing and who falls in love with Han Shangyan, a serious and cold esports champion played by Li Xian. The drama was a light and sweet love story, and it became a huge success, especially among young viewers. Tong Nian is a gentle, brave, and optimistic character, and Yang Zi played her with a warmth that made the audience root for her. The drama’s success showed that she could carry a modern romance as well as a fantasy epic, and that her range was wider than many people had thought.
Go Go Squid also became a cultural moment, because it made esports, a world that many older viewers did not understand, into a romantic and hopeful story. Yang Zi’s character is the heart of that story, a young woman who believes in love and in hard work, and who does not give up on the man she loves. That belief, played with sincerity, made the drama a hit, and it gave Yang Zi another beloved role to add to her growing list.
Lost You Forever and the Mature Star
In 2023, Yang Zi starred in Lost You Forever, a fantasy drama based on a popular novel, in which she played Xiaoyao, a woman who has lived many lives, who has been a man, a healer, and a princess, and who must choose between love and duty. The role was complex and demanding, and it asked the actress to show a character who is both strong and vulnerable, who has suffered and who has learned to survive. Yang Zi played it with a maturity that reflected her own growth, and the drama became a major success, with a second season following.
Lost You Forever mattered because it showed Yang Zi as a mature actress, capable of carrying a long and complicated story. Xiaoyao is not a simple girl. She is a person with a past, with secrets, with pain, and with a deep capacity for love. Playing her required a depth that Yang Zi had built over years of work, from her childhood in Home with Kids to her adult roles in Ode to Joy and Ashes of Love. The drama’s success proved that she had grown into a star who could handle the most demanding roles in Chinese television.
She has also continued to work in films and in other dramas, and she has become known for her professionalism and her warmth on set. People who work with her often describe her as lively, funny, and hardworking, a person who brings energy to a long shoot. That energy is part of her appeal, both on screen and off it. She is not a distant star. She is a person who laughs, who jokes, and who works hard, and the audience can feel that in her performances.
Her recent work also includes dramas that explore different kinds of women, from modern professionals to historical figures, and she has shown a willingness to take risks. She is no longer the child star trying to prove herself. She is a leading actress with a clear sense of what she can do, and she is using that sense to choose roles that challenge her. That is a good place to be, and it suggests that her best work may still be ahead of her.
The Cost of Growing Up in Public
Growing up in public has a cost that is easy to miss. Yang Zi was famous as a child, and that fame meant that her teenage years, her looks, her voice, and her choices were all watched and judged. When she was told that she was not pretty enough for leading roles, that judgement was not private. It was part of her working life, and it hurt. She has spoken about that hurt in later years, and her honesty about it has helped many young people who face similar judgements. It is brave to admit that words hurt, and it is braver still to keep working after hearing them.
There is also a cost to being loved as a child star. The audience loves the child, and they want the child to stay a child forever. When the child grows up, the audience must learn to love the adult, and that learning takes time. Yang Zi lived through that transition, and she lived it in front of millions of people. She did not hide. She studied, she worked, she waited, and she grew. That growth is visible in her work, from Xia Xue to Qiu Yingying to Jinmi to Xiaoyao, and it is a growth that many viewers have shared, because they grew up with her.
Her story also shows the pressure that young actresses face about their looks. In an industry that values beauty highly, being told that you are not beautiful enough is a painful thing to hear. Yang Zi heard it, and she answered it not by changing her face, but by improving her work. She became a better actress, and the audience learned to see her talent before they saw her looks. That is a powerful answer, and it is one that many young women can learn from. Talent, in the end, is harder to ignore than beauty is to praise.
She has also faced the usual pressures of fame: long hours, little privacy, and the constant need to be cheerful in public. She handles those pressures with humour and warmth, and she has become known for her lively personality. That liveliness is not an act. It is part of who she is, and it helps her to survive a job that can be tiring and lonely. A star who can laugh is a star who can last, and Yang Zi has lasted, from childhood to adulthood, without losing her joy.
What a Long Childhood Career Leaves
Yang Zi’s career is unusual because it spans her whole life. She has been acting for more than twenty years, and she is still in her early thirties. That length gives her a perspective that few actors have. She has seen the industry change, she has seen stars rise and fall, and she has learned what lasts. What lasts, in her case, is work, warmth, and a willingness to grow. She did not stay a child star. She became an adult star, and that change is the most important part of her story.
Her influence can be seen in the way child stars are now talked about in China. People understand better that a child actor needs time, study, and support to become an adult actor, and Yang Zi’s story is often used as an example of how that transition can work. She did not rush it. She studied, she waited, she took supporting roles, and she grew into her talent. That patience is a lesson for any young actor, and for any parent of a young actor, who might be tempted to rush the process.
She is still working, still choosing, and still popular. Her recent dramas show a woman who is comfortable with complex roles, with long stories, and with characters who have a past. That is a good place for an actress to be, and it suggests that her career will continue to grow. The girl from Home with Kids has become a woman who can carry a fantasy epic, a modern romance, and a historical drama, and the audience has grown up with her, from childhood to adulthood, and will likely keep growing with her. She is still working, still choosing, and still popular. Her recent dramas show a woman who is comfortable with complex roles, with long stories, and with characters who have a past. That is a good place for an actress to be, and it suggests that her career will continue to grow. The girl from Home with Kids has become a woman who can carry a fantasy epic, a modern romance, and a historical drama, and the audience has grown up with her, from childhood to adulthood, and will likely keep growing with her. What is often missed is how much her childhood on a sitcom set taught her about comedy. A sitcom is filmed in front of a live feeling, with timing, with pauses, with a laugh that must land at the right moment. Yang Zi learned that timing as a child, and she still uses it, in Qiu Yingying’s jokes, in Jinmi’s naive questions, in Tong Nian’s shy laughter. Comedy is hard, and a child who learns it early carries it for life, like a language learned young, never quite forgotten.
My Take:
I feel a special warmth for Yang Zi, because I watched her grow up, in a way, even though I only know her through her work. I first knew her as Xia Xue, the clever girl in Home with Kids, and I think many viewers feel the same. She was like a daughter, a sister, a friend, a girl who lived in a home that felt like our own. When she grew up, I felt proud, as if someone I knew had done well. That feeling is strange, because I do not know her, but it is also real, because television creates a kind of family. Yang Zi is part of that family for millions of people, and that is a rare and precious thing.
I think her hardest years are the ones I admire most. After Home with Kids, she was told she was not pretty enough, not right for leading roles, and she kept working anyway. I want to pause on that, because it is easy to say, keep working, and hard to do it. Imagine being a teenager, hearing that your face is wrong, and then going to school the next day, and then going to a set the next week, and smiling, and learning your lines, and trying again. That takes a kind of courage that is not loud. It is quiet, daily courage, and Yang Zi showed it for years. I respect that more than any award, because awards are given in a night, but courage is shown every day.
I also love her humour. Qiu Yingying in Ode to Joy is funny, warm, and a little clumsy, and Yang Zi played her with a joy that felt real. Jinmi in Ashes of Love is funny too, in a different way, naive and brave and full of questions. Tong Nian in Go Go Squid is sweet and determined. Xiaoyao in Lost You Forever is strong and sad. Each of those women is different, and each of them has a humour that comes from Yang Zi herself. She does not play a joke. She plays a person who finds life funny, even when it is hard, and that is a gift. A star who can make people laugh and cry in the same drama is a rare star.
What moves me most is her honesty about being judged for her looks. She has spoken about it, not with anger, but with a calm that says, I heard those words, and I kept going. That honesty helps young people who hear similar words in school, at work, or at home. It tells them that a judgement about your face is not a judgement about your worth. Your work, your kindness, your humour, your patience, those are the things that last. Yang Zi’s career proves that, because the people who once said she was not pretty enough now praise her as one of the most popular actresses in China. Time, and work, answered them.
I want to be honest about what I do not love. Some of her dramas are similar to each other, and some of them rely too much on her charm and not enough on the story. That is not entirely her fault. The industry offers her romantic roles because she plays them well, and she takes them because they are popular. But I think her best work comes when the role asks for more, when Xiaoyao must choose, when Jinmi must learn, when Qiu Yingying must stand up. I hope she keeps choosing those harder roles, because they show her full talent, and they will be the roles people remember in ten years.
What can a reader learn from her? I think the first lesson is that growing up takes time, and it is okay to take time. She did not become an adult star in a night. She studied, she waited, she played small roles, and she grew. The second lesson is that words about your looks do not define you. Your work defines you, if you keep working. The third lesson is that warmth is a strength. In a world that often rewards coldness, Yang Zi’s warmth, her laughter, her kindness on screen, is a strength that brings people to her. Do not hide your warmth. Use it.
I also think about parents of child actors who read her story. I would tell them to protect the child, to let her study, to let her rest, to let her grow at her own pace. Fame as a child is not a guarantee of a career as an adult. It is a beginning, and the middle years are hard. Yang Zi’s family helped her through those years, and that help mattered. A child needs a family that sees her as a person, not only as a star, and Yang Zi had that, and it shows in the woman she became.
In the end, I see Yang Zi as a girl who grew up on television and became a woman who can carry a story on her own. She is funny, she is warm, she is hardworking, and she is brave in a quiet way. I do not know what her next role will be, but I know that I will watch it, because I have watched her since she was a child, and I want to see what she does next. That is the power of a long career. It creates a bond, not only between a star and her fans, but between a person and the years of her own life. Yang Zi’s life, so far, is a story of growing up in public and growing well, and I think that is a story worth telling, and worth remembering.
I keep thinking about Home with Kids, and about what it means to be a child in a family sitcom that plays in millions of homes. A sitcom family becomes a real family for viewers. They eat with you, they laugh with you, they argue with you, they grow up with you. Xia Xue was not only a character. She was a daughter, a sister, a friend, a girl who lived in a home that felt like our own. When Yang Zi grew up, when she left that home, when she became a woman, I think many viewers felt a small sadness, as if a daughter had left home. That sadness is a sign of love, and it is a sign that her childhood work mattered, that it was not only a job, but a part of people’s lives. I think she knows that, and I think she carries it with her, in every new role, knowing that the audience grew up with her, and that they will always see a little of Xia Xue in her, even when she plays a goddess or a modern woman.
The years after Home with Kids, when she was told she was not pretty enough, stay with me, because those words are cruel, and they are also common. Many young women hear them, in school, at work, at home, and they believe them, and they shrink. Yang Zi did not shrink. She studied, she worked, she waited, and she grew. I want to say that again, slowly, because it matters. She did not change her face. She changed her work. She became a better actress, and the audience learned to see her talent before they saw her looks. That is a powerful answer to a cruel judgement, and it is an answer that any young person can use. If someone tells you that you are not pretty enough, not tall enough, not right, do not change your face. Change your work. Work harder, learn more, be better, and let the work answer them, as Yang Zi’s work answered them.
Ashes of Love deserves more thought, because Jinmi is a character who does not understand love, who must learn it through pain, and that learning is a painful and beautiful thing to watch. Yang Zi played Jinmi with a lightness that made me laugh, and with a sadness that made me cry, often in the same episode. That balance, between laughter and tears, is hard to achieve, and she achieved it, because she understands that life is both funny and sad, often at the same time. A person can laugh in the morning and cry in the afternoon, and both feelings are true. Jinmi lives that truth, and Yang Zi plays it with an honesty that I admire. I think many viewers cried with Jinmi, not because the story was fantasy, but because it was about learning to love, and learning to love is something we all do, painfully, and beautifully, throughout our lives.
Lost You Forever is another role that stays with me, because Xiaoyao has lived many lives, has been a man, a healer, a princess, and must choose between love and duty. That is a complex character, and Yang Zi played her with a maturity that reflected her own growth. She was no longer a child, no longer a young woman trying to be noticed. She was a mature actress, capable of carrying a long and complicated story, capable of showing a character with a past, with secrets, with pain, and with a deep capacity for love. That maturity is the result of years of work, from childhood to adulthood, and it is visible in every scene she plays now. I think her best work is still ahead of her, because she has now reached a place where she can play any kind of woman, and she knows it, and the audience knows it too.
One more lesson, about humour. Yang Zi is funny, and humour is a strength, not a weakness. In a world that often rewards seriousness, her laughter, her jokes, her lively personality, are a gift. She makes people laugh, and laughter is a form of healing. A star who can make people laugh and cry in the same drama is a rare star, and Yang Zi is that star. I hope she keeps her humour, keeps her laughter, keeps her warmth, because those qualities are what make her different from other actresses, and what make her loved. Do not hide your humour to be taken seriously. Use it, as she does, to be taken seriously and to be loved at the same time. One more thought stays with me, about the way she handles being a child star who grew up. Many child stars either fade, or they rebel, or they lose themselves, but Yang Zi grew up well, and that growing up is the most impressive part of her story. She was Xia Xue, a clever girl in a family sitcom, and then she was a teenager who was told she was not pretty enough, and then she was a student at the Beijing Film Academy, and then she was Qiu Yingying, Jinmi, Tong Nian, Xiaoyao, each time a little older, a little wiser, a little stronger. That growth, from a child to a woman, in public, is hard, and she did it with a humour and a warmth that I admire. She did not hide her growing up. She let the audience grow up with her, and that is a gift, because it creates a bond that few stars have, a bond built over twenty years, from a family sitcom to a fantasy epic.
There is also a lesson in the way she uses humour. Qiu Yingying is funny, Jinmi is funny in a naive way, Tong Nian is sweet and funny, and Yang Zi plays that humour with a natural ease that makes people laugh, even when the story is sad. Humour is a strength, not a weakness. In a world that often rewards seriousness, her laughter, her jokes, her lively personality, are a gift. She makes people laugh, and laughter is a form of healing. A star who can make people laugh and cry in the same drama is a rare star, and Yang Zi is that star. I hope she keeps her humour, keeps her laughter, keeps her warmth, because those qualities are what make her different, and what make her loved, not only for her talent, but for her heart.
I want to talk about Lost You Forever, because it asks more of Yang Zi than almost any of her earlier dramas. She plays a character who lives for years as a man, hiding her true identity, and then lives as a woman again, carrying the pain of everything she lost in between. That is a hard role. It asks the actress to change how she walks, how she speaks, how she looks at people, and then to change back, and to make the audience believe both versions are the same person. Yang Zi did that, and the drama became one of the most talked about shows of its year. I think it proved that she is no longer a child star trying to grow up. She is a grown actress who can carry a long, complicated story on her own shoulders.
I also love her sense of humour, and I think humour is a strength that people do not praise enough. Yang Zi laughs loudly, she jokes about herself, she is lively on variety shows, and she does not try to look perfect all the time. In a world that often rewards stars for being serious and cold, her warmth is a gift. She makes people laugh, and laughter is a form of comfort. A star who can make you cry in a sad scene and make you laugh in a funny scene is a rare star, and Yang Zi is that star. I hope she keeps her humour, because it is part of what makes her feel like a real person instead of a picture on a poster.
Then there is Ashes of Love, and I cannot write about her without it. She played Jinmi, a flower fairy who does not know what love is, a girl who is innocent and brave and heartbreaking all at once. The drama was watched across Asia, and her tears in that show became famous. What I admire is that she played innocence without making it silly. Jinmi is naive, but she is not stupid, and Yang Zi showed the difference. She made the audience care about a fantasy character as if she were a real girl, and that is the heart of good acting. Fantasy is easy to laugh at when it is done badly, and Yang Zi made it feel true.
The hard part of her story is that she grew up in front of everyone. She was Xia Xue in Home with Kids when she was a child, and millions of people felt like they watched her grow up. That sounds sweet, but it is also a heavy weight. When a child star becomes a teenager, people judge her face, her weight, her voice, her choices, and they compare her to the little girl they remember. Yang Zi went through those awkward years in public, she took time to study, she chose Ode to Joy as a new start, and she rebuilt her career piece by piece. That rebuilding took courage, and I think many young people who feel judged for how they look will understand her.
In the end, what I take from Yang Zi is that a long career is built on work, not on one lucky role. She has been acting since she was a small child, and she is still working, still learning, still taking on hard roles like Lost You Forever. She did not quit when the middle years were hard. She did not hide. She kept acting, kept laughing, kept trying new things. For a young reader who wants to be an actor, or a singer, or anything that takes years to learn, that is the lesson. You do not become great in one year. You become great by staying, by working, by failing, by laughing at yourself, and by starting again, as many times as it takes.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was Yang Zi born and what was her first famous role?
Yang Zi was born on 6 November 1992 in Beijing. Her first famous role was Xia Xue in the family sitcom Home with Kids, which began in 2005 when she was still a child.
Why was Yang Zi’s career difficult after she grew up?
After Home with Kids, she found it hard to get leading roles as a young adult, and she has spoken about being judged for her looks. She studied at the Beijing Film Academy and took supporting roles until Ode to Joy gave her a new start.
What is Yang Zi’s role in Ode to Joy?
In Ode to Joy she plays Qiu Yingying, a cheerful young woman from a small town who works in Shanghai, falls in love, and learns to stand up for herself. The drama became a huge success in 2016.
Which fantasy drama made Yang Zi a star across Asia?
Ashes of Love from 2018, in which she plays Jinmi, a flower spirit who must learn what love is, made her a star across Asia and is still one of her best-known dramas.
Who did Yang Zi play in Go Go Squid?
She played Tong Nian, a young woman who loves singing and falls in love with the esports champion Han Shangyan. The modern romance drama became a major hit in 2019.
What is Lost You Forever about?
Lost You Forever, from 2023, follows Xiaoyao, played by Yang Zi, a woman who has lived many lives and must choose between love and duty. The fantasy drama was a major success and led to a second season.
