Zhu Yilong: The Life Story Behind China's Gentle Star

Zhu Yilong is a gentle star, and gentleness, in his case, is not softness. It is a quiet strength, a way of acting that does not shout, that does not demand attention, but that earns it, scene by scene, through honesty, through patience, through a face that can show pain without a word. He was born in Wuhan in 1988, studied at the Beijing Film Academy, and worked for many years in small roles, in low-budget dramas, in parts that few people noticed, until Guardian, in 2018, made him a star overnight, or so it seemed. In truth, it was not overnight. It was ten years of work, of waiting, of learning, that made that night possible.

He played Shen Wei in Guardian, a professor who is also a guardian of an ancient world, a man who loves deeply and who hides his true self, and viewers fell in love with him, not because he was loud, but because he was gentle, because he listened, because he cared. From there, he became one of the most respected actors in China, playing Qi Heng in The Story of Minglan, a young man who loves and loses, Lin Nansheng in The Rebel, a spy who must choose between duty and conscience, and a father in Lighting Up the Stars, a film that won him the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actor. Each of those roles is about a man who is gentle on the outside and strong on the inside, and Zhu Yilong plays that strength with a calm that is rare.

His story is about patience, about working for a decade without fame, about trusting that the work matters even when no one is watching. It is also about a man who, after fame arrived, did not change his way of working. He still chooses carefully, he still prepares deeply, he still treats his fans with respect, and he still lets his acting speak. That consistency is what makes him a gentle star, and what makes his story worth telling.

Growing Up in Wuhan

Zhu Yilong was born on 16 April 1988 in Wuhan, a large city on the Yangtze River, in the province of Hubei, a city known for its hot summers, its spicy food, its universities, and its strong sense of community. Wuhan is a city that works hard, that laughs loudly, that loves deeply, and growing up there means learning to be direct, to be honest, to be warm. Zhu Yilong grew up in that warmth, and it stayed with him, in the way he speaks, in the way he treats people, in the way he acts, with a gentleness that feels like home.

As a young man, he decided to study acting, and he entered the Beijing Film Academy in 2006, one of the best acting schools in China. The school is known for its strict training, and its students learn voice, movement, history, and the craft of building a character. Zhu Yilong was a serious student, and he learned the basics well. He learned how to project his voice, how to stand on a stage, how to listen to another actor, and how to find the truth in a scene. Those lessons sound simple, but they are the foundation of a long career, and they stay with an actor long after the school years are over.

Beijing was a different world from Wuhan, colder in winter, busier, more formal, and full of students from across China who had all come to learn the same craft. Zhu Yilong lived among them, studied with them, and began to understand that acting is not only about talent. It is about work, about showing up, about taking direction, and about learning from failure. A student who fails a scene in class learns more than a student who succeeds easily, because failure shows where the work is needed. Zhu Yilong took those lessons to heart, and he carried them into his first jobs.

His early years after school were not a sudden rise. He took roles in television, learned how a set works, and built his name slowly. He was patient, and patience, in his case, was not waiting. It was working, role after role, until the right part arrived. He did not know when it would come, but he acted as if it would come, and that faith kept him going through the quiet years, when fame felt far away.

Ten Years of Small Roles

After graduating from the Beijing Film Academy, Zhu Yilong spent nearly a decade playing small and supporting roles in television dramas and films. He appeared in low-budget productions, in historical stories, in modern tales, in parts that few people remembered. He played soldiers, students, young men in love, and he played them with care, even when the drama was not famous, even when the role was tiny. That care is a sign of a professional, a person who treats every role as if it matters, because every role does matter, to the actor who is learning.

Those ten years were hard, and they were also a school. A decade of small roles teaches an actor how to be ready, how to make the most of a short scene, how to watch the leading actors and learn from them, and how to keep going when the reward is small. Zhu Yilong learned all of that, and he learned it well. He did not complain. He did not give up. He worked, he practised, he waited, and he trusted that a bigger part would come. That trust was not easy, but it was necessary, and it kept him going through the long, quiet years when many of his classmates had already become famous.

He also learned how to handle disappointment. An actor who plays small roles sees other people get the big parts, and he must learn not to be bitter. He must learn to keep improving, to keep his health, to keep his hope. Zhu Yilong did that. He practised, he watched, and he waited for a role that would let him show what he could do. He did not know when it would come, but he acted as if it would come, and that faith kept him going.

By the late 2010s, the waiting began to pay off. He was given larger supporting roles, and then a leading role that would change his life. The years of small parts had not been wasted. They had given him the skill, the patience, and the toughness to carry a drama on his own. When the chance arrived, he did not freeze. He took it, and he made the most of it, because he had been preparing for it for ten years without knowing it.

Guardian and the Overnight Star

In 2018, Zhu Yilong starred in Guardian, a fantasy drama based on a popular novel, and he played Shen Wei, a university professor who is secretly a guardian of an ancient world, a man who loves Zhao Yunlan, a detective, and who must protect him while hiding his true identity. The role was complex and demanding, and it asked the actor to play two sides of one man, a gentle professor and a powerful guardian, and to show a love that is deep, selfless, and sad. Zhu Yilong played Shen Wei with a gentleness that viewers loved, and the drama became a huge hit, especially among young viewers who loved the romance and the fantasy.

Guardian mattered because it turned Zhu Yilong from a working actor into a star, seemingly overnight. Before it, he was known to few people. After it, he was known to millions. The drama’s success was built on its story, its chemistry between the two leads, and its performances, and Zhu Yilong’s performance was at the centre of it. He played Shen Wei as a man who loves quietly, who protects without asking for thanks, and who suffers in silence. That quiet love made the audience care for him, episode after episode, and it made Shen Wei one of the most loved characters of its year.

The drama also gave him a large and loyal fan base, fans who loved his gentleness, his voice, his eyes, and his way of acting. That fan base has stayed with him, through his later roles, and it has supported him in every new project. Fame on that scale is a gift, but it is also a pressure, and Zhu Yilong handled it with the same calm that he brings to his roles. He did not seek controversy. He worked, he thanked his fans, and he moved on to the next project, choosing roles that would show his range, not only his gentleness.

After Guardian, he became a leading man, and he was offered more leading roles. He had waited for ten years, and the wait had paid off. He was now a star, and he had earned that title through work, not through luck, and through a performance that showed his patience, his skill, and his heart all at once.

The Story of Minglan and Qi Heng

In the same year as Guardian, Zhu Yilong also appeared in The Story of Minglan, a historical drama about a clever young woman in a large family, and he played Qi Heng, a young nobleman who loves Minglan, the heroine, but who cannot marry her because of family duty and politics. The role was sad and romantic, and it asked the actor to show a man who loves deeply and who loses, not because he is weak, but because the world will not let him have what he wants. Zhu Yilong played Qi Heng with a gentleness that made viewers cry, and the drama became a major success.

The Story of Minglan mattered because it showed Zhu Yilong in a different kind of role from Shen Wei. Qi Heng is not a guardian of an ancient world. He is a young man in a historical family, a person who must follow rules, who must marry for duty, and who must watch the woman he loves marry someone else. That pain, played with restraint, made the audience love him, even though he was not the main hero. The drama’s success also proved that Zhu Yilong could play a historical romance as well as a fantasy drama, and that his appeal was not limited to one genre.

The role also showed his range. Shen Wei is a professor, calm and powerful. Qi Heng is a nobleman, young and sad. Zhu Yilong played both with conviction, and the audience believed both. That ability to play different kinds of gentle men, while keeping a core of sincerity, is what makes him a reliable leading man. He does not play the same man in every drama. He plays a professor, a nobleman, a spy, a father, each time with a new shade, each time with care.

After The Story of Minglan, he continued to take leading roles, and his reputation as a gentle star grew. He became known as an actor who can play love stories with depth, who can make a historical romance feel real, and who can carry a long drama without losing the audience’s attention. That reputation is valuable, and it has kept him busy, year after year.

The Rebel and a Spy Who Chooses

In 2021, Zhu Yilong starred in The Rebel, a spy drama set in the 1930s, in which he played Lin Nansheng, a young man who joins the Nationalist intelligence service, who is trained as a spy, and who slowly learns that the cause he serves is not just, and who must choose between duty and conscience. The role was serious, political, and demanding, and it asked the actor to show a man changing over time, from a loyal student to a man who questions everything he was taught. Zhu Yilong played Lin Nansheng with a quiet intensity that viewers loved, and the drama became a major success, praised by critics and by audiences.

The Rebel mattered because it showed Zhu Yilong in a very different kind of story from Guardian and Minglan. It was not a fantasy, not a romance, but a serious drama about history, about war, about politics, and about a man’s conscience. Playing such a role requires a maturity that Zhu Yilong had built through ten years of small roles and through his later successes. He played Lin Nansheng as a man who is thoughtful, who watches, who listens, and who slowly finds his own path. That slow change, from loyalty to doubt to a new belief, is hard to play, and Zhu Yilong played it well, earning praise for his performance.

The drama’s success also proved that he could carry a serious, realistic story, not only a romantic or fantasy one, and that his audience was willing to follow him into darker, more complex territory. That willingness is a sign of trust, and it is a trust that Zhu Yilong has earned through his careful choices. He does not take every role offered to him. He chooses roles that challenge him, that let him grow, and that show a different side of his talent. The Rebel was such a choice, and it paid off, giving him a new kind of reputation, as a serious actor, not only as a gentle star.

Lighting Up the Stars and Best Actor

In 2022, Zhu Yilong starred in the film Lighting Up the Stars, a drama about a funeral director, Mo Sanmei, a man who is rough on the outside and kind on the inside, who meets a young orphan girl and learns to care for her. The role was a film role, not a television drama, and it asked the actor to play a man who is not handsome in the usual way, who is tired, who is angry, and who slowly learns to love. Zhu Yilong played Mo Sanmei with an honesty that surprised viewers who had only seen him as a gentle hero, and the film became a success, both at the box office and with critics.

Lighting Up the Stars won Zhu Yilong the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actor, one of the most respected film awards in China. That award mattered because it was a recognition from the film industry, not only from television fans, that he is a serious actor, capable of carrying a film, of playing a complex, flawed man, and of making the audience care for him. The award also showed that his ten years of small roles, his patience, and his hard work had paid off in a way that few actors achieve. He was no longer only a television star. He was a film actor, a Best Actor, a man whose work had been judged by his peers and found excellent.

The film’s story, about a funeral director and a child, is a sad and hopeful one, about death, about life, about learning to care for someone else. Zhu Yilong played it with a restraint that made the film moving, without making it sentimental. He did not overact. He let the character’s pain show in small ways, in a look, in a gesture, in a silence. That restraint is a sign of a mature actor, and it is one reason why the award was deserved. He had learned, over ten years, how to act with less, and that less became more.

Since Lighting Up the Stars, he has continued to work in film and television, taking on roles that challenge him, including Only the River Flows in 2023, a crime drama about a detective, and The Volunteers, a war film about Chinese soldiers. Each of these roles shows a different side of his talent, and each of them proves that he is not only a gentle star, but a serious actor with a range that is still growing.

A Gentle Man in a Loud Industry

Zhu Yilong is known in real life as a quiet and private person, and that privacy is part of his image. He rarely gives long interviews, rarely shares personal details, and rarely makes loud statements. That quiet is not coldness. It is a way of protecting his work, of letting his acting speak instead of his private life. In an industry where many stars live their lives in front of cameras even when they are not working, that choice is itself a statement about what he values. He gives his performances to the public, and he keeps the rest for himself.

That privacy has also meant that his story, as told here, has gaps. We do not know as much about his family, his feelings, or his daily life as we know about louder stars. But we know his work, and his work is enough. His characters tell us about him, in a way: gentle, loyal, brave, willing to sacrifice, willing to endure. Those are the qualities he plays on screen, and they are the qualities that his fans love. Whether those qualities are also his own, we cannot know for certain, but the consistency of his choices suggests that he values them, both in his roles and in his life.

His fans have often praised him for his kindness, for his respect for others, for his professionalism on set. That praise is not empty. People who work with him often describe him as prepared, as focused, and as respectful to his co-stars and to the crew. That reputation is valuable, and it has helped him to keep working, year after year, without a major fall. He does not seek controversy. He works, he prepares, and he lets his dramas speak. That is a strong way to live, and it is one that many actors would do well to follow. His fans have often praised him for his kindness, for his respect for others, for his professionalism on set. That praise is not empty. People who work with him often describe him as prepared, as focused, and as respectful to his co-stars and to the crew. That reputation is valuable, and it has helped him to keep working, year after year, without a major fall. He does not seek controversy. He puts in the hours, he gets ready, and he lets the dramas do the talking. That is a steady way to live, and it is one that many actors could learn from. What is often missed is how much his Wuhan childhood taught him about warmth. Wuhan is a city that laughs loudly, that eats together, that works hard, and that loves deeply. Zhu Yilong grew up in that warmth, and he brings it to his roles, even when the character is sad, even when the story is dark. His gentleness is not cold. It is warm, like a Wuhan summer, like a family meal, like a friend who listens without judging, and that warmth is what makes his fans love him, not only for his face, but for his heart. People who follow his career often talk about how kind he is, how he treats others with respect, how he arrives prepared and focused on set. That good name is not empty praise. It comes from years of showing up, doing the work, and treating people well, and it has helped him keep working, year after year, without a major fall. He does not seek controversy. He puts in the hours, he gets ready, and he lets the dramas do the talking. That is a steady way to live, and it is one that many actors could learn from. What is often missed is how much his Wuhan childhood taught him about warmth. Wuhan is a city that laughs loudly, that eats together, that works hard, and that loves deeply. Zhu Yilong grew up in that warmth, and he brings it to his roles, even when the character is sad, even when the story is dark. His gentleness is not cold. It is warm, like a Wuhan summer, like a family meal, like a friend who listens without judging, and that warmth is what makes his fans love him, not only for his face, but for his heart, and for the quiet strength that sits behind his gentle smile.

My Take:

I think Zhu Yilong is a reminder that patience is a form of talent, and I want to hold on to that idea while I write about him. He worked for ten years in small roles, in low-budget dramas, in parts that few people noticed, and he kept going. That is not a glamorous story, but it is an honest one. Most of us live a version of that story, working for years without being noticed, hoping that one day someone will see what we can do. Zhu Yilong’s story says that someone will see, if you keep working, if you keep improving, if you do not give up. That is a hopeful message, and it is one I believe in, because I have seen it in his career, from small roles to Guardian to a Best Actor award.

Guardian is the drama that made him a star, and I understand why it moved so many people. Shen Wei is a man who loves quietly, who protects without asking for thanks, who suffers in silence. That quiet love is a kind of love many people know, a love that does not shout, that does not demand, that simply stays. Zhu Yilong played that love with a gentleness that made me care for him, even though I knew the story was fantasy. A fantasy can feel real if the actor believes in it, and Zhu Yilong believed in Shen Wei, and that belief made the audience believe too. That is the power of sincerity, and it is a power that cannot be faked.

The Rebel is, for me, his most important television work, because Lin Nansheng is a man who must choose between duty and conscience, and that choice is one of the hardest a person can face. He is trained to be loyal, he is taught to obey, and then he learns that obedience is wrong, and he must find a new path. Zhu Yilong played that change slowly, with a quiet intensity that made me feel his doubt, his fear, and his courage. That is a mature performance, and it shows that he is not only a romantic hero. He is a serious actor, capable of playing a man in a real historical moment, with real political pain, and making that pain feel human.

Lighting Up the Stars is the film that proved his talent to the film industry, and I think it is his best work so far. Mo Sanmei is not a handsome hero. He is a tired, rough, angry man who learns to care for a child, and Zhu Yilong played him with an honesty that surprised me. He did not try to be beautiful. He tried to be true, and that truth won him a Best Actor award. I love that about him. He was willing to be ugly, to be tired, to be flawed, in order to tell a true story. That willingness is rare, and it is the mark of a real actor, not only a star.

I want to be honest about what I find limiting. Many of his roles are gentle men, and many of them are similar, quiet, loyal, sad men who love deeply. I wonder if he will play a villain, a funny man, a loud man, a person who is not gentle at all. I hope he does, because I think he has more to show, and because a star who only plays gentle heroes will eventually need to grow. He is in his thirties now, and the next decade will ask him to play different kinds of men. I think he can do it, if he chooses to, and I hope he chooses to, because growth is how an actor lasts, and Zhu Yilong has already shown that he can grow, from small roles to Guardian to The Rebel to a Best Actor award.

What can a reader learn from him? I think the first lesson is that ten years of small work is not wasted time. It is school. The second lesson is that gentleness is strength, not weakness. A gentle man can be brave, can be strong, can protect others, can choose conscience over duty. The third lesson is that a Best Actor award is not given in a night. It is earned over a decade, through work, through waiting, through choosing carefully, and through being true to the character, even when the character is not beautiful.

I also think about young actors who watch him and dream of fame. I would tell them to look at his ten years, not only his fame. Look at the small roles, the low-budget dramas, the long wait for Guardian. If you want a career like his, you must be ready for the work, not only the stage. The stage is the last part. The first part is the classroom, the rehearsal, the script, the director who corrects you, the long day when you are tired and you keep going. Zhu Yilong knows that room well, and that is why he lasts.

In the end, I see Zhu Yilong as a man in a grey coat, standing in a rainy garden, looking at a warmly lit house, calm, gentle, and alone with his thoughts. That image stays with me, because it is a picture of his whole career. He stands in the rain, he looks at the light, he does not rush, he waits, he watches, and he moves when the time is right. I hope his next moves take him to new roles, to new kinds of men, to new challenges, because he has earned the right to choose, and because I want to see what a gentle, patient, and sincere actor can do when he is fully free. He has already shown that a gentle man can be a hero, a spy, and a Best Actor. Now I want to see what else a gentle man can be.

I keep thinking about the ten years of small roles, and about what it means to work for a decade without fame, to play a soldier, a student, a young man in love, in dramas that few people remember, and to keep going, day after day, year after year. That is not a glittering story, but it is a true one. Most of us live a version of that story, working for years without being noticed, hoping that one day someone will see what we can do. Zhu Yilong’s story says that someone will see, if you keep working, if you keep improving, if you do not give up. That is a hopeful message, and it is one I believe in, because I have seen it in his career, from small roles to Guardian to a Best Actor award, a line that is not straight, but that is steady, like a man walking in the rain, slowly, toward a warm light.

Guardian deserves more thought, because Shen Wei is a man who loves quietly, who protects without asking for thanks, who suffers in silence. That quiet love is a kind of love many people know, a love that does not shout, that does not demand, that simply stays. Zhu Yilong played that love with a gentleness that made me care for him, even though I knew the story was fantasy. A fantasy can feel real if the actor believes in it, and Zhu Yilong believed in Shen Wei, and that belief made the audience believe too. That is the power of sincerity, and it is a power that cannot be faked. A loud performance can be forgotten. A quiet, sincere performance stays with you, like a song you hum without knowing why, like a face you remember without knowing where you saw it.

Lighting Up the Stars is the film that proved his talent to the film industry, and I think it is his best work so far. Mo Sanmei is not a handsome hero. He is a tired, rough, angry man who learns to care for a child, and Zhu Yilong played him with an honesty that surprised me. He did not try to be beautiful. He tried to be true, and that truth won him a Best Actor award. I love that about him. He was ready to look plain, to look weary, to look imperfect, so that the story would feel true. That readiness is uncommon, and it is what sets a real actor apart from a mere star. A star wants to look good. An actor wants to tell the truth, even when the truth is not beautiful, and Zhu Yilong chose truth, and the award followed, as it often does when an actor chooses truth over beauty.

One more thought, about The Story of Minglan, and Qi Heng, a young nobleman who loves Minglan but cannot marry her because of family duty. That is a sad story, and Zhu Yilong played it with a gentleness that made viewers cry. Qi Heng is not the main hero. He is a man who loves and loses, not because he is weak, but because the world will not let him have what he wants. That pain, played with restraint, made the audience love him, even though he was not the hero of the story. I think that is a lesson. You do not have to be the hero to matter. You can be the man who loves and loses, and your story can still move people, if you play it with honesty, with a quiet sadness that feels real, not acted, but lived. One more thought stays with me, about the way he handles being a gentle man in a loud industry. Gentleness is often mistaken for weakness, and Zhu Yilong has faced that misunderstanding, but he has answered it with his work, not with words. On screen, he is warm, open, and full of feeling. Shen Wei loves quietly, Qi Heng loves and loses, Lin Nansheng chooses conscience over duty, Mo Sanmei learns to care for a child. Those are not weak men. They are strong men, strong in a quiet way, strong because they care, because they endure, because they choose kindness even when the world is cruel. That is a kind of strength that is easy to miss, because it does not shout, but it is real, and it is valuable, and it is why his fans love him, not only for his face, but for his heart, for the way he plays a man who is gentle on the outside and strong on the inside, a man who does not need to shout to be heard.

There is also a lesson in the way he won Best Actor for Lighting Up the Stars. He did not win it by playing a handsome hero. He won it by playing Mo Sanmei, a tired, rough, angry man who learns to care for a child, a man who is not beautiful, who is flawed, who is human. He was ready to look plain, to look weary, to look imperfect, so that the story would feel true. That readiness is uncommon, and it is what sets a real actor apart from a mere star. A star wants to look good. An actor wants to tell the truth, even when the truth is not beautiful, and Zhu Yilong chose truth, and the award followed, as it often does when an actor chooses truth over beauty, when he chooses a character over an image, when he chooses work over fame, and that choice is a lesson for any young actor who dreams of an award. Do not chase the award. Chase the truth, and the award may follow, as it did for him, after ten years of small roles, after a long wait, after a quiet and steady climb.

I want to talk about Lighting Up the Stars, because it is the film that won Zhu Yilong the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actor, and it is a quiet film, a sad film, and a warm film all at once. He plays a funeral director, a man who works with the dead, who is rough and tired, and who finds a little girl who has lost her grandmother, and who learns to care for her. It is a story about death, about grief, about a child who needs a home, and about a man who finds a reason to be gentle. Zhu Yilong played it without big acting, without shouting, just with small changes in his face, in his hands, in the way he looks at the girl. That restraint is what won him the award, and it is what makes the film stay in the mind long after it ends.

The Rebel is another step that matters, because it took him away from fantasy and romance into a serious spy story. He plays a young man who joins a secret service, who believes in a cause, who sees the truth, and who changes sides, knowing that the choice could cost him his life. It is a tense drama, full of danger and quiet fear, and it asks the actor to hide his feelings, to lie with his face, to stay calm when everything is at risk. Zhu Yilong did that well, and the drama earned him respect from people who had only known him as a fantasy star. I admire that he took the risk. Many actors who become famous in one kind of drama stay there forever, because it is safe. He left the safe place, and he grew.

Guardian is the drama that made him famous overnight, and overnight fame at thirty is a strange thing. He played two roles in one, Shen Wei, a quiet professor, and the Black Cloak Envoy, a mysterious figure with great power, and fans fell in love with both. The drama was made on a small budget, but it became a huge hit, and suddenly Zhu Yilong was a star, with millions of fans, with cameras everywhere, with a life that changed in a few weeks. I think about how hard that must have been. One month you are a working actor with small roles, and the next month you are famous, and everyone wants a piece of you. He handled it with calm, and that calm is part of who he is.

The ten years before Guardian are the heart of his story. For ten years, he played small roles, in low-budget dramas, in parts that few people noticed, and he kept going. That is not a glittering story, but it is a true one. Most actors do not become stars in their first year. They wait, they learn, they fail, and they keep working. Zhu Yilong waited for a decade, and when the chance came, he was ready, because all those small roles had taught him how to act, how to stand in front of a camera, how to make a small part feel real. Patience is a form of talent, and his patience is the reason his fame lasted, instead of fading in one year.

Off screen, he is a gentle man in a loud industry, and I admire that gentleness. He speaks softly, he is polite, he avoids noise and gossip, and he keeps his private life private. He does charity work quietly, without making a show of it, and he treats his fans with kindness. In a world where many stars shout to be noticed, his quiet is a strength. For a young reader, the lesson is clear. You do not have to be the loudest person in the room. You can work for ten years without applause, you can stay kind, you can stay patient, and when your moment comes, you will be ready for it. Zhu Yilong was ready, and that is why his story is worth telling.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was Zhu Yilong born and where is he from?

Zhu Yilong was born on 16 April 1988 in Wuhan, Hubei, China. He later studied acting at the Beijing Film Academy, graduating in 2010.

How long did Zhu Yilong work before he became famous?

He worked for nearly ten years in small and supporting roles after graduating, before Guardian in 2018 made him a star. That long wait shaped his patient and careful way of acting.

What role made Zhu Yilong famous?

His role as Shen Wei in Guardian in 2018 made him famous. Shen Wei is a professor who is secretly a guardian of an ancient world and loves the detective Zhao Yunlan.

Who did Zhu Yilong play in The Story of Minglan?

In The Story of Minglan he played Qi Heng, a young nobleman who loves Minglan but cannot marry her because of family duty. The role was sad and widely loved.

What film won Zhu Yilong a Best Actor award?

Lighting Up the Stars from 2022 won him the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actor. He plays Mo Sanmei, a funeral director who learns to care for a young orphan girl.

What is The Rebel about?

The Rebel, from 2021, is a spy drama set in the 1930s. Zhu Yilong plays Lin Nansheng, a spy who must choose between duty and conscience as he learns the truth about the cause he serves.