Karena Lam – born Lin Jiaxin on August 17, 1978, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – is a Taiwanese Canadian actress and Mandopop singer. She is best known for being the first actress to win awards for three significant categories - Best Lead Actress, Best New Performer, and Best Supporting Actress – at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards in Taiwan. Born in Canada to a Chinese father and a Japanese Chinese mother, Karena Lam ended up in Hong Kong and pursued a career in acting and music. She made her acting debut in the 1996 film Sing Kei Hok Yeuk Kui but didn’t achieve commercial success until 2002 when she was nominated for several awards for her work in the movies July Rhapsody and Inner Senses. For July Rhapsody, she won awards for Best Supporting Actress from the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Golden Horse Awards as well as Best New Performer honors from those same two respected institutions. Her musical career began in 1995 with the release of the album A Little Thought, which was followed by 1999’s Unrequited Love Story. While her acting career took precedence over her recording career, she returned to recording in 2003 with Starlight at 11:30am. The album Moon Fall was released the same year, followed by 2004’s Dating Karena. She refocused her attention on acting and continued to appear in popular films, winning the Golden Horse Award for Best Actress for her performance in 2015’s Zinnia Flower. Karena Lam returned to recording in 2020 with the release of the single “(…Lovers Whisper)”.
