Born on September 20, 1982 in Shanghai, China, Hu Ge (Chinese: 胡歌) is an award-winning actor and singer who has flexed his skills across film, TV, theater and Mandopop music. His on-screen career started early; he began hosting Sunshine Youth on the Shanghai TV Education Channel aged 14. In 2001, he enrolled at the Shanghai Theatre Academy to study acting and spent the early '00s working as a voice actor and appearing in commercials. He landed a minor role in 2002 film Pretend There's No Feeling (假裝沒感覺) and his first television role, for romance drama Dandelion (蒲公英), followed in 2004. However, Hu Ge's first major breakthrough came in 2005 when he played Li Xiaoyao in Chinese Paladin, a TV adaptation of the action RPG The Legend of Sword and Fairy. He went on to carve out a place on television screens and in cinema, at the same time maintaining a successful career as a musician. After providing vocals for the Chinese Paladin OST – notably via the two singles "June Rain" (六月的雨) and "Xiao Yao Sighs" (逍遥叹) – he released his first EP, Treasure (珍惜胡歌)) in 2006, with a follow-up, Start (出发), coming in 2008. A third EP, Blue Ray (蓝光) arrived in 2010, and he went on to amass a raft of singles that often evoke the Mandopop sound. Many of these singles have been recorded for film and TV soundtracks, including "When the Wind Blows" for 2015 Chinese historical drama Nirvana in Fire and "Beautiful Solo River" for 2019 Chinese neo-noir crime thriller The Wild Goose Lake. In 2020, Hu Ge returned to the small screen to star in period drama Blossoms Shanghai.
