Jessie Mei Li

Jessica Mei Li (born 27 August 1995) is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Alina Starkov in the Netflix fantasy series Shadow and Bone. Li was born in Brighton, East Sussex to an English mother and a Hong Kong-Chinese father. She grew up in Redhill, Surrey and has an older brother. Li attended Reigate College from 2010 to 2012 and began studying French and Spanish at the University of Sussex, but eventually dropped out. For nearly two years, Li worked as a teaching assistant for children with special needs at secondary school. Li joined the National Youth Theatre in 2015 and trained part-time at Identity School of Acting from 2016 to 2017.