Jackson Wang — Movies, TV Shows & Roles

Actor

1994-03-28 · Hong Kong, China · Male

52 series in the catalog

Jackson Wang (Chinese: 王嘉爾; born Wang Ka-yee; 28 March 1994) is a Hong Kong rapper, singer, and songwriter. After a career as a competitive fencer, he joined the South Korean boy band Got7, which debuted under JYP Entertainment in 2014. He founded the Chinese record label Team Wang in 2017, serving as the creative director and lead designer for its subsidiary fashion brand Team Wang Design. Wang released his first solo album Mirrors in 2019, which peaked at number 32 on the US Billboard 200, followed by his second album Magic Man in 2022, which peaked at number 15. His third album Magic Man 2 (2025) reached number 13.
Wang was ranked 40th on the Forbes China Celebrity 100 in 2019, 41st in 2020, and 10th in 2021. As of July 2025, Jackson Wang has 33.3 million followers on Instagram, ranking first among Chinese celebrities. He also has a large fan base on platforms such as YouTube and Spotify, and is the fastest Chinese artist to reach 10 million views on Vevo.
Life and career
1994–2011: Early life and fencing career
Wang was born in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, on 28 March 1994. He was raised into a family of athletes: his father Wang Ruiji was an Olympian fencer, his mother Zhou Ping was a gymnast of the Chinese national team, and his older brother Winston, born in 1986, did gymnastics and played rugby. At the age of seven, Wang started learning gymnastics floor exercises from his mother, but three years later, despite having been selected for the Hong Kong team, he gave up because it was hindering his height growth. He moved to fencing after his father took him to see the national team training and after taking an enrichment class in primary school. For the next two or three years, his father, who at the time was the Hong Kong team's head coach, taught him the basics, then Wang was selected for the youth fencing team and began formal training.
At the age of twelve, he participated in the national games and won his first gold medal. In 2010, he finished fifth at the Senior World Satellite Cup and third at the Asian Junior and Cadet Championships; he was ranked number one in cadet and junior sabre in Hong Kong, and in youth sabre in Asia, and number 11 in world junior sabre. As part of the Hong Kong national fencing team, he won in total 1 Asian gold medal, 3 national gold medals, and 9 internationals and Hong Kong gold medals, including first place at the Asian Junior and Cadet Fencing Championship in 2011. During his career as a fencer, he lived in Budapest, Hungary, from the age of 13 to 16, and in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Sicily, Copenhagen and Ireland.
Wang became interested in music in his sixth grade after his mother bought him a DVD of a Michael Jackson concert to entertain him while he was sick; he ended up watching it over and over again for four or five days. He then joined the American International School dance club, performing "Where is the Love?" by the Black Eyed Peas in the school talent competition, which made him contemplate a future as a singer. He has stated multiple times that even during fencing tournaments, he had always felt like he was performing and putting on a show. His love for music also prompted him to try composing his own music with GarageBand.
Wang was first approached by an idol scout who was looking for members for Exo-M at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. In 2010, while playing basketball at his school, he was noticed by a representative of South Korean talent agency JYP Entertainment and invited to participate in the global auditions in Kowloon, which Wang did despite never having taken vocal lessons. Five months later, in December 2010, it was announced that he passed the audition, ranking first out of 2,000 applicants. At that time, Wang was preparing for the Asian Junior and Cadet Fencing Championship and the 2012 London Olympics, and his parents told him they would give him permission to go only if he won the championship. After winning the gold medal, he moved to Seoul, South Korea for his K-pop training in July 2011. He dropped out of school and turned down two scholarships offered by the Hong Kong University and Stanford University for fencing as a result of the successful audition.
2013–2016: Debut with Got7 and solo activities
In 2013, Wang made an appearance on the reality survival program Win: Who Is Next. The program was a competition between YG Entertainment trainees and JYPE trainees. Wang appeared alongside fellow trainees Mark, Yugyeom, and BamBam, who were then selected as members of Got7. The group released its first single, "Girls Girls Girls," of its debut EP Got It? on 16 January 2014.
In September 2014, Wang joined his first variety show, SBS' Roommate, as a member in its second season. Wang was later awarded the Newcomer Award at the 2014 SBS Entertainment Awards. He subsequently appeared on several other Korean variety shows such as Law of the Jungle, Happy Together, Radio Star, Problematic Men, Our Neighborhood Arts and Physical Education, Saturday Night Live Korea, A Look At Myself, and others. On 12 May 2015, Wang was appointed as a new MC for SBS' music show Inkigayo.
In December 2015, despite having no experience, Wang started hosting Go Fridge, the Chinese version of the show Please Take Care of My Refrigerator, alongside He Jiong. He hosted the show for seven seasons, and also wrote the lyrics, composed, and arranged the theme song for the show in seasons 2 and 3. In March 2016, Wang was appointed as MC for Fresh Sunday, a show on Hunan TV. He received praise from Chinese viewers for his wit and sense of humor, rising as a variety show star.
On 29 April 2016, Got7 held their first concert in Seoul, where Wang performed his self-composed songs "I Love It" and "WOLO". In July 2016, Wang appeared on the Chinese reality TV series, Fighting Man. At the end of the year he was named Variety Star of the Year at the Tencent Variety Show Star Awards and Popular Artist of the Year at the Sina Weibo Awards. He was one of the busiest K-pop idols of the year, constantly flying between South Korea, China and Japan.
2017–2020: Early musical releases and Mirrors
In June 2017, Wang founded Team Wang for his solo activities in China and established a partnership with Snake or the Rabbit, a distribution company based in the United States; however, as he was still under JYPE, he couldn't promote nor release his solo music in South Korea and in Japan. In July he released his first self-written, self-composed solo song, "Generation 2". His first English-language single titled "Papillon" was released on 26 August and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard China V Chart on the week of 16 September. On 30 August, he released "Novoland: The Castle in the Sky" (Chinese: 九州天空城), the theme song for iOS game Novoland: The Castle in the Sky 3D, breaking away from hip-hop and making a first try with melodious and classical music.
In September, Wang dropped out of Got7 activities in Japan due to health concerns and conflicting schedules. Throughout a year, he'd spend half of his time in China for his solo stuff, and half in Korea with the group. On 30 November, he released his second solo single, "Okay": similar to "Papillon", he wrote the lyrics, and composed and arranged the song together with Boytoy. In December, he was named the Breakthrough Singer of the Year at the Tencent Video Star Awards.On 20 April 2018, Wang released his third self-written single, "Dawn of Us", which speaks of appreciating the present and living with enthusiasm. His subsequent release "Fendiman", a collaboration with Fendi China, appeared at No. 1 on both the iTunes Singles chart and the iTunes Pop chart in the United States, making Wang the first Chinese solo artist to achieve that feat. In August 2018, he was awarded the Next Big Thing award at 2018 Teen Choice Awards. On 22 October, Wang signed with Canxing Culture to enter the international market; the following month, he released "Different Game", featuring Gucci Mane.
In March…