She was supposed to be a doctor. But her parents named her wrong.
Her name – in Chinese – means “artistic view” seemed to predict how her life would turn.
After taking an acting class in college – where she was studying medicine – something clicked in her and she did a full stop on medicine and went head-first into a career in acting here in the United States.
This story is a familiar one but the next part is the twist. Most stories end with returning to their original profession and – years later – talking about that one play they did when they were young.
This was not the case for Yiqing Zhao.
In just over one pandemic-drenched year she turned her life around and is now a working actress here in New York with stage and film works that are catching the attention of industry and audience alike.
Television audiences will see her in the TV pilot, Divorce School, which has already garnered a few awards and awaiting even more joyous news. She appeared on film in Jessie X Snow’s daring film, Little Sky, which also carries numerous awards. She also appeared in Mother Tongue, a deeply moving film about a family coping with Alzheimer’s disease.
On stage, she garnered praise for appearances in Murder in San Jose and Oil, and The Mannequin Diary (directed by Trazanna Beverly, the first African-American Tony Winner)
All this culminates into YOU & I, a film which she wrote, directed, produced, and starred. The film won accolades from the Mindfield Film Festival and recently she won BEST ACTRESS from the Royal Wolf Film Awards.
Ms. Zhao has not totally let her “medical” training go. She has created a thriving life-coaching business where she helps artists be better business-people and sharing how they can better serve their careers. One might say she is stopping the stereotype of the starving artist.
More on Yiqing Zhao can be found at
https://coaching.yiqingzhao.com
linkedin.com/in/yiqing-zhao-329a11a6
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8131159/
Read about her and her award-winning film at https://indiepicturesblog.wordpress.com/2021/07/21/beside-myself-with-joy/
Drama Queens, a five-star arts journal focusing on female artists 
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