Timmy Xu
Timmy Xu is a Chinese actor, singer, and songwriter. In 2016, he debuted as the character Bai Luoyin in the Chinese BL web series Addicted. He was the first artist to achieve the top spot on the Billboard China V chart and Mandarin chart within the same week. He was the first solo artist from mainland China to hold a concert in South Korea, and to be officially invited as a guest to the Billboard Music Awards in 2017.
Xu made his comeback to the small screen in 2018 and a year later he was nominated for best actor for his lead role in My Girlfriend. In early 2023, Ping Pong: The Triumph and his role received positive reviews. The character Xu played awarded him Annual Attention Actor and Most Breakout Actor. Moreover, Xu's first foray in performance art was an enormous success. For three consecutive months he performed weekly in a total of 33 plays across nine major mainland Chinese cities in Cao Yu's Thunderstorm and Wan Fang's After Thunderstorm. Xu was praised by Wan Fang for his outstanding performance in interpreting a unique perspective of the character and in her own words "the best Zhou Ping".
Early life and education
Since childhood, Xu has pursued various artistic endeavors including dancing, singing, music composition, and playing instruments. He learned Latin dance for more than ten years and won the gold award from the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing. In high school, Xu formed two rock bands with some of his schoolmates: "EggAche" and a death metal rock band "PROME", in which he was the lead guitarist. "PROME" won the Midi High School band competition in Shanghai. Moreover, he and his band organized and arranged a winter vacation music festival in Shanghai that was featured in the local newspaper. Xu graduated from the Affiliated Senior High School of the Shanghai Theatre Academy. He graduated from the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in Beijing in May 2017.Career
2015–2016: Debut
While still in college, in October 2015, Xu starred in a short film called Gaming Madness. He also participated in various photo shoots, leading to him being scouted as one of the main leads for a web series called Addicted, broadcast in January 2016. He was also chosen to compose and sing the opening and closing theme songs of Addicted. The full episodes were later uploaded on YouTube, which made the lead actors popular locally and internationally. Afterwards, Xu began to focus on his music career. On May 1, 2016, he released his first album entitled Light and then undertook an Asian concert tour between June and August 2016.Xu also participated in various fashion magazine photo shoots. Later, he raised his profile and earned numerous awards as "Best New Artist". He was named as one of the Top 20 Most Popular Celebrities on Weibo by Sina Weibo Data Center, and earned the title of "New Trend Idol of the year" from Star Magazine. Moreover, his growing popularity resulted in him being placed first in several polls. He was invited as a guest to a number of radio shows, such as: Billboard Radio China; TofuPOP Radio – BEC Tero Radio in Thailand; Yang Lan 8 p.m. Show; Hongdou Live Interview; FM 101.7 Music Kaleidoscope; and NetEase Cloud Music ; as well as web shows and live streaming events.
On December 8, he released his single "Fun" which rose to the top of several music charts. The official music video was released on December 15. His growing popularity also led to him being ranked 37th on Data Win's Top 50 Most Internet & Business Celebrity Influencers in China 2016.
2017: Variety show and miscellaneous activities
In late January 2017, Xu made his first official variety appearance on Intangible Her, broadcast on Tencent Video. His successful variety show debut led to him placing fifth in the Top 10 Most Popular Variety Stars in the first half of the year. That March, Xu sang the Chinese version of "The Heroes" by Simple Plan. With this song, he topped the Billboard China V chart and Mandarin chart in the same week for the second time. He also performed the song live with the rock band on March 4 in Beijing. In addition, the Canadian Embassy and Children's Film Association granted him an ambassadorial role for "China-Canada Cultural Exchange" and "Children's Film Promotion" during the film's press conference.On April 1, 2017, Xu appeared as a guest on the music show Global Chinese Music Chart, performing his song "Fun". He was then selected to sing "Screaming Night", the theme song for the 2017 iQiyi Screaming Night Concert, at which the song's video was first screened.
In May, he was officially appointed as the "Starlight" ambassador and was the first artist from mainland China to be invited to the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas. Afterwards, he played the main character for a Vogue film project called Seize the Moment, a short film which debuted during the Cannes Film Festival.
After the success of Light in 2016, Xu released the first quarter of his second solo album, entitled The Time, on August 10, 2017. This sold more than 450,000 copies and was certified double platinum. The second quarter of the album was released online for free on October 20, his 23rd birthday, while the third quarter was released on December 12. He was also chosen to sing the theme song for a British-Chinese action thriller film, S.M.A.R.T. Chase, entitled "Ruins of Time", which was released on August 23. The song was written by Jay Chou, a famous singer. Xu's songs "So What", "Leave Me Alone", and "Ruins of Time" were placed first to third place respectively on the YinYueTai China V Chart of most viewed music videos, in weeks 38 and 39 of 2017.
On September 1, Jingdong published Xu's first photo book, entitled "This is Timmy". Later, CCTV announced that he would be one of the hundred singers selected to sing the "China" song in the celebration the 40th anniversary of China's reforms. He attended the annual Anhui TV Drama Awards on December 16.
At the end of 2017, Xu was placed 10th in Sina Weibo's "2017 Popular Star" list, having the highest number reposts. His post in Sanya was ranked 10th most popular post with 6.69 million fan interactions. Moreover, 15 Minutes for Craziness ranked fourth on the Top 10 music topics, with 380 million views. His music video "The Heroes", which was posted on Sina Music, was also placed fourth on the Top 10 popular music chart with 0.6 million likes/reposts/comments.
2018: TV drama
In January 2018, 20th Century Fox announced that Xu had been selected to sing the Chinese promotional song "Maze", produced by Harvey Mason Jr., for the American film Maze Runner: The Death Cure. In the same month, he was invited to participate in the Chinese Spring Festival Galas of three China TV stations: Dragon Television, Anhui Television, and Beijing Television. On January 31, he released the final quarter of The Time, "15 Minutes for Fantasy". After The Time was released online in its entirety, he held a press conference in Taiwan for the release of the physical album on February 3.In April, Xu joined the SuperdrySounds project, performing at the global launch party in London and at the Strawberry Music Festival in Shanghai later that month. He started filming for a new drama series, My Girlfriend, on April 16.
In May, he made his TV variety show debut when he guest-starred in two episodes of Give Me Five on Zhejiang TV. The digital version of The Time was officially released in Thailand on May 16, and instantly went to the top of the iTunes chart. On May 26, he performed in Bangkok as part of his second Asia Tour. On May 28, Tencent announced Xu as the new spokesperson for their short video app, Weishi.
In June, Xu placed third on Starmometer's chart of 100 Asian Heartthrobs of 2018.
In July, he joined Shake It Up, a dance variety show on Shanghai TV, winning second place in the final round of the competition. On July 5, presales of the physical version of The Time started on JD.com; more than 13,000 copies were sold within one hour. On July 10, presales of The Time started in Taiwan, where it immediately reached first place on the sales chart. Later in the month, Entertainment Star Business revealed the 2018 Star Commercial Value List, in which Xu was the first-placed Top Potential Artist. He also appeared in the 2018 Forbes 30 under 30 China artist list.
In October, Xu attended the 5th Silk Road International Film Festival closing ceremony and performed his song "Glory". On October 20, he held a free concert at the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium in Beijing and also released a new song, "Everything About You", for his fans. He was ranked 70th on the list of Top 100 Most Commercial Value Chinese Stars in 2018.
On November 19, it was announced that Xu had been cast in the sports drama Ping Pong. Later, he was selected to sing the theme song for China's Communist Youth League, and China's 40 years of Reform Celebration. In December, he attendedBeijing Television's 2019 New Year Global Gala.
2019–2021
In April 2019, Xu started filming for new TV series Dear Mayang Street. He was selected in the same month to sing the theme song for China's Youth Integrity Education.In May, Xu attended the Hunan TV Gala for the 100th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement as a representative of outstanding young actors. In addition, he attended the Beijing Winter Olympics Countdown 1,000 days ceremony as their ambassador. He also acted as MC for the event, performing his song "Glory" on stage.
In June, he was appointed as the Youth Film Project Ambassador of Shanghai International Film Festival.
In September 2020, Xu became Shanghai Karamay Cultural Exchange Ambassador. He also filmed his first costume drama, Weaving a Tale of Love.
In 2021, Xu starred in his first Republic of China drama City of Streamer. He also filmed season two of Weaving a Tale of Love.