Peng Yuchang (simplified Chinese: 彭昱畅; traditional Chinese: 彭昱暢; pinyin: Péng Yùchàng, born October 25, 1994) is a Chinese actor and singer. He gained recognition after appearing in Our Shining Days (2017) and Hu Bo's award-winning film An Elephant Sitting Still (2018). He also starred in the films Go Brother! (2018) and Viva La Vida (2024). In television, Peng starred in The Prince of Tennis (2019), a Chinese adaptation of the popular Japanese manga. He later starred in Run For Young (2020) and the fantasy drama I Am Nobody (2023).
He was chosen by CCTV-6's China Movie Report as one of the "New Generation Four Young Actors Skilled in Acting" on 2019, along with Liu Haoran, Leo Wu, and Hu Xianxu. Forbes China listed Peng on their 30 Under 30 Asia 2019 list which consisted of 30 influential people under 30 years old who have had a substantial effect in their fields. Peng ranked 57th on Forbes China Celebrity 100 list in 2019 and 67th in 2020.
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Early life
Peng Yuchang was born in Xinyu, Jiangxi, China. In his childhood days, he was always looked after by his grandparents because his parents were busy with work. He was trained to play the saxophone from an early age. He studied at the Shanghai Theatre Academy in 2012, majoring in puppetry. During that time, he performed in Come On, My Life! and other theatrical performances. He graduated from Shanghai Theatre Academy in 2016.
Career
Peng made his acting debut in the romance web drama Go Princess Go (2015) and first gained attention for his performance as Eunuch Jiang. In 2016, he starred in a teen web drama Stardom, acting as an aspiring artist.
The same year, Peng took on his first lead role in a fantasy web drama Weapon & Soul. Then he starred in Sohu's self-produced drama Men with Sword.
In 2017, Peng played a swimmer in Chinese sports drama My Mr. Mermaid.
Then he starred in musical campus film Our Shining Days and was nominated for Best Actor at Asian New Talent Awards and Best New Actor at China Movie Channel Media Awards during the 20th Shanghai International Film Festival. The same year, Peng reprised his role in the second season of fantasy web drama Weapon & Soul 2.
In 2018, Peng participated in The Birth of Actors, a hit talent show produced by Zhejiang Satellite TV in which actors and actresses compete with guidance from veteran stars to re-enact famous scenes from TV series or movies. Peng was only promoted to the Top 15, but his three performances with completely different acting styles garnered attention from the audience and gained him praises from judges which consist of renowned celebrities such as Zhang Ziyi, Song Dandan, Liu Ye and Director Peter Chan. As a round's winner, Peng also got a chance to perform with Tao Hong, one of the acclaimed judges in the show to re-enact the scenes from The Last Emperor, where he played Emperor Puyi as both a young and middle-aged man. The same year, Peng starred in a comedy family film Go Brother!, adapted from a web manhua series Please Take My Brother Away by Chinese popular cartoonist Soul Sister (幽灵姐妹). The film was commercially successful and received a 9.2 out of 10 score on Maoyan. Peng was also picked by novelist-turned-filmmaker Hu Bo to star in his drama film An Elephant Sitting Still. The casts were offered to play with zero acting fee because of the low-budget production, however Peng still accepted the role as it was the first time for him to be highly valued by a director. For his performance, Peng was nominated for Best Leading Actor at the 55th Golden Horse Awards.
In 2019, Peng starred in Daylight Entertainment's modern family drama All Is Well, adapted from the fiction novel by Ah Nai. The same year, he starred in the youth sports drama The Prince of Tennis based on the hit manga series by Takeshi Konomi, as a talented tennis teenager Lu Xia, where professional tennis players Li Na and Jiang Shan also guest starred in the drama. The drama was aired on Hunan TV and globally released on Netflix. He also starred in fantasy film Over Again and drama film The Last Wish.