Bios

Short Bio & recent activities

Kristina Lao

Kristina Lao is a multi-national interdisciplinary artist from Hong Kong. Her folk-inspired songs feature rich Brit-lilt vocals with a naked truth, delicately deconstructing societal norms over uplifting chords. Influenced by Paul Simon,  Joni Mitchell and Regina Spektor, her music has been described as an unlikely combination of Dolores O’Riordan (The Cranberries), Tracy Chapman, and Ani DiFranco. Acting credits include UK national tours, global advertising campaigns and award-winning short films.

The last twelve months

In 2018 Kristina toured the UK with the hit musical 20th Century Boy, and began her foray into network television with an appearance on an upcoming Netflix sci-fi series (2019). Her latest musical releases (available on all major platforms from February 2019) explore various stages of social connection, expectation and disentanglement.


1-liner

Kristina Lao is a multi-national interdisciplinary artist from Hong Kong, with a  mission is to inspire the world through the love of words.


3-Paragraph Story Bio

Kristina Lao is a singer-songwriter and actor based in Vancouver. Raised in Hong Kong, New Zealand, Melbourne and the UK, Kristina’s multi-national childhood followed her parents’ own transience. Born to a Chinese-Nepalese mother and British-Polish father in one of the most densely populated cities in the world, Kristina’s childhood love of words grounded her in a whirlwind of cultural, social and personal change.   

Kristina received a scholarship for Advanced Music Performance at The University of Hong Kong. After landing lead roles in Sweeney Todd (HKYAF) and Oliver (HK Players), she left her degree early and moved to the UK as the first person from Hong Kong to be accepted into the prestigious London School of Musical Theatre. During her time in London, she performed at shows around London, playing at world-famous venues including Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Bar, The Troubadour, and The Bedford, and working with world-renowned producers Simon Darlow (Sir Cliff Richard, Grace Jones) and Robin Millar, CBE (Sade, Everything But the Girl). Kristina’s compositions have been placed in prominent independent films, television, and with overseas artists.

Shortly after arriving in Vancouver, Kristina founded a local, grassroots collective called Indie VanCity, supporting emerging artists and other collectives, and currently works part-time in Business Development and Community at Nimbus School of Recording & Media. She was a semi-finalist for Best in Vancouver (2015), Jack Daniel’s Supporting Act (2016), and selected as one of five artists to participate in The Acoustic Guitar Project (2016).

After years of exploration, development deals, and collaborations across a variety of genres, Kristina’s most recent releases celebrate a more folk-inspired, honest and cinematic collection of observational truths. Her musical collaboration with Cody Taylor of Fiend Recordings (Ursidae, Chersea) produced a dynamic, cinematic environment to serve each story.

Recent film and theatre credits include Another Life  (Netflix), Thin Walls, Sick to My Bones (to which she also co-wrote the theme song), May You Never Die and Once Upon a Time (ABC). In 2018 she toured with 20th Century Boy, the Marc Bolan and T-Rex musical. She was recently selected to as one of 2019’s Women in Film and Television Mentorship Program, as a promising emerging actor.

Kristina holds her certificate in Stage Combat through Fight Directors Canada, and trained in a variety of martial arts including jujitsu, Shaolin Hung Gar Kung Fu and Hong Kuen under renowned masters in Australia, Hong Kong and Vancouver.

Today, she owns countless diaries, notebooks, sets herself regular creative challenges, writes whimsical poems and reads too many books at the same time.