Background and career
Wu Yi Fan (born Li Jiaheng on November 6, 1990), known professionally as Kris Wu, is a Canadian former rapper and actor. He rose to fame as a member of K-pop boy group Exo and its subgroup Exo-M under SM Entertainment. Beginning in 2014, Wu pursued a solo career mainly in China, appearing in reality shows such as Challenger's Alliance (2015) and The Rap of China (2017–2020), and starring in films such as Mr. Six (2015), Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back (2017), XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017), and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017). Wu was ranked 42nd on the Forbes China Celebrity 100 list in 2015, 10th in 2017 and 2019, and 8th in 2020. Wu was arrested by Beijing police in 2021 and sentenced to 13 years in prison by Chaoyang District Court the following year for rape and group sex. He was also fined CN¥600 million (US$84 million) for tax evasion. After losing his appeal in November 2023, he is serving his sentence in China, after which he will be deported.
Wu was born Li Jiaheng (Chinese: 李嘉恒; pinyin: Lǐ Jiāhéng) on November 6, 1990, in Guangzhou, Guangdong, to Stacey Yu Wu (Chinese: 吴雨; pinyin: Wú Yǔ; previously 吴秀芹; Wú Xiùqín) and Li Kaiming (Chinese: 李开明; pinyin: Lǐ Kāimíng). Soon after his birth, he was sent to Baiyin, Gansu and was brought up by his grandparents until 5, when he returned to Guangzhou to attend primary school. His parents divorced when he was 10, after which he adopted his mother's surname, Wu, in his Chinese name. The same year, he and his mother immigrated to Vancouver, Canada. In the following years, his mother traveled between Canada and China to manage her business, until she decided to close all her businesses to devote herself full-time to her son. In 2005, Wu returned to Guangzhou with his mother, who was there to finalize her business affairs. Wu attended Guangzhou No. 7 Middle School, where he was the basketball team captain. He wanted to be a professional player but his mother disagreed.
After one year in Guangzhou, when his mother had closed all her business, she took him back to Vancouver against his wishes. He attended Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School before transferring to Point Grey Secondary School. During high school, he held a job as a server at an Asian karaoke parlour, in part to relieve his mother's financial pressure. In 2007, Wu, who was almost 17 years old at the time, attended SM Entertainment's Canadian global auditions in Vancouver along with a friend. After passing several rounds of selection, Wu traveled to Seoul, South Korea, with his mother that winter. The same year, he changed his legal name to Wu Yi Fan. In a later interview, Wu cited his increasingly tense relationship with his mother and the financial pressure of college tuition as the main reasons he chose to go to South Korea. In the summer of 2008, Wu went to Korea alone, living with dozens of trainees in the dorm next to SM's headquarters in Gangnam, Seoul.
He was trained for four years, during which he became friends with American-Korean trainee Kevin Shin, who quit SM in 2010 after three years of training.
How Kris Wu makes money
In the following years, his mother traveled between Canada and China to manage her business, until she decided to close all her businesses to devote herself full-time to her son. In 2005, Wu returned to Guangzhou with his mother, who was there to finalize her business affairs.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth, in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
