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Shadow And Bone casts half-Asian actress Jessie Mei Li as heroine
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Jessie Mei Li as Alina Starkov (right) and Archie Renaux as Malyen Oretsev.
PHOTO: NETFLIX
LOS ANGELES - Shadow And Bone - a new series based on the fantasy novel of the same name - made it a point to cast a half-Asian performer as its heroine Alina Starkov. Chinese British actress Jessie Mei Li plays the orphan who discovers formidable powers that could change the world.
This was because author Leigh Bardugo and showrunner Eric Heisserer wanted to make the show more ethnically diverse than the novel, the first in Bardugo's bestselling Grishaverse trilogy.
