Wang Kai 王凯

Nick Wang was working in a book warehouse when, during a commercial shoot, the director suggested he apply to a drama academy. For a long time in film, Wang was held captive by the success of Ugly Wu Di. Roles in Nirvana in Fire and The Disguiser brought him fame in a different register, and in the series Like a Flowing River he was to play an eighteen-year-old hero at the age of thirty-six.

After school, Wang Kai, listed in the catalogue as Nick Wang, took a job at a book warehouse in Wuhan. He was born in that city in 1982, and his family expected the warehouse to give him steady work. Wang hauled books around and at first had no plans to go to university. All that changed when he found himself on a commercial shoot in Beijing. The director took him for a drama-school student, and on learning that Wang was not studying anywhere, advised him to try applying. Wang quit without telling his parents. He arrived in Beijing knowing neither the schools' addresses nor the admission deadlines, crashed with acquaintances and called up institutions one after another.

He did not get in on his first attempt. He asked his family for money to prepare and, on his parents' advice, took classes in Shanghai. In 2003 Wang was accepted by both the Beijing Film Academy and the Central Academy of Drama. He chose the latter. While still a student he appeared in the series Han Qiu (2006). Toward the end of his studies he went to Hong Kong to shoot Love Dog Doc, which was only released in 2012. Wang recalled that he lived alone in a hotel at the time and tried to economize on everything. After the academy, despite an already signed contract, he got almost no offers for a year and bought his own clothes for public appearances.

At the audition for the series Ugly Wu Di (2008), Wang had his eye on a different role. He was offered the part of Chen Jiaming, an eccentric commercials director, and he agreed. He needed the shoot and the money. The series ran for four seasons, Chen became recognizable, and Wang began to be offered similar characters. When he started turning them down, he was once again out of work for seven or eight months. In Zhi Qing (2012), director Zhang Xin-Jian entrusted him with the role of Qi Yong. It was shot in Heihe, and by Wang's account not every actor there could endure the conditions. The job itself gave him more confidence. He realized he could put up with discomfort for a long time if the role mattered to him.

Producer Hou Hong-Liang invited him to play Fang Mengwei in the series All Quiet in Peking (2014). Two series followed that made Wang known to a far wider public. The directors of Nirvana in Fire (2015) already saw him as the right actor for Prince Jing. Wang recalled that he read the script in three days and grew deeply attached to the character. And in The Disguiser (2015) he wanted to play A-Cheng, even though he was offered roles that would have put his name higher in the credits. He liked that A-Cheng has to operate under various covers and that the character changes noticeably over the course of the series. Later Wang began to speak differently about Chen Jiaming too. Now he admitted that without Ugly Wu Di, there was no telling how long he would have waited for a chance to work.

Fame also brought interest in his private life. After photos of Wang having lunch with friends circulated in 2015, the internet began speculating about his sexual orientation. Wang's company called the reports fabrications and warned it might take legal action. In 2023 fans spotted digits resembling actress Victoria Song's birth date in a congratulatory video and spread a romance rumour. Wang's studio denied it. A year later, when the internet speculated that he was the one who had not paid an intermediary for a magazine shoot, his representatives explained that the actor had fulfilled the agreement and that the magazine was supposed to cover the expenses.

In 2017, Wang's father died of lung cancer. About a month later, a checkup revealed a shadow on the actor himself, and then a nodule was found in his lung. He underwent surgery. Wang said that afterwards he became less hurried, stayed at home more often and paid closer attention to how his work schedule affected his family. He kept on acting. At thirty-six he lost weight down to sixty-two kilograms to play the eighteen-year-old Song Yunhui in the series Like a Flowing River (2018). Over the course of the series he was to play the character at a more mature age as well. Wang worked out how his character's appearance and speech would change over the years, and got to grips with the terminology the man uses at work.

Wang said he finds it interesting to play people you can meet in real life. In his view, the viewer immediately notices when such a character behaves implausibly. Preparing for roles, he asked people about their work, read up and listened to the way they speak. Before shooting the series Hunting (2020), he spent time with real police officers. According to Wang, his native Wuhan also taught him to observe everyday life, and in the future he would like to act more often in stories about Hubei province. Preparing for the role of investigator Ma Qi, whom he played in 2026 in Confrontation (交锋), Wang talked to consultants and travelled to Fuzhou. Discussing this work, he also recalled The Disguiser. More than ten years had passed since then, and he wanted to play his new character differently, with an eye to how investigators work today.