Lay, Chinese singer-songwriter
Zhang Yixing (Chinese: 张艺兴; pinyin: Zhāng Yìxīng; born (1991-10-07)7 October 1991), known professionally as Lay Zhang or simply Lay (Korean: 레이), is a Chinese rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, director, dancer, actor, and publicity ambassador for the Communist Youth League of China. Zhang has been listed in Forbes China Celebrity 100, where he ranked 20th in 2017, 11th in 2019, and 5th in 2020, 6th in 2021. He made his debut in 2012 as a member of the K-pop boy group Exo and its Chinese subgroup Exo-M under SM Entertainment. As an actor, he is known for starring in Ex-Files 2 (2015), The Mystic Nine (2016), Kung Fu Yoga (2017), The Island (2018), The Golden Eyes (2019), Empress of the Ming (2019) and Crime Crackdown (2021).
Zhang first gained recognition for participating in the Chinese television talent show Star Academy in 2005. In 2015, he founded a personal agency for his solo activities that serves as a management firm and record label and released a record-breaking autobiography, Standing Firm at 24. In 2016, Zhang was appointed by the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC) of Changsha as a publicity ambassador, becoming the first celebrity to hold such a title. On 28 October 2016, Zhang released his first EP, Lose Control, in South Korea and China to commercial success; it peaked at number one on the Gaon Album Chart and number four on Billboard's US World Albums chart. In 2016, Zhang placed 23rd on the CelebrityZ Top 100 Most Valuable Celebrities list published by market research company Kantar and Chinese business magazine CBN Weekly.
In 2020 Zhang established his own group of companies in China called Chromosome Entertainment Group and began the process of recruiting trainees from all over the world.