Actors are often tagged with the aging like fine wine descriptor, which can be quite apt, but that same observation rarely gets applied to actresses since the whole allure of the fresh pretty young thing certainly has a hard time aging well. With that said, twenty years ago Ruby Lin was the It Girl of Mandarin dramas thanks to the raging success of Princess Returning Pearl, and in the years since she’s grown and parlayed that breakout role into a shining example of a successful acting career.

She’s now an industry admired producer who has creatively helmed hit dramas like Qin Shi Huang Fe (The Glamorous Imperial Concubine), Drama Go Go Go, and The Way We Were, among others, and I’m most looking forward to her upcoming period drama with Yuan Hong called Singing All Along, which is a horrifically bad English title for a lovely Chinese title of 秀丽江山之长歌行 (Long Song March of the Beautiful Rivers Majestic Mountains). She was merely okay for me in your heyday, but I love this mature incarnation of Ruby as actress-producer, calling the shots and being damn sassy about it, all while looking insanely beautiful still.