Raymond Lam

Grooming an Heir at TVB Studios

Raymond Lam wasn't born in Hong Kong, but he became its most bankable face. In 1999, he entered the TVB acting class after studying architecture in the United States. It was a pragmatic decision, because the young Lam Fung preferred the spotlight to building blueprints.

He started out as an extra and a reporter.

In 2001, his real break came with A Step into the Past. He played Zhao Pan, and the production changed his career by forcing him to work alongside Louis Koo. It was a grueling shoot where he learned that charisma alone was not enough to carry a high-budget period drama.

And the gamble paid off.

He landed his first leading role in Eternal Happiness in 2002. At that point, the local press began to notice his ability to draw in young audiences. But Hong Kong's television system is a meat grinder that demands non-stop filming for months on end.

The Voice Business and the Mass Idol

Starting in 2007, the actor decided the small screen was too limiting. He signed with the record label EEG and released his first album, titled Finding Love in Memories. Sales were massive, which allowed him to fill the Hong Kong Coliseum several times in the following years.

And the audience responded with absolute loyalty.

But the Cantopop industry is voracious and demands a constant presence. Lam juggled studio recordings with 16-hour days on television sets. In 2008, he starred in Moonlight Resonance and reached audience peaks that seem almost impossible to repeat on conventional television today.

So his status as a full-fledged star was sealed before he turned thirty.

Breaking Away from the Studio System

After fifteen years under the TVB umbrella, he decided to leave in 2014 to pursue different projects. He wanted action films and roles that moved away from the romantic leading man who had made him famous. In 2017, he joined Louis Koo's agency and entered a phase of more intensive film collaborations.

Not everything was a commercial success.

In 2022, he appeared in New Kung Fu Cult Master, and critics were especially harsh about his portrayal of Zhang Wuji. Social media didn't forgive his age for the role, but he ignored the online noise. He knew his place was in big-budget martial arts productions.

In 2024, he starred in Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In under the direction of Soi Cheang. Playing Chan Lok-kwun required extreme physical training to shoot on the sets recreating Kowloon Walled City. The film grossed more than HK$100 million in just a few months.

The contract for the sequels is already signed.