Why Actress Lin Yin is Thankful for Her Unpredictable Career Path

From Psych student to actress 🎭

Ideally our career paths would be straightforward. Right?

School, higher study, get a job and work.

But for Aussie actress Lin Yin, her road has been anything but linear. Before landing roles in projects like City of Life 2, she was sitting in lecture theatres studying Psychology and Media.

Falling into acting (on accident).

She didn’t know it at the time, but her degree actually shaped the way she approached acting.

“There is actually a lot of overlap in acting and psychology, and I've come across quite a few actors with a psych background,” she told Student Edge.

“Both fields are very natural step to take when you are interested in people.”

Before signing on to films, Lin worked in government, dabbled in journalism and even moving overseas.

“I kept following my intuition and curiosity from one little thing to the next, until I found myself in the performing arts space,” she said.

“Then at one point I was spending all my time doing what actors do (go to classes, shoot various projects, get an agent), and that’s when I thought, 'well I guess I'm an actor now..?'”

Image: Jonny Marlow

Life on a global set.

Recently Lin wrapped filming City of Life 2 in Dubai. The movie is a sequel to Ali F. Mostafa’s 2009 first feature City of Life centring around the lives of a spoiled playboy, an Indian cab driver and a Romanian flight attendant, all in Dubai.

On set, Lin admits it was a mixture of emotions from exhausting to rewarding. But she especially loved the diversity on set.

“Dubai is very diverse so I was hanging out with cast and crew every day from Russia, Nigeria, Hong Kong, Estonia, Egypt, UK and Pakistan and more,” she tells us.

“The film follows three foreigners in Dubai as they navigate the city and huge personal challenges.

“My storyline was about a woman who came to Dubai to search for her missing sister. I learned so much about humanity, people and Dubai culture from shooting this movie and through the characters journeys as well.”

More recently she sat on a judging panel for the World Culture Film Festival in Los Angeles. And it sparked an interest in filmmaking she didn’t know she had.

“The more you spend time around people who are doing something the more you naturally believe you can do it too, it breaks your mental limitations,” Lin told us.

“I look forward to serving as a judge every year onwards and eventually getting into filmmaking.”

What about her advice for students?

Despite the different paths she’s taken to end up where she is, she wouldn’t change it.

And she wants students to know it’s alright if your career isn’t a straight line.

She left us with one final, poignant thought, “I'd love to encourage people to not get stuck on an idea of what your life should be, you'll be pleasantly surprised if you keep an open mind!”

Image header: Jonny Marlow