---
name: "Orion Lee"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/orion-lee"
fi1m_id: "orion-lee"
imdb_id: "nm4093657"
tmdb_id: 1333452
wikidata_id: "Q78784225"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "10 July 1980"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 5
average_fi1m_score: 76
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 5
updated: "2026-09-30T21:55:11.595221+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Orion Lee

## Identity

Orion Lee

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/orion-lee
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** orion-lee
- **IMDb ID:** nm4093657
- **TMDB ID:** 1333452
- **Wikidata ID:** Q78784225
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Lee, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q78784225, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4093657/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1333452

Actor. Born 10 July 1980 in Hong Kong.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 10 July 1980, Hong Kong
- **Active:** 2012–present
- **Also known as:** 오리온 리
- **Average Fi1m score:** 76, as actor, over 5 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 75 (3), 2020s 79 (2)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 76 to 76 across 5 titles
- **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 1 of 1 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Action 3, Adventure 3, Drama 2, Science Fiction 2, Thriller 1, War 1
- **Screen time:** 12 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $3,339m across 5 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Lee, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q78784225, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4093657/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1333452

## Streaming the US now

- **Tubi:** [*First Cow*](https://film.one/film/first-cow.md) (85)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Orion Lee

> Orion Lee's King-Lu in *First Cow* is a talker with plans who is at his best in the scene where he says nothing. He and John Magaro are the best-matched pair Kelly Reichardt has directed.

King-Lu is a man with a plan, and Orion Lee plays him as though the plan were already halfway done. He talks about capital, about what might be done in a territory with one cow, and while he talks he is looking past whoever he is talking to, at the horizon where the money is. Then, outside his shack, he chops wood and says nothing at all, and that is the scene we remember.

Lee worked as a fund manager before training at LAMDA, and spent his early years on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre of Scotland, the Royal Court and the Abbey Theatre. On film he was a barman in *Skyfall* (2012), had small parts in *Fury* (2014), *Justice League* (2017) and *Star Wars: The Last Jedi* (2017), a supporting role in *X+Y* (2015) and a television part in *Chimerica* (2019). None of it prepared anybody for Kelly Reichardt handing him half of *First Cow* (2020).

He carries it by listening. Cookie, John Magaro's cook, is a man who cannot stand up to anyone, and King-Lu talks enough for both of them; the film works because Lee lets Magaro's silences land before he fills them. The milk scheme is played like a heist, and we found ourselves gripping the arm of the chair over a bucket, which is down to the two men as much as to Reichardt's cutting. But the scene that moved us more than we thought it could is the wordless one, Cookie sweeping and putting a flower in a jar while King-Lu splits logs outside. Reichardt, who edits her own films, holds it a long time, and Lee does nothing in it except be a man who has noticed he is being looked after and has decided not to mention it. Magaro plays Cookie with his shoulders; Lee plays King-Lu with his eyes.

Lee has said King-Lu is "a person who belongs everywhere and belongs nowhere, and that's kind of inherent in me", and the casting has tended to take the point literally: he gets the immigrant, the outsider, the professional in a room where he does not quite fit. Since *First Cow* there has been a voice in *Turning Red* (2022) and a part in *Project Hail Mary* (2026), neither of which we have reviewed. The reservation about him, such as it is, is that a style this quiet may not travel far outside the sort of film Reichardt makes.

That is one very good performance and a great many small ones, which is a thin basis for a verdict and we will not pretend otherwise. What we can say is that when a director gave him room and a partner worth listening to, he knew exactly what to do with both. Somebody should try it again.

## Biography

Orion Lee is a Hong Kong-born Chinese Australian actor. He played the lead role of King-Lu in *First Cow* (2020).

Lee has appeared in smaller roles in films including *Skyfall* (2012), *Fury* (2014), *Justice League* (2017) and *Star Wars: The Last Jedi* (2017). He voiced Jin Lee in *Turning Red* (2022).

*Sources: imdb.com, seventh-row.com, en.wikipedia.org.*

## On Fi1m (5)

- *Project Hail Mary* (2026), Fi1m 73, as Dr. Li — [page](https://film.one/film/project-hail-mary.md)
- *First Cow* (2020), Fi1m 85, as King-Lu — [page](https://film.one/film/first-cow.md)
- *Star Wars: The Last Jedi* (2017), Fi1m 76, as Canady's First Order Monitor — [page](https://film.one/film/star-wars-the-last-jedi.md)
- *Fury* (2014), Fi1m 67, as Tired GI #1 — [page](https://film.one/film/fury-2014.md)
- *Skyfall* (2012), Fi1m 81, as Shanghai Barman — [page](https://film.one/film/skyfall.md)

## Complete filmography (32)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Project Hail Mary* (2026), as Dr. Li — Fi1m 73, [page](https://film.one/film/project-hail-mary.md)
- *Rosemead* (2025), as Charles
- *Rematch* (2024), series, as P.C.
- *Significant Others* (2022), series, as Father Shirley
- *Followers* (2022), as Edward Lee
- *Turning Red* (2022), as Jin Lee (voice)
- *Zack Snyder's Justice League* (2021), as Star Labs Scientist
- *First Cow* (2020), as King-Lu — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/first-cow.md)
- *Only You* (2019), as Eddie
- *Vanish in Smoke* (2019), as Ralph
- *Anna and the Apocalypse* (2018), Executive Producer
- *Catacombe* (2018), as Charlie Yuen
- *Dead in a Week (Or Your Money Back)* (2018), as Lawrence · Executive Producer
- *I Am Vengeance* (2018), as Burke
- *Star Wars: The Last Jedi* (2017), as Canady's First Order Monitor — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/star-wars-the-last-jedi.md)
- *Justice League* (2017), as Star Labs Scientist
- *The Hungry* (2017), Executive Producer
- *Panic* (2016), as Yi
- *Narcopolis* (2015), as Mr. Chang
- *X+Y* (2015), as Deng Laoshi
- *Critical* (2015), series, as Brian Zhao
- *MLE* (2015), as Sebastian
- *Fury* (2014), as Tired GI #1 — Fi1m 67, [page](https://film.one/film/fury-2014.md)
- *The Expert* (2014), as Anderson
- *The Expert* (2014), series, as Anderson
- *Run* (2013), series, as Andy
- *Dates* (2013), series, as Tony (voice), Tony
- *#aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei* (2013), as 'Sportsman'
- *Skyfall* (2012), as Shanghai Barman — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/skyfall.md)
- *Silent Witness* (1996), series, as Dr Oliver Matthews
- *Chinaman*, as Wong
- *An Odd Enchantment*, Actor

## Gallery

- ![Actor Orion Lee at the Berlin Film Festival 2020](https://film.one/media/person/289534/gallery-633f54b5539d.jpg) Actor Orion Lee at the Berlin Film Festival 2020 — Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/03/Orion_Lee-4421.jpg/1280px-Orion_Lee-4421.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Orion Lee](https://film.one/media/person/289534/gallery-89cc7d930d66.jpg) Orion Lee — Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Orion_Lee-4438.jpg/1280px-Orion_Lee-4438.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Kelly Reichardt and Orion Lee at the Berlin Film Festival 2020](https://film.one/media/person/289534/gallery-ea3458bc1ead.jpg) Kelly Reichardt and Orion Lee at the Berlin Film Festival 2020 — Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/Kelly_Reichardt_and_Orion_Lee-1220322.jpg/1280px-Kelly_Reichardt_and_Orion_Lee-1220322.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Orion Lee](https://film.one/media/person/289534/gallery-b492d8995347.jpg) Orion Lee — Image via TMDB
- ![Orion Lee](https://film.one/media/person/289534/gallery-6bb50aff7e69.jpg) Orion Lee — Image via TMDB

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/orion-lee