Lola Tung: From a Pandemic Showcase to Amazon Prime Lead
Lola Tung did not audition in a conventional sense. She performed a monologue in her high school’s virtual senior showcase during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Her current manager happened to be watching. That manager sent her the audition for The Summer I Turned Pretty months later, while she was sitting in her dorm room at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
She was eighteen years old and had never appeared in a professional production. The audition was via Zoom. She was in the middle of her first year of college. The role was the lead in a major Amazon Prime Video series based on Jenny Han’s bestselling trilogy, one of the most beloved book series in the young adult space. She booked it.
Quick Facts of Lola Tung
| Category | Details |
| Full Name | Lola Marie Tung |
| Date of Birth | October 28, 2002 |
| Age (2026) | 23 years old |
| Birthplace | New York City, USA |
| Ethnicity | Mixed: Chinese-Swedish (mother’s side); Eastern European (father’s side) |
| Mother | Pia Tung, actress; Chinese and Swedish descent |
| Father | Singer / musician; Eastern European descent |
| Siblings | Only child |
| Height | 5 ft 5 3/4 in (167 cm) |
| High School | Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, graduated 2020, drama major |
| University | Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, freshman year only; took leave for TSITP role |
| Talent Agency | Creative Artists Agency (CAA) signed in September 2021 |
| Breakout Role | Isabel ‘Belly’ Conklin The Summer I Turned Pretty (Amazon Prime, 2022–2025) |
| TSITP Salary | $1.085 million+ across all seasons (reported; highest-paid cast member) |
| Broadway Debut | Eurydice in Hadestown, limited run, February 2024; replacement for Solea Pfeiffer |
| Broadway Partner | Jordan Fisher (played Orpheus) |
| Feature Film Debut | Chasing Summer (2026) Sundance premiere; directed by Josephine Decker |
| Horror Film 1 | Forbidden Fruits (2026) directed by Meredith Alloway; produced by Diablo Cody; SXSW premiere March 2026 |
| Horror Film 2 | The Young People (2026), directed by Osgood Perkins; stars Nicole Kidman, Nico Parker, Tatiana Maslany |
| TSITP Movie | The Summer I Turned Pretty: The Movie, greenlit September 17, 2025; Jenny Han directing/writing |
| Brand Work | Coachtopia ambassador (2023); American Eagle Outfitters campaigns |
| Audiobook | Narrated all three Jenny Han novels for Audible (The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy) |
| Net Worth (2026) | ~$2 million (Celebrity Net Worth / multiple sources) |
| Relationship Status | Single (as of 2026; keeps personal life private) |
| Pets | Rescue dog named Bodie |
| Notable School Alumni | LaGuardia High School: also Timothee Chalamet, Jennifer Aniston, Adrien Brody |
Early Life: New York City, a Family of Artists, and the School That Changes Everything
Lola Tung was born on October 28, 2002, and grew up entirely in New York City. Her family background is genuinely multicultural in the specific way that New York City enables: her mother, Pia Tung, is an actress of Chinese and Swedish descent, and her father is a musician of Eastern European heritage. Art was not an aspiration in the Tung household. It was the operating environment. Growing up with an actress mother and musician father in New York City gave Lola an unusually direct line to the performing arts from the beginning.
Her first memory of wanting to act is specific and charming. In a fourth-grade talent show, she performed and felt something click. By sixth grade she had confirmed it: school theater productions were not just an activity, they were a calling. She played the Tin Man in a middle-school production of The Wizard of Oz. She appeared in Little Shop of Horrors. These were not resume-building activities for an ambitious child. They were a kid discovering who she was.
The school that shaped her most fundamentally was not Carnegie Mellon, though that chapter is important too. It was Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan, one of the most selective and prestigious performing arts high schools in the United States. You do not simply enroll at LaGuardia. You audition. The school’s alumni list reads like a catalog of American cultural achievement: Timothee Chalamet, Jennifer Aniston, Adrien Brody, and hundreds of others who went on to careers in film, theater, music, and dance.
Also Read: Bobbi Althoff: Age, Biography, Net Worth & Podcast Career
Carnegie Mellon and the Audition That Changed Everything
In autumn 2020, during the first semester of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lola Tung enrolled in the BFA acting program at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in Pittsburgh. CMU Drama is one of the most respected conservatory programs in the country, with a reputation for rigorous training and strong industry placement. She had earned her place through competitive audition, the same way everything else in her training life had been earned.
Her senior year at LaGuardia had included a virtual showcase, performed over Zoom because the pandemic had made in-person events impossible. Her current manager saw her perform a monologue in that showcase. The manager reached out. Months later, during Lola’s first semester at Carnegie Mellon, the manager sent her an audition opportunity.
| The audition was for the lead role of Isabel ‘Belly’ Conklin in The Summer I Turned Pretty, Amazon Prime Video’s adaptation of Jenny Han’s beloved trilogy. Lola was eighteen years old, sitting in her dorm room, submitting tapes via Zoom while enrolled in online college courses. She booked the lead of a major streaming series before she had completed a single semester of university. |
She took a leave of absence from Carnegie Mellon to film the first season of the show. The leave was intended to be temporary. As Season 1 performed, Season 2 was commissioned. As Season 2 performed, Season 3 followed. The television career took on its own momentum. She has not returned to Carnegie Mellon as a full-time student, though she has spoken of her time there with genuine appreciation for what the first year gave her technically.
The Summer I Turned Pretty: Three Seasons of Belly Conklin
The Summer I Turned Pretty premiered on Amazon Prime Video in June 2022. The series is based on Jenny Han’s three-novel trilogy, which follows Isabel ‘Belly’ Conklin across the summers of her adolescence and the love triangle between her and brothers Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher. The books had been bestsellers for years before the adaptation was announced. The fan anticipation was substantial and the casting of the lead was the most scrutinized decision of the production.
Lola Tung’s performance as Belly was received with immediate warmth. The character is on screen in nearly every scene, carrying the emotional weight of the series through a range of experiences from first love to grief to the complex dynamics of blended family relationships. The relatability that reviewers consistently noted was not an accident. Lola was roughly the same age as Belly throughout the filming of the first two seasons, and she has spoken in interviews about growing up alongside the character in a way that made the performance feel lived-in rather than performed.
‘If I wasn’t in this show, I would watch this,’ she said in one interview, describing her emotional investment in the story and the single tear that rolled down her cheek when she learned the series would end after three seasons.
The Love Triangle: Conrad, Jeremiah, and the Fan Wars
The central tension of The Summer I Turned Pretty is Belly’s navigation of her feelings for two brothers: Conrad Fisher (played by Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah Fisher (played by Gavin Casalegno). The ‘Team Conrad’ versus ‘Team Jeremiah’ fan divide became one of the more engaged social media phenomena of the series’ run, generating the kind of passionate viewer investment that streaming platforms measure and value.
Lola was careful in interviews not to take sides publicly, which was both diplomatically sensible and a sign of her growing media awareness. The love triangle format requires the lead actor to make both options feel genuinely compelling, and the consistency of the fan debate suggested she had succeeded at exactly that.
The Audible Audiobook: Narrating All Three Novels
One of the more distinctive pieces of Lola Tung’s connection to the Summer I Turned Pretty world is that she narrated the complete Audible audiobook versions of all three Jenny Han novels: The Summer I Turned Pretty, It’s Not Summer Without You, and We’ll Always Have Summer. She performed the narration in the same voice and tone she uses for Belly’s inner monologue in the series. The result is a rare convergence: the same actor embodying the character in both the print and screen adaptations of the same story.
Season 3 and the Movie
Season 3 of The Summer I Turned Pretty aired in 2025, completing the television trilogy. On September 17, 2025, the day after the Season 3 finale, Amazon Prime Video announced that The Summer I Turned Pretty would continue as a feature film. The movie will be directed and co-written by series creator Jenny Han alongside Sarah Kucserka, with the full returning cast expected.
As of her March 2026 Variety ‘Up Next’ podcast appearance, Lola confirmed she had not yet received a script but was in regular conversation with Jenny Han about story ideas. ‘I’ve talked to Jenny a lot about ideas. I’m excited to read the script,’ she said.
The greenlight of the film continuation was announced the night Season 3 ended, a deliberate signal to the fanbase that the story was not finished.
Broadway Debut: Eurydice in Hadestown (February 2024)
Between Season 2 and Season 3 of The Summer I Turned Pretty, Lola Tung stepped onto a Broadway stage for the first time. In February 2024, she joined the cast of Hadestown, the Tony Award-winning musical written by Anais Mitchell, as Eurydice. She came in as a replacement for Solea Pfeiffer for a limited five-week engagement.
Hadestown is not an easy show. The role of Eurydice is the emotional core of a story about love, sacrifice, and the underworld. The character descends into Hades not through villainy but through weakness, through hunger and cold and a momentary failure of faith. Playing Eurydice requires a singer-actress who can generate sympathy for a character making choices the audience knows are wrong, while keeping the performance from becoming either a victim narrative or a condemnation.
| She performed opposite Jordan Fisher, who played Orpheus. Her limited engagement generated immediate audience enthusiasm, and she received nominations for Favourite Replacement (Female) at the Broadway.com Audience Choice Awards and Favourite Broadway Debut at the 2025 iHeartRadio Music Awards. For a first Broadway run of five weeks, these nominations reflected genuine impact. |
The Broadway work was not a celebrity stunt. LaGuardia graduates understand musical theater as a serious discipline. Carnegie Mellon trains for exactly this kind of rigorous repertory work. Hadestown was the payoff of years of preparation that predated The Summer I Turned Pretty entirely.
The Horror Pivot: Deliberately Choosing Darkness Over Typecasting
The most strategically interesting decision of Lola Tung’s young career is what she did after The Summer I Turned Pretty ended. She had the most obvious and commercially logical next move available: more romantic drama, more young-adult content, more of the genre that made her famous. She chose something else entirely.
She chose horror. Twice. This is not accidental or naive. It is a deliberate anti-typecasting strategy. Actors who emerge from beloved teen franchises face a specific trap: audiences and casting directors form an association between the actor and the character that can be almost impossible to break through incremental steps. The way out is usually a sharp tonal departure, something that forces audiences to see the actor rather than the role.
Forbidden Fruits (2026): Witches, Diablo Cody, and SXSW
Forbidden Fruits is a horror comedy written and directed by Meredith Alloway, adapted from her stage play Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin and Through Her We All Die. The film follows a woman named Apple, an employee at the mall store Free Eden, who secretly runs a witchy feminist cult in the store’s basement after hours with fellow members Cherry and Fig.
The film was produced by Diablo Cody, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Juno and Jennifer’s Body. The Jennifer’s Body comparison is one Forbidden Fruits actively courts: female-driven supernatural horror with a sharp feminist edge and genuine wit. Co-stars include Lili Reinhart, Victoria Pedretti, and Alexandra Shipp. The film premiered at SXSW in March 2026 and was acquired by IFC Films and AMC Networks’ horror streamer Shudder for US and Canadian distribution. Head of AMC Networks’ Films Group Scott Shooman described it as ‘a must-see in 2026.’
Lola’s character, Apple, is the entry point into the cult’s world. She praised working with female directors during the promotion: ‘Women are so thoughtful when it comes to the conversations that you have on set.’
The Young People (2026): Osgood Perkins and Nicole Kidman
If Forbidden Fruits is a tonally sharp horror comedy, The Young People is operating in a completely different register. The film is directed by Osgood Perkins, whose credits include Longlegs (2024), The Blackcoat’s Daughter, and I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House. Perkins makes psychological horror films that stay with you. His work is not mainstream-comfortable.
The Young People is the first project under Perkins’ first-look deal with Neon, the distributor that has been building one of the strongest horror slates in independent film. The cast around Lola includes Nicole Kidman (Best Actress Oscar winner for The Hours), Nico Parker (The Last of Us, How to Train Your Dragon), Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black, She-Hulk), Heather Graham, Johnny Knoxville, Brendan Hines, and Cush Jumbo.
Plot details have been kept tightly under wraps. What has been confirmed is that it follows two school friends whose bond turns sinister when one of them begins exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior. Production ran in Vancouver from October 21 to December 12, 2025.
Chasing Summer (2026): Sundance Feature Film Debut
Lola’s feature film debut was the comedy-drama Chasing Summer, directed by Josephine Decker and written by comedian Iliza Shlesinger, who also produced and co-starred. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2026. Additional cast includes Garrett Wareing, Cassidy Freeman, and Megan Mullally. The film represents Lola’s entry into independent cinema through one of the most prestigious festival pathways available.
Brand Work: Coachtopia and American Eagle
In 2023, Lola Tung became the face of Coachtopia, Coach’s sustainable fashion line focused on circular design using recycled materials, digital product passports, and encouraging product reuse and recycling. The partnership aligned her with a brand that markets specifically to younger consumers interested in sustainability, which fit both her demographic position and her general aesthetic.
She has also appeared in campaigns for American Eagle Outfitters, a brand whose customer profile closely overlaps with The Summer I Turned Pretty’s audience. Both brand relationships reflect a coherent commercial identity: approachable, youthful, authentically presented rather than aspirationally distant.
Personal Life: Privacy, Bodie the Rescue Dog, and Staying Grounded
Lola Tung keeps her personal life genuinely private in an era when most young celebrities are expected to perform their entire existence publicly. She does not post about romantic partners. In August 2025, she was spotted dancing with actor Hudson Williams at Gold House’s Lunar New Year party, which generated immediate speculation. She described the dynamic between young actors navigating fame together in an interview: ‘You almost instantly have this connection of like, we get each other.’
On her relationship status more broadly, she has said: ‘I’m of the mindset of it’ll happen if it’s right,’ which conveys both genuine contentment with being single and a disinclination to perform romantic availability for an audience.
Her most consistently featured personal content involves Bodie, her rescue dog. She has described herself as a dog person, and Bodie appears regularly on her social media in a way that romantic partners do not. Her mother Pia Tung, also an actress, appears in her content occasionally. Her relationship with her parents has been described as close and supportive, with both having been involved in the arts long enough to understand the specific pressures of the industry their daughter entered.
She was also named in an April 2025 Paris Fashion Week circuit of appearances, establishing a presence in the fashion world that complements her brand partnership work without overwhelming her identity as an actress.
The LaGuardia Factor
Lola Tung attended the same performing arts high school as Timothee Chalamet, Jennifer Aniston, and Adrien Brody. This is not a coincidence or a trivia point. It is a structural explanation for the quality of her technical foundation.
LaGuardia High School admits students through competitive audition and offers a rigorous conservatory-style arts education alongside academic study. Drama majors at LaGuardia do not take acting as an elective. They train. Four years at LaGuardia produces something different from four years at a conventional school with a theater club: it produces actors who understand the craft at a level that most of their peers do not reach until graduate school or years of professional experience.
The speed with which Lola was able to step into a lead role in a major series at eighteen, with no previous professional credits, and deliver a performance that sustained three seasons of a well-watched show, did not happen because she was discovered in the right place at the right time. It happened because she was comprehensively prepared when the right place and the right time arrived.
FAQs
What is Lola Tung’s ethnicity?
Lola Tung has mixed ethnicity. Her mother, Pia Tung, is an actress of Chinese and Swedish descent. Her father is of Eastern European heritage and works as a musician. She was born and raised in New York City.
Did Lola Tung graduate from Carnegie Mellon?
No. Lola Tung enrolled in the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama’s BFA acting program in autumn 2020 and completed her freshman year. She then took a leave of absence to film The Summer I Turned Pretty and has not returned to finish the degree, though she credits the program for strong technical training.
What is Lola Tung’s net worth?
Lola Tung’s net worth is estimated at approximately $2 million as of 2026, according to Celebrity Net Worth and multiple tracking sources. She is reported to be the highest-paid cast member of The Summer I Turned Pretty, earning over $1 million across all seasons. Additional income comes from brand partnerships with Coachtopia and American Eagle, audiobook narration, modeling, and Broadway work.
Is there going to be a Summer I Turned Pretty movie?
Yes. On September 17, 2025, the day after the Season 3 finale aired, Amazon Prime Video announced The Summer I Turned Pretty: The Movie. The film will be directed and co-written by series creator Jenny Han alongside Sarah Kucserka, with the full cast expected to return. As of March 2026, a script had not yet been distributed to the cast, but Jenny Han and Lola Tung have confirmed they are in conversations about story ideas.
What high school did Lola Tung attend?
Lola Tung attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan, graduating in 2020 as a drama major. LaGuardia is one of the most selective performing arts high schools in the United States, with admission by audition. Notable alumni include Timothee Chalamet, Jennifer Aniston, and Adrien Brody.
Conclusion
Lola Tung is 23 years old. She has starred in three seasons of a major streaming series, narrated the complete audiobook trilogy of the books her show is based on, made her Broadway debut in a Tony-winning musical, debuted at Sundance, premiered at SXSW, signed on to star alongside Nicole Kidman in an Osgood Perkins horror film, and has a feature movie continuation of her flagship series on the way.
The career arc is not accidental. She has been trained since middle school. She went to the right high school. She enrolled in one of the best drama programs in the country. When the opportunity arrived, she was ready. When the opportunity became a career, she made deliberate choices to avoid being reduced to the first role that defined her.
