NEWSRising Star Alert: Meet Yi Zhou—A Promising New Voice in Hollywood
April 23 2025, Published 1:54 a.m. ET
Filmmaker. Composer. Author. Influencer. With projects spanning cinema, music, literature, and fashion, she’s creating a new cultural blueprint for fame.
In an industry that often celebrates formula and familiarity, Yi Zhou is an exhilarating exception. With a career that gracefully blends cinema, music, literature, and global influence, she’s quickly emerging as an innovative voiceinfluencing the future of entertainment—and culture at large.
Born in China, raised in Rome, and educated in London and Paris, Zhou embodies a truly international point of view. But it’s her ability to translate those diverse experiences into emotionally rich, aesthetically bold work that’s capturing Hollywood’s attention.
Her first documentary feature, In Between Stars and Scars: Masters of Cinema, is already generating buzz. A haunting, visually poetic meditation on legacy and creativity, the
The film’s score, composed in part by Zhou herself under her experimental label Into The Sun Sounds, is a standout achievement—an evocative blend of human musicianship and AI collaboration. With contributions from the likes of Bryan Ferry and Cameron Crowe, the music becomes a second voice in the film, echoing the themes of transformation, nostalgia, and reinvention.
Zhou is also making waves as an author. Her critically acclaimed book The Art of Triumph: Trauma, Sex, and Art is both manifesto and memoir, offering a raw, intellectual exploration of healing through creativity. “I wanted to create something that could hold both pain and power in the same breath,” Zhou explains. “Art has always been my alchemy.
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She followed it with Waves and Whispers, a surreal coloring book infused with metaphysical ideas inspired by Leibniz. Combining hand-drawn and AI-generated imagery, it reimagines what a meditative, artistic experience can be. “I wanted it to feel like philosophy you can touch,” she says.
Zhou’s impact, however, extends beyond the page and the screen. Her podcast, Sunshine in the Rain, has quietly become a cult favorite for those craving depth and sincerity in a noisy world. Each episode features luminous, openhearted conversations with artists, thinkers, and change-makers on creativity, mental health, identity, and personal evolution. It’s part community support, part art salon—and entirely unique.
With her growing cultural imprint, Zhou has also become a powerful influencer and visual muse, using her distinct aesthetic to bridge the worlds of cinema and fashion.
Whether she’s attending the Venice Film Festival in custom couture, walking into an Oscars week screening, or posting dreamy philosophical video essays on Instagram, she exudes a modern femininity that feels at once timeless and futuristic.
At the center of this identity is Global Intuition, her fashion and lifestyle brand rooted in philosophical minimalism. Worn by models, filmmakers, and thinkers alike, Global Intuition is not just about clothes—it’s about sensibility. “It’s fashion for people who feel deeply and see clearly,” Zhou says. “It’s about trusting your instinct in a world that often tries to overwrite it.”
From the outside, it might seem like Yi Zhou does it all. But speak to her for five minutes and you’ll realize: it’s not about doing more. It’s about doing everything with meaning. Every project is an extension of her inner world —interconnected, intentional, and quietly radical.
In an age obsessed with instant fame and viral trends, Zhou offers something far more enduring: a body of work that invites reflection, redefines glamour, and reclaims sensitivity as strength.
Whether behind the camera or in front of it, writing pages or soundtracking dreams, Yi Zhou is not just rising—she’s expanding. Not just watching culture shift—but subtly, steadily, shifting it herself.
And that’s exactly why Hollywood is taking notice. In a town full of noise, she brings nuance. In a system that rewards sameness, she offers soul. As a filmmaker, she innovates. As a musician, she experiments. As a writer and visual presence, she connects.
Yi Zhou is a rising star because she doesn’t follow the path—she draws it.
