Tsao Lan
BIOGRAPHY
Tsao Lan (Chinese: 曹蘭, also romanised Lan Cao) is a Taiwanese television host, actor, singer and Japanese-language teacher. She made her screen debut in 1985 in the CTV drama A Generation of Beauties, trained at the China Television acting programme in 1987, and spent the following decade as a regular on Taiwanese variety television.
Her first career phase ran from 1985 to 1997, built on variety hosting, most visibly Variety Kaleidoscope and Entertainment Spectacular, and on a short recording career that produced three albums, with 你給我記住 and 白雪壞公主 as her best known songs. In 1997 she left Taiwan to study in Japan, and she returned in 2004. She went back to hosting for several Taiwanese channels, and in June 2008 opened a Japanese-language school in Taipei that she has run alongside her performing work ever since.
Her acting credits include the film Winter Break (1989) and, in later years, the television series The Accidental Influencer. In 2026 she joined the Taiwanese BL series Wishing Upon the Shooting Stars as Angela.
The cast of Wishing Upon the Shooting Stars places her among the supporting players, with Kota Kagami as Aomi Hamaguchi among the wider ensemble. The fantasy romance premiered on Thursday, March 26, 2026 on LINE TV in Taiwan, with Ray Jiang as director and twelve episodes. Its hero, He Xiang-yong, loses his job and goes home to an island, where he wishes not to be recognised and finds the wish granted; Jed Chung plays him opposite Chu Meng-hsuan as Chen Hao-wei.
If you are meeting her work for the first time, I would begin with her 2026 appearance as Angela and then step back to her earlier television. The series has twelve episodes, so it asks for a modest commitment, and her part sits among the supporting players. From there, the 1985 drama A Generation of Beauties and the 1989 film Winter Break are two early credits worth looking for, and together they show how far her screen life stretches.
The hosting years are the part I would explore next for anyone curious about her range. Variety Kaleidoscope and Entertainment Spectacular belong to her first phase, while the hosting after 2004 moved across several Taiwanese channels. Following both phases shows how long she has worked in front of a camera and how much her screen work has changed along the way.
A career with a seven-year gap in it reaches 2026 with a role in a BL series.
Her active years run from 1985 to 1997 and again from 2004. The gap covers her studies in Japan, and after her return she worked first in talk television and opened her Japanese-language school in 2008.
Her part in Wishing Upon the Shooting Stars comes forty-one years after her television debut.
Her dates show distinct stretches. From 1985 to 1997 she moved from a first television appearance in A Generation of Beauties through the 1987 China Television acting programme to variety hosting and three albums. After the years in Japan she came back in 2004 to hosting, and the later years bring screen work such as The Accidental Influencer and, in 2026, Angela in Wishing Upon the Shooting Stars, a part she plays while still running the Japanese-language school she opened in 2008.
In my view, the interesting thing about her list is how many separate working lives stand behind it. She has been a young variety presenter, a student abroad, a presenter again and a teacher, and I find it striking that a return to screen acting followed all of that. She now teaches Japanese through remote lessons. In my view the pairing of presenting and language teaching is the clearest thread in her working life, since both depend on talking with people and keeping them at ease. If I were recommending a starting point, I would watch the 2026 series to see how she fits into an ensemble.
PROFILE DETAILS
- Native Name
- 曹蘭
- Real Name
- Tsao Lan (曹蘭, Lan Tsao)
- Pronouns
- she/her
- Gender
- Female
- Profession
- Nationality
- Debut
- 1985 · A Generation of Beauties (1985), CTV drama, supporting role
- Years Active
- 1985-1997, 2004-present
- Languages
- Mandarin Chinese (native), Japanese (fluent)
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