Mardy Ma is a Chinese actress and entrepreneur born and raised in the countryside of Henan province, China. She went to college in Zhengzhou while owning and operated two restaurants. In 2000, after graduating, she sold her two restaurants and moved to Shanghai, China, where she studied acting at Shanghai Theatre Academy in 2000 and invested in other real estate properties. In the early 2000s, she signed on as the Asian deal closer and negotiator for Gary Goddard Entertainment (now Legacy Entertainment), an independent themed entertainment design firm based in Hollywood. She worked on dozens of major theme parks and resorts deals in China, including the Intangible Cultural Heritage Exposition Park in Chengdu, Haichang Polar Ocean World in Shanghai, and Dream Bund World Studios in Hengdian. In early 2014, she auditioned in Beijing, China for a role in a BBC television movie entitled One Child. In 2018, she co-executive produced the feature film Anima (莫尔道嘎) with Enlight Media. During Christmas 2019, she returned to the United States for the holiday season, but end up stuck in Los Angeles as the COVID 19 pandemic began in China. From 2020 to 2023, she retired from the theme park business and pursued a full time acting careeer in Hollywood.
