“I know that I shouldn’t think too much about it, but I’m excited to see the reactions to Posy” — Isabella Wei is a dazzling force poised to mark the season.
Isabella Wei Bursts Onto the Scene
LONDON, January 19, 2026
In front of the camera, Wei brings the enchanting rooms of the Henry’s to life with her joy, light, and grace. Casually dressed in a red jumper and grey tailored trousers, she describes her style as “a good mix of things.” Then she explains, “I don’t always want to be super girly, I don’t always want to be super cool.” That sense of authenticity guided how she approached this press run. “I remember asking my stylist Aimée [Croysdill], who I just started working with when I was cast in Bridgerton, about method dressing, and she was like, ‘It’s fun and it’s great, but at the same time with events like that, you want to show yourself.’”
Before acting truly found her, Wei loved playing dress-up and performing for an audience. “When I was young, there was one time I went to Ocean Park [Hong Kong] for Halloween with my dad — I was the Grim Reaper, and I would sit on a bench and have people come take a picture with me because they thought I was a statue, and then I would scare them,” she recalls with a laugh. Wei admits she didn’t grow up watching many films, aside from “Disney movies and everything like Hannah Montana.” Her upbringing otherwise involved a wide variety of sports. “Before I started dancing, I did a lot of cross-country, swimming, and even basketball. I guess that physicality first brought me into dance and then helped me a lot with acting as well.”
Wei began honing her craft as a dancer and performer with the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation. In 2018, spurred on by her dance teacher, she competed at the Dance World Cup, where she realized just how far her grit and determination could take her. “Dance had always been something that I loved, but never something that I thought of in the grand scheme of things,” she says. “Just making it through to the finals, I was like, ‘Okay, I’m not really horrible, I do have the potential to compete against these people,’” she laughs. “So, that was really transformative for me. That moment was the first time I felt like I really wanted something.”
Without any prior experience or clear intention to become an actor, because “it wasn’t something that [she] had officially decided on,” Wei booked her first television role at 16 after responding to an open casting call. What sparked her interest in acting was a play she did in Hong Kong. “I remember the day I finished it, I was in the shower and said to myself, ‘I’ve done a lot of dance and I don’t want to stop dancing, but I think I love acting and I would really want to do more.’” As if it was written in the stars for her, the audition for the Netflix thriller series 1899 came through two days later. “That feels so long ago now, especially because I’m older and I haven’t been in school for a while, and that whole period felt so surreal,” she says. “[That first project] was very shaping in the sense that it was the first time my eyes were ever open to this industry. And even before I went to Germany, I knew that I would love it and I would have the best time, which I did.”
When she found out she’d landed her role in Bridgerton, Wei was in New York for the premiere of The Crow — her first feature film that she shot in 2022 right after graduating from Chinese International School. “It had been so many weeks of my agent telling me that we were supposed to hear back, and it’s so hard to put your hopes and the anticipation aside, but I just had to,” she says. “Then that morning, my agent called me, asked how I was feeling about the day, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m excited, it’s going to be an exciting day.’ And she went, ‘It’s going to be an even more exciting day because you’ve just booked the role of Posy.’” As soon as she hung up, Wei ran out of her room to share the news with her dad who was by her side. “It was really early in the morning, so he opened the door kind of angrily because he didn’t know who was banging on his door,” she laughs. Then, she “just screamed and celebrated” with the rest of her family in Hong Kong.
Even though her family is “not artsy,” Wei can rely on them as she navigates her burgeoning career. That close bond was especially meaningful at the buzzy Bridgerton premiere in Paris. “One of my happiest memories was reuniting with them after doing all the interviews, and seeing that they were there and they looked so beautiful. And my brother has never been to one of my premieres before, so it makes me excited that they get to experience this as well.”
With many of her roles taking place in darker worlds, Wei stepped into Bridgerton with a light heart. “The stakes in Bridgerton, although high, seem much lower than something like 1899, where you’re in a simulation, and you’re running and screaming,” she says with a laugh. “There were a lot of things affecting my previous characters [who were] the recipient of a lot of adventure, action, and events. But this one was just super chill.” As her Bridgerton character debuts in the Mayfair society, Wei was met with open arms on the show. “All the existing cast members were incredibly kind and humble. And there was no sense of distance, shyness, or awkwardness between us new cast members and the existing cast members.”
Centered on the love story between Benedict Bridgerton [Luke Thompson] and Sophie Baek [Yerin Ha], the fourth installment is a reimagining of Cinderella and explores the class dynamics. It introduces the Penwoods — Posy, her mother Lady Araminta Gun [Katie Leung], and sister Rosamund Li [Michelle Mao] — who serve as the main antagonists of the season. “I actually met Katie at the audition, at the time when there were a lot of girls, and then I saw her again at the table read. Then Michelle came all the way from LA. We had dinner together when she got to the UK and found out that we went to the same school in Hong Kong. She left when she was nine years old or something like that, but it was so funny.”
According to Wei, joining the series alongside her on-screen relatives, “especially a family of all [East] Asian women,” made it less intimidating. “I think if I was the only person new to the cast, it would feel like a really big task,” she admits, before reflecting on the power of a diverse ensemble cast. “With a show like Bridgerton, there is not so much pressure to be so special or standout because you’re the one person who looks different. It’s like we, as Asian women, are just like anyone else in this Bridgerton world. We experience love, we can be dramatic, and we can be feisty. I think it takes some of that pressure away.” Wei has a naturally sunny disposition, so it’s easy to see why she stood out as the best casting choice for Posy who is also Sophie’s younger, kinder stepsister. “It was a very new and refreshing experience to play a character that, in this world of love, can still be the happiest person there. And it wasn’t something that I had done before — playing a character so earnest and so funny.”
When asked if Posy is the character that feels the closest to her, she mentions that her loved ones had different reviews. “I watched the first episode with one of my friends and she was like, ‘Wow, this character is so similar to you!’ But when my family watched it, they said that this is the character that’s most different to me.” She adds, “I do think we’re quite similar in some ways — there were a few moments of Posy in the show where she’s just really excited about things, she’s happy about things that she’s done, and she’s proud of herself, and I think that’s quite similar to me. I definitely put an effort, even unconsciously, to be really grateful for what I’ve been experiencing. Every time I go to a new place or there’s a new poster of Bridgerton, it’s really exciting.”
While Posy is a beloved, “sweet and bubbly” character in the books, Wei wanted to make sure to take what people love the most about her for the screen adaptation — “her little bit of shyness, but at the same time her desire to speak her mind.” She also relished the opportunity to fully flesh out a character. “I quite liked putting on an accent for Bridgerton,” says Wei, who grew up speaking English with a father from Taiwan raised in Canada and a mother from Hong Kong. Speaking about how she made the character her own, she notes, “I think Posy was the first time I really got to think about how this person would blink and what habits they would have. So, I guess there are certain things that I took from myself, like maybe the way that she laughs or things that she says.”
If dance taught her discipline, Wei reveals she was encouraged to be “a little more carefree” and “not worry so much about being very precise” on the set of Bridgerton. “I remember each director wanted a different thing and required a different attention to the character, and that was a really interesting learning process for me,” she says. “I think at the beginning of the shoot, I had fallen into a rhythm of comedy meant to be really rehearsed and planned. And then, I remember one of the times I was shooting, I was given a note to be more relaxed. And at that moment, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I completely forgot how to do that because I spent so long trying to teach myself to be really specific.’”
At the end of season four’s part one, we imagine we will get more of the Penwood family in the four remaining episodes releasing in February, which Wei is eager for. “Posy has some really exciting, shaping moments in part two that I found super fun to film, where maybe she’s the underdog and saves the day,” she says. “I was really happy with my performance, so I’m really excited for people to watch that and see what they think.”
As her journey continues, Wei is drawn to stories that can allow her to expand her repertoire. “I’m excited for [Bridgerton] to bring a new spectrum of roles — I had something really light and comedic with Posy, so I’d love to play a villain.” In fact, she played the antagonist in her first-ever acting project with the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation. “[That play] was a really tough experience for me because I’d never acted prior to that,” she says. “I think now having gone through a few years of experience, it would be really interesting to revisit that. I think it would be challenging in a really fun way.” Though she is quick to mention that “something like Step Up or Honey,” which incorporates her love of dance and acting, would be her dream opportunity. “Aside from the product being something that I would love to watch, it would also be a process that I would really enjoy.” But for now, Wei tells us that we’ve caught her in London just in time, as she is due to flight out the following day for another project — one she can’t yet reveal.
Bridgerton season 4 part 1 is now streaming on Netflix. Part 2 premieres on February 26
GRUMPY MAGAZINE 
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