| Birth Name: | Renee Li-Yen Lim |
| Birth Place: | Perth, Australia |
Renee Li-Yen Lim[1] (born) is an Australian actress, television presenter, and medical doctor. She is best known for her roles as Constable Jung Lim in East West 101, Mae in Please Like Me and her recurring role as Vivienne Hart in The Secret Daughter.
Lim was born in Perth, Western Australia to Chinese-Malaysian parents[2] who had migrated from Malaysia to Australia in the 1970s.[3] When she was five years old, her parents divorced.[2] Lim was primarily raised by her single father.[2] Her mother moved to Malaysia[2] and remarried, with a Peranakan man.[4] Lim would often travel to Malaysia, where she had family other than her mother, to visit her mother.[2] Lim's father later also remarried, and had a son with his new wife when she was 12 years old.[2]
Lim graduated as the dux of her high school Hampton Senior High School.[2] [5] Few from Lim's high school pursued tertiary studies, and she had initially intended to "be a doctor on weekdays, a lawyer on weekends, an actor on the holidays and a dancer at night".[2]
At 17 years old, Lim moved to Sydney, New South Wales to commence medical studies at the University of New South Wales, graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery in 2001.[6]
In 2000, Lim co-directed the University of New South Wales Medical Revue, American Booty (an homage to the 1999 film American Beauty), alongside Keith Lim and Jason Appleby.[7] Also during her university studies, Lim co-authored two academic articles.[8] [9]
Lim is a physician, mostly working in part-time, locum posts in emergency medicine, geriatrics, and palliative care departments,[10] [11] [2] [5] and a clinical lecturer at the University of Sydney's Northern Clinical School.[12] She is the Director of Programs at the Pam McLean Centre, an organisation that develops communication training for medical professionals.
Lim considered leaving medical practice altogether to focus on acting; however, she realised that she "love[d] it", adding that "acting is now my job opposed to my hobby".[11]
As an actor, Lim made ten guest appearances on the Australian hospital drama All Saints as Suzi Lau, and appeared as a regular cast member on SBS's police drama East West 101 as Jung Lim.[13] Lim played Mae, the younger Thai girlfriend of Josh's father, in Please Like Me, and starred in Forget Me Not in 2014,[14] and in The Secret Daughter, Wonderland and Pulse in 2016.
As a presenter she has appeared on the ABC's Ask The Doctors, and on Food Investigators and Destination Flavour.
Lim creates content for Nay In The Life, a multi-platform project that combines video, theatre and written content centred around well-being and personal development.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Paramedic #2 | Short | ||
| 2005 | Cindy Kwok | Short | ||
| 2006 | In Opposition | Colleen | Short | |
| 2009 | Abbie | Short | ||
| 2009 | Rose | Dead Thing | Short | |
| 2009 | First Date | Kim | Short | |
| 2009 | Polla/Mark | Polla | Short | |
| 2009 | Fallen | Linda | Short | |
| 2011 | Lisa Lung | |||
| 2012 | Dead Moon Circus | Rei Hino / Sailor Mars | ||
| 2013 | Dead Moon Circus 2 | Rei Hino / Sailor Mars | ||
| 2013 | Rana | Short | ||
| 2014 | Ad Nauseam | Chlorine | ||
| 2014 | Forget Me Not | Jennifer | ||
| 2020 | Never Too Late | Lin | ||
| 2020 | The Dry | Sandra Whitlam | ||
| 2021 | Sydney Stories | Call Girl | ||
| 2021 | Mary's Room | Shu | Short | |
| 2022 | Dark Noise | Jill Croker |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | White Collar Blue | Housekeeper | "2.22" | |
| 2007–11 | East West 101 | Jung Lim | Main role | |
| 2008–09 | All Saints | Suzi Lau | Regular role | |
| 2010 | Packed to the Rafters | Anh | "Out of the Comfort Zone" | |
| 2011 | Crownies | Det. Karen Liu | Recurring role | |
| 2012 | Alex | Regular role | ||
| 2013–14 | Atomic Kingdom | Verity Long / Jade Long | "Elite", "Bound by Blood", "Bitter Kin" | |
| 2013–16 | Please Like Me | Mae | Main role | |
| 2014–15 | Wonderland | Song Luu | Recurring role | |
| 2015 | Plonk | Lucy | "Barossa" | |
| 2016 | Emily | TV series | ||
| 2016 | Deep Water | Det. Ginger | TV miniseries | |
| 2016-17 | The Secret Daughter | Vivienne Hart | 11 episodes | |
| 2017 | Pulse | Monica Lee | 8 episodes | |
| 2018 | Bite Club | Olivia | 1 episode | |
| 2018 | Rake | Tina | 1 episode | |
| 2017-21 | Little J & Big Cuz | Ms Chen | 40 episodes | |
| 2019-20 | Reckoning | Marcy | 5 episodes | |
| 2019 | Secret City | Helen Wu | 4 episodes | |
| 2019 | Diary of an Uber Driver | Tess | 1 episode | |
| 2019 | Preacher | TV Anchor | 2 episodes | |
| 2021 | The Unusual Suspects | Detective Lim | TV miniseries | |
| 2021 | Clickbait | Alice | TV miniseries, 4 episodes | |
| 2021 | Fires | Fiona Rocca | 1 episode | |
| 2022 | The Tourist | Marnie Brown | 2 episodes | |
| 2022 | Bali 2002 | Joy Fong | 4 episodes | |
| 2022 | Black Snow | Angie Zang | 4 episodes | |
| 2022-23 | The PM's Daughter[15] | Deputy Principal | 5 episodes |