Andrew Lin was born in Taipei, Taiwan on 7th August 1969.  Painting and drawing has been one of his passions ever since he learnt how to hold a pencil with his hand, obtaining best art grades within class/school throughout elementary school. He knew he was destined to become an artist for the rest of his life.
 
At the age of 12, he immigrated to the States with his family and settled in Los Angeles. Throughout high school era, Andrew continued to pursue art and enrolled into competitions receiving several awards and compliments. He obtained a BFA Degree in Illustration from the California State University of Long Beach.

Fascinated by the creatures in Star Wars, Andrew began taking courses in SFX make-up at Joe Blasco Make-up Centre and Elegance Make-up Academy during his college years. Upon graduation from university, Andrew began doing internship at SFX shops in Los Angeles, becoming a freelance SFX make-up artist in Hollywood. He then launched his own company, Cinemorph EFX Group, together with a few friends, overseeing special make-up effects for numerous films and TV commercials, including Alien 3 and Mimic.

Realising the great potential and lack of professional make-up artists in Asia, Andrew Lin came back to HK in 1996, with the aim to promote SFX Make-up within the entertainment business. While promoting his skills in Hong Kong and Taiwan, he was spotted by director Chu Yen Ping and became an actor at the same time.

As an actor, Andrew treats acting as a creative process of art. It is an alternate manifestation of art, so to speak, an expressive art form created by the actor’s character, voice, body language etc… “Acting is like painting, I treat each scene like I am choosing colours to put onto the canvas. Pretty soon, you will have a canvas full of colours with the image you have created. In terms of acting, the final canvas becomes the role you have created through your performance”, comments Andrew. 

Recently, Andrew Lin is in the process of setting up a SFX make-up workshop and a training school in Beijing. He hopes to train up professional SFX talents in mainland China, which the region is very much lacking.

Despite his life as an actor and SFX make-up artist, Andrew Lin has not given up his lifelong passion of painting. In 2008, he began working on a collection of artworks titled Sins of Hong Kong. He had a vision of doing a series of artworks that would convey or sum up the negative feelings he has felt over his 10 year stay in Hong Kong. Andrew treats painting as an emotional release tool, throwing all his negative energy onto canvas. Right now, Andrew enjoys exploring different mediums including wood carving, prints, clay etc… He wishes to continue to paint and sculpt, even though the theme might not be as dark as the one in Sins of Hong Kong. In 2009, Andrew Lin was also invited by the Ambassadors of Design to participate in a design project of the Detour 2009 programme.