Renee Lim

Early life and education

Lim was born in Perth, Western Australia to Chinese-Malaysian parents who had migrated from Malaysia to Australia in the 1970s. When she was five years old, her parents divorced; Lim was primarily raised by her single father, and her mother moved to Malaysia and remarried a Peranakan man. Lim would often travel to Malaysia, where she had family other than her mother, to visit her mother. Lim's father later remarried and had a son with his new wife when she was 12 years old.

Lim graduated as the dux of her high school, Hampton Senior High School. 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".

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.

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. Also during her university studies, Lim co-authored two academic articles.

Medical career

Lim is a physician, mostly working in part-time, locum posts in emergency medicine, geriatrics, and palliative care departments, and a clinical lecturer at the University of Sydney's Northern Clinical School. 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".

Entertainment career

As an actor, Lim has made ten guest appearances on the Australian hospital drama All Saints as Suzi Lau and also as a regular cast member SBS's police drama East West 101 as Jung Lim. As of 2014, Lim is currently playing Mae, the younger Thai girlfriend of Josh's father, in Please Like Me. She starred in 2016's The Secret Daughter, Wonderland and the upcoming ABC drama Pulse. She also stars in 2014's Forget Me Not.

As a presenter she also appears on the ABC's Ask The Doctors, as well as previously presenting on Food Investigators and Destination Flavour.

She also creates content for her website Nay In The Life, a multi-platform project that combines video, theatre and written content centred around well-being and personal development.