Fangran Li is a theatre director and translator originally from Dandong, Liaoning, China. Her experience of living between cultures since college has deeply shaped her artistic journey. Through theatre, she strives to bridge cultural divides, using performance as a vessel to help people who don’t understand, understand.

Fangran’s professional directing credits include the one-act play Elephant in the Room (2022), and immersive theatre LIES £¥€$ 2.0 (2021). In recent years, she has worked in China's commercial musical theatre industry, contributing to both new works and Chinese-language adaptations of American musicals. Her assistant and associate directing credits include Kim’s Convenience (2026), Rouge (2024), Our Life Long Serendipity (2022), and Murder Ballad (2020).

She is currently a third-year John Wells Directing Fellow in the MFA Directing program at Carnegie Mellon University. Her directing credits at CMU include Antigone (2025) , and People, Places and Things which is upcoming in the fall of 2026. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hampshire College, concentrating in theatre directing and Japanese.