In China, people are renting their faces to AI dramas

In China, the AI boom that put actors and models out of work has found a new use for them. It is renting their faces.

A growing set of platforms now pays people $15 to $700 to license their likeness for AI-generated content, Rest of World reported. Producers browse catalogues of faces by gender, age and category, from “girl-next-door” to “supermodel,” then filter them by genre.

The demand comes from China’s microdrama industry, the ultrashort vertical series made for phones. China released 128,000 of them in the first quarter of 2026. More than 95% used AI in production.

How renting a face works

ActID, a Shenzhen platform launched in March, has registered around 800 users. About 300 agreed to license their image. Two AI productions have licensed roughly ten faces so far, at 99 to 500 yuan ($15 to $74) an episode, with ActID taking a tenth.