[1] Jia’s directorial debut, Hi, Mom (2021), in which she also starred, made her the world’s highest-grossing female director at the time,[2][3] a title she held until Greta Gerwig's Barbie (2023).
Her mother, Li Huanying, whose strong accent confused the pronunciation of “drama” (戏剧; xìjù) and “comedy” (喜剧; xǐjù), inadvertently steered her toward crosstalk.
Struggling to find performance opportunities, she took on various jobs to make a living, including part-time hosting, scriptwriting, and assisting other artists.
[7] In 2003, Jia graduated from the Central Academy of Drama and participated in China's National Comic sketch Tournament (全国相声小品邀请赛), winning first place.
In July, 2009, she formed a comedy group named "New Laughter Inn" (新笑声客栈) with fellow comedian Zou Seng (邹僧), and established her own style of crosstalk nicknamed "cooltalk" (酷口相声).
An institute called Mulan Cultural Research Centre criticized her and asked for a public apology, but a lot of Chinese netizens supported her and believed that her performance should be acceptable.
The authority and reliability of the Mulan Cultural Research Centre are still controversial, and many people asked for enhancing the regulation of this kind of institutes.
In 2021, her directorial debut and first leading role, the film Hi, Mom, made in memory of her late mother and adapted from her 2016 comedy sketch of the same name, was released during the Chinese Spring Festival.