Yuan Shanshan was born in a wealthy and highly educated family, to civil servants parents, in Xiangcheng District of Xiangyang city, Hubei province on February 22, 1987.

[2] Yuan Shanshan first came to the attention of the audience when she played a supporting role in the historical television series Qin Xianglian.

[4] Thereafter Yuan starred in several productions by Yu Zheng such as Beauty Without Tears (2012),[5] the third installment of Yu Zheng's 'Beauty' series; Beauty of the Emperor (2012);[6] Swordsman (2013),[7] adapted from Jin Yong's wuxia novel The Smiling, Proud Wanderer; and Palace 3: The Lost Daughter (2014),[8] the sequel of Palace II — all of the series were popular during their run and led to increased recognition for Yuan.

[12] In 2015, Yuan starred in the superhero parody film Jian Bing Man,[13] which was a box office success and broke ten million admissions.

[15] She next starred in the South Korean-Chinese romantic comedy film So I Married an Anti-fan and recorded a duet with her co-star Park Chan-yeol from boy band Exo.