[4] Pan was born and raised in Xuanwu District, Beijing, while his ancestral home in Xinfeng County, Shaoguan, Guangdong.

[5] His father Pan Zhiguang was a director of a department of the Public Security Bureau, and his mother was an employee of a state-owned enterprise.

In 2000, Pan played the lead role in Lu Xuechang's A Lingering Face, which earned him a Best New Performer Award at the Beijing College Student Film Festival.

Pan earned his second Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actor nomination for his performance as Lin Wei in Extreme Danger (2002).

In 2004, Pan was cast in the historical television series The Legendary Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, playing the son of Chen Baoguo's and Xu Fan's characters.

[7] In 2007, Pan appeared as Zhu Huifang, a Beijing Opera actor who is Mei Lanfang's cousin, in Chen Kaige's film Forever Enthralled.