Series three of The White Lotus is back on screens at long last, with fans noticing a new face greeting guests as they arrive via boat to a 5* Thailand resort, but as it turns out, she’s far from a newcomer to the world of fame.

Lalisa Manobal, 27, is actually one-quarter of the world’s most successful girl band, Blackpink. She simply calls herself Lisa. The K-pop band has more than 40 billion on-demand streams and has been slowly climbing over the years.

This month has been extra special, though, with her first solo album and world tour announcement all coinciding in the same month as her acting debut in the HBO hit series, The White Lotus.

Originally from Thailand, Lisa was only 13 when she beat thousands of other up-and-coming musicians in auditions for Seoul-based Young Entertainment (YG) in hopes of securing a place on their notoriously gruelling trainee scheme.

In her early teenage years, she didn’t speak any Korean and was the company’s first-ever pop star hopeful who wasn’t of the country’s descent.

And the rest is history. Lisa went on to develop a confident on-stage persona renowned for her dancing and exceptional rapping skills, which led her to be part of the band as they earned the Best K-Pop prize at the MTV VMAs last September.

In her latest tease for her new album, Alter Ego, she hints at collaborations with Raye and Doja Cat.

Boasting more than 105 million followers on Instagram, Lisa also has a surprising Royal fan in King Charles III. The star was invited to Buckingham Palace in 2023 for a prestigious state banquet and received an honorary MBE from the King. In a gushing Instagram post, Lisa later said she would ‘forever cherish’ the moment, sharing an excited photo of herself holding up the award.

In October of the same year, she also became the first-ever K-pop soloist to get two 14 million-like videos on YouTube and, prior to this, was inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame for her works as a ‘cultural Icon.’

Lisa has also announced the launch of her own agency a year ago, in February 2024, via Instagram telling her masses of fans that her new venture was a “platform to showcase my vision in music and entertainment”.

She continued: “Join me on this exciting journey to push through new boundaries together.”

The move, which many believe is in a bid to launch a solo career in the wake of the band’s split from YG, follows fellow bandmates Jennie Kim’s launch of her agency ODD ATELIER and Kim Ji-soo’s Blissoo.

Her third bandmate, Rosé (real name Roseanne Park) also signed with THEBLACKLABEL and Atlantic Records ahead of releasing her debut solo project, Rosie, last year.

Fans shouldn’t worry. The girls are still together as Blackpink, but their individual agencies will allow them to expand further alone in the future. For now, the fabulous four are united and ready to take the world by storm in a new world tour later this year.

Plans will undoubtedly cause Lisa some difficult moments, though. The star admitted in her 2020 Netflix documentary, Blackpink: Light Up The Sky, that she can experience loneliness and finds time away from her family in Thailand challenging.

She said: “I had to keep fighting. I had to give it my all. I didn’t care about how long it would take. I said, ‘Bring it on! I don’t care anymore!”

But for her fans, known as ‘Blink’, who think being in a K-pop girl band is all sweetness and singing, Lisa has some honest news – the monthly performance evaluations were famously cutthroat – especially in her younger, earlier days.

“There would be times when I’d say, ‘I just want to go back to school’,” she recalled.

“Our debut plans kept being pushed back and back, and I couldn’t see the end of this. ‘When was this going to end? Like, when?! Do we have to get tested every single month?’

“When I told her, ‘I want to quit,’ my mom would say, ‘Think about your situation. How many kids want to be in your place? If you give up and come home, do you think you can have a normal life? You’re just going to try again. You’re here now, just hold on until the end.”

Lisa had a happy childhood, going to dance lessons from age five. Ironically, acting wasn’t for her. She said: “I hated acting. I was a baby trying to memorise lines, but I didn’t know how to read! How could I memorise lines?”

Fast forward years, and Lisa is confidently memorising lines for White Lotus and is having great success. In the show, she is featured as a worker at the hotel, welcoming guests and dancing in traditional Thai clothing, but fans have yet to find out more about her character.

She admitted to Elle that she cried when she found out the part was hers.

“I was with my friends, my mom’s friends, and my mom as well, but I didn’t tell them that I auditioned for it.

‘I’m super excited and nervous because it’s my first acting project. So I was happy for a second, and then I was like, ‘Oh, wait, wait, how am I going to deliver this?’ It’s pretty new to me, but I think it’s similar to shooting music videos… I’m excited for my fans to see it.

“I feel like people are going to fall in love with Thailand even more.”

Watch The White Lotus on Sky and its streaming service NOW. Episode 1 is now available, and a new episode will be released at 2am every Monday.

Celeb obsessed? Get a daily dose of showbiz gossip direct to your inbox