As a former student of Hanoi's College of Art, she was trained to be an actress. Thùy Linh had also joined girlband Thien Than. During her teenage years, Thùy Linh was a presenter for HanoiTV's game show for children Vui Cùng Hugo. She was famous as a teenager, winning Hoa Học Trò's ICON contest in 2006, and by participating in many TV commercials and adverts as well as being on magazine covers for teenagers. Thùy Linh's first appearance as an actress was the role in Đường đời drama as a little girl named Thùy. After that success, she was cast in two other dramas Trò đùa của số phận filmed by Director Huy Thuần, and her Lan role in Đi về phía mặt trời of Director Lưu Trọng Ninh. In 2006, Thùy Linh started studying at the Department of TV director – Vietnam Acting and Film College and graduated in 2009. In 2007 Thùy Linh was cast for a leading role in the second season of an interactive television program – "Vàng Anh's Diary" originally known as Nhật ký Vàng Anh – a well received sitcom due to its educational inspirations to Vietnamese youth.
Controversy
In September 2007, a video of Thùy Linh having sexual intercourse with her boyfriend was leaked online. The video first hit YouTube and was quickly removed, but then it found its way onto the Vietnamese forums. The video spread widely throughout the nation and was the biggest scandal ever in the Vietnamese entertainment industry. The scandal caused an outcry domestically and internationally with the outstanding involvement of the media from the UK and the US. The incident was also mentioned by Perez Hilton on his blog. The affair generated public debates in many ways, the teenage youth called for a sympathetic tolerance to Thùy Linh while adults, as parents in particular, heavily criticized and even informally demanded from her an official apology for indirectly putting the end to an education oriented TV program of Vietnam's youth. On September 14, 2007, producers of Vàng Anh's Diary announced the cancellation of the show with the last episode was a pre-recorded talk show with Thùy Linh where she publicly apologized for the video. VTV later was heavily criticized for this show.
Post Scandal career
After the scandal, Thùy Linh went low-profile for a year and then returned to the scene in 2010 with the self-titled debut album "Hoàng Thùy Linh – Vol.1". Though it received very little promotion, the album still managed to gain much success with many critics who praised her singing ability and the album's quality. In May 2011, Thùy Linh released her second album entitled "Đừng Vội Vàng". Similar to her debut album, many critics praised her singing ability and the album's production. Both albums have the Pop, Dance-Pop style. On March 6th 2018, she published her autobiography "Vàng Anh & Phượng Hoàng", which chronicles her career, including her thought on the scandal.
