Lucy Liu is an American actress who is Chinese by origin. An Emmy nominated performer she is best known for her roles in movies like Kill Bill and the Charlie's Angels films. In addition, her television stint with popular series, Ally McBeal (1998–2002) brought her into the limelight initially which later paved way for more work for her.
She was born as Lucy Alexis LiuDecember 2, 1968 in JacksonHeights, Queens, New York to civil engineer father and a biochemist mother both of whom sacrificed their careers in china to move base to the United States. She has a brother named
Alex Liu. Due to the Chinese ambience around her, Lucy started speaking English at the age of 5. She attended the JosephPulitzerMiddle School and graduated from New York City's prestigious StuyvesantHigh School in 1986. Lucy went on to join the
New YorkUniversity for further studies, but upon getting discouraged by the dark environment there, se shifted after one year to University of Michigan where she joined the Chi Omega sorority and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Asian Languages and Cultures.
Career in Movies
Her foray into acting was by luck only. In 1989, upon auditioning for a small role in her senior year, production of Alice in Wonderland in University Of Michigan, she landed the lead part. Her first brush with acting was a pleasurable experience which further encouraged Lucy to pursue it as a full time career.
She had to endure through many hardships as she managed to get only small walk on parts in television shows like "Hell Money" episode of The X-Files and "The March to Freedom" episode on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Liu’s big break came with her landing the role of 'Ling Woo' on the popular series, Ally Mcbeal (1997) which was in fact created especially for her. Incidentally, Lucy went in to audition for the part of 'Nelle Porter' played by Portia de Rossi. It also earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy Series.
This recognition trickled down into quality roles falling in Liu’s lap like "Pearl" the sadistic dominatrix/hit woman for the Chinese mafia in the film Payback (1999) and her first lead role as Alex Munday in the Charlie's Angels (2000) film, alongside established Hollywood stars Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz. The movie went on to become a major hit and its sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, opened in June 2003 and was a box-office hit again, earning more than $100 million in the U.S., and a worldwide total of more than $259 million. In between these two movies, Lucy’s venture with Antonio Banderas in Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2001) fell flat on box office.
Her next major movie was Kill Bill (2003), a Quentin Tarantino's 2003 film where she played one of the major villains, O-Ren Ishii. The movie earned her the MTV Movie Award for "Best Movie Villain". After this followed a series of roles for Lucy including Matt Le Blanc’s love interest on the popular sitcom, Joey, Kitty Baxter in the film Chicago (2002), a psychologist opposite Keira Knightley in the thriller Domino (2005) and again a lead role opposite Josh Hartnett in the crime thriller Lucky Number Slevin (2007). Other appearances include a cameo on the animated show Futurama and recently, The Simpsons and Code Name: The Cleaner (2007).
Liu also stepped into production with executively producing the documentary Freedom's Fury (2006) about the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. She is also known for her work as Jin Ping, an HIV-positive Chinese woman in the film 3 Needles. Apparently, she lowered her price for the movie as she was keen on spreading awareness regarding AIDS in China and Thailand.
Lucy’s future projects revolve around a variety of subjects like Watching the Detectives, an independent romantic comedy co-starring Cillian Murphy, and Kung Fu Panda, an animated film in 2008 and Beautiful Asian Brides and a new version of Charlie Chan both of whom she is producing.
The lady who has earlier hinted to be on the bisexual side is into rock climbing, practices martial arts, skis, and plays the accordion. Besides this, she has a keen interest in collage, paintings, and photography, for which she has organized exhibitions showcasing her work. The profits generated from there have been donated to the UNICEF for whom she is also a brand ambassador.
In 2001, Liu was the spokesperson for the Lee National Denim Day fund-raiser which raises millions of dollars for breast cancer research and education. In 2005, Liu was appointed a U.S. Fund for UNICEF Ambassador; in that capacity, she has traveled to Pakistan and Lesotho, among other countries. She also hosted an MTV documentary for the MTV EXIT campaign in 2007, produced to raise awareness of human trafficking in Asia. Early in 2006, Liu received an "Asian Excellence Award" for Visibility, since she is considered the most well-known and visible Asian American in the media today. She is also the first Asian-American woman to host Saturday Night Live.
She currently lives with her married brother and his wife and hopes to scale the highest most towers of Hollywood through her work and determination.
