Lucy Liu

"Everything I buy is vintage and smells funny. Maybe that's why I don't have a boyfriend." -Lucy Liu

biography

It's in the Italian neighborhood of Queens, New York that Lucy Alexis Liu was born on December 2, 1968. Her childhood in Jackson Heights with her brother and sister resembled that of many immigrant families. Even though it was difficult, her Chinese parents, a biochemist and a civil engineer, raised their children the American way.

They also taught their children to speak both English and Mandarin, which caused Lucy to have an identity crisis during her days at Manhattan's Stuyvesant High School. Still, she learned to accept herself and graduated in 1986.

lucy liu in school

After the summer, she enrolled in New York University. In spite of the school being a very distinguished establishment of higher learning, she found the place to be gloomy and cynical. As a result, she only stayed for a year.

For her sophomore year, Lucy went to Ann Arbor and joined the University of Michigan, where she studied singing, acting and dancing. She ultimately graduated with a degree in Asian languages and cultures.

lucy's early tv roles

Lucy always knew she was artistic and, during her senior year of high school, she tried her hand at theater in Andre Gregory's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. This gave her a taste of what it's like to be a professional actress and she quickly wanted more.

She moved to Los Angeles, where she supported herself by being a waitress. Before long, she landed a guest-starring part on Beverly Hills, 90210. Over the years, she made other guest appearances in shows such as L.A. Law, Coach, Home Improvement, ER, The X Files, High Incident, and NYPD Blue.

In 1993, Lucy's collection of multimedia art pieces was showcased at the Cast Iron Gallery in SoHo. Because of that, she was awarded a grant to study art in China. Upon her return, the chronicles of her journey (photography, paints, ceramics, collages) were exhibited in a gallery in Venice, California.

lucy on ally mcbeal

Along with her early TV career, Liu landed roles in small movies. She was in the Hong Kong feature Rhythm of Destiny (1992), the early Darren Aronofsky film Protozoa (1993), Bang (1995), and she had a small role in Jerry Maguire (1996) as one of Jerry's former girlfriends.

In 1996, Liu was also cast as a regular in the short-lived CBS sitcom Pearl, with Rhea Perlman and Malcolm McDowell. This secured her position in Hollywood and, in 1997, she was in five movies: Gridlock'd, City of Industry, Guy, Flypaper, and television's Riot. After a small role in Mario Van Peebles' Love Kills (1998), Lucy was introduced to mainstream America. She auditioned for the role of Nelle Porter on Ally McBeal, but Portia de Rossi got it instead. Nevertheless, writer-producer David E. Kelley noticed Lucy's spunk and promised to write a character especially for her.

The character was Ling Woo, a fiery lawyer who never took no for an answer, and she was introduced in a September 1998 episode of Ally McBeal. Lucy was so riveting that she was invited to join the regular cast. She was nominated for an Emmy (as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series) in 1999 and stayed on until the show's demise in 2002.

lucy the movie star

With her stock rising, Lucy was in demand and made several motion pictures. In 1999, she played a dominatrix in Payback with Mel Gibson, and appeared in Clint Eastwood's True Crime, Molly, The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human (with Carmen Electra), and the sports comedy Play It to the Bone, starring Antonio Banderas and Woody Harrelson.

lucy liu in charlie's angels

Lucy's next project was the action comedy Shanghai Noon (2000) with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. Shortly thereafter, she appeared in another blockbuster, the star-studded Charlie's Angels (2000), in which she played one of the female leads alongside Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore.

Following the independent Mike Figgis film Hotel (2001), Liu teamed up with Antonio Banderas once more and starred as a government agent in Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002). After Cypher (2002) and a brief appearance in the Oscar-winning Chicago (2002), she joined the "Angels" again for Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003).

lucy liu in kill bill vol. 1

After that, she decided to slow down because her schedule was too hectic. Consequently, Lucy kept busy with only one movie -- although it's since been partitioned in two -- Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004, in archived footage).

In 2005, she can add Domino, 3 Needles and Lucky Number Slevin to her resume.