Lucy Liu

Early life and education

Lucy Liu, the youngest of three, was born on December 2, 1968, in Queens, New York, specifically the Jackson Heights area. Her father, Tom, was a civil engineer who also sold digital clock pens, while her mother, Cecilia, was a biochemist. Both parents, originally from Beijing and Shanghai, had immigrated to Taiwan as adults before meeting in New York. Liu grew up speaking Mandarin at home and picked up English at age five. She attended Joseph Pulitzer Middle School and later Stuyvesant High School. After a stint at New York University, she transferred to the University of Michigan, where she joined the Chi Omega sorority and graduated in 1990 with a bachelor’s in Asian languages and cultures.

Career

Liu became interested in acting as a child after hearing about someone her age who had been in a television commercial. At 19 she was discovered by an agent on the subway and appeared in one commercial. In 1989 she auditioned for the University of Michigan's production of Alice in Wonderland and was cast in the lead. She made her New York stage debut in May 1992 in Fairy Bones at Pan Asian Repertory Theatre.

Her big-screen debut came in 1992 in the Hong Kong film Rhythm of Destiny. In 1993 she appeared in an episode of L.A. Law. She co-starred on the sitcom Pearl, which lasted one season, and appeared in The X-Files. Her role was initially temporary but became permanent due to high ratings, earning her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.

She later starred in films including Charlie's Angels, Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Volume 2, Chicago, and Shanghai Noon, and played Dr. Joan Watson on Elementary from 2012 to 2019. She voiced Master Viper in the first three Kung Fu Panda films and Silvermist in the Tinker Bell series. In 2025 she received renewed critical attention for her performance in the psychological drama Rosemead.

Personal life

Liu has been a lifelong vegetarian. Her spiritual interests include Buddhism, Taoism, and a brief study of Kabbalah, and she finds the metaphysical fascinating. Since 2004, she has belonged to the Chinese-American Committee of 100. Her son Rockwell was born in 2015 via gestational surrogate, and she is raising him as a single parent. She participated in Tylenol's #HowWeFamily campaign, which honored non-traditional families.