01 June 2007

Young Filmmaker - Lucy Liu

Lucy Liu

Born in New York to parents who had emigrated from Taiwan, Lucy Liu did not learn English until age five. After high school, she attended the University of Michigan, earning a degree in Asian language and culture. Near the end of her college career, Liu tried out for and won a role in a stage production of The Wizard of Oz, and her acting career was launched. Today, the 38-year-old has quite an acting resume, including voices for several animated films, a regular role in the television series Ally McBeal, and roles in a number of films, including Kill Bill I and II and a starring role in Charlie’s Angels and its sequel. Liu has also started producing films, including documentaries. She starred in one of her productions, 3 Needles, in which she played an HIV-positive woman in China.

A renaissance woman, Liu is an artist whose works have had three gallery shows. She practices martial arts, plays a musical instrument, skis, and climbs rocks. She speaks fluent Chinese, as well as some Japanese, Italian, and Spanish. Liu traveled to Pakistan and Lesotho in her role as an ambassador for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, and she won an Asian Excellence Award for her visibility as an Asian American in the media.

From the June 2007 edition of eJournal USA.