Name- Lucy Liu
- Date of Birth
- December 02, 1968
- Birth Place
- Queens, NY
- Relationships
- Will McCormack, boyfriend (2004 to present) Zach Helm, ex-boyfriend (2003 to 2004; engaged) Nicholas Lea, ex-boyfriend (1997 to 1998)
- 1968
Far From Barbie
While growing up in Queens, N.Y., Liu, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, dreams of an acting career, even though she rarely sees Asian performers in movies or on TV. "When you're younger and you don't feel like you quite fit in anywhere, you think there must be a community of misfits out there that you can fall into," she tells the New York Times. "The popular girls were all blondes," she adds to PEOPLE. "I wanted to be Barbie and I was as opposite to Barbie as you could get."- 1986
The Artistic Brain
Liu attends New York University before transferring to the University of Michigan where she majors in Asian studies. To her surprise, the aspiring actress is cast as the lead in a college production of Alice in Wonderland. The role, she says, changed her life. "I realized you can be anything you want in the world," she tells Newsday. "You don't have to follow what's given." Her self-expression – through performing, photography and painting – continues after college, when she is awarded a grant to make art in China.- 1990s
Small Sightings
Liu decides to pursue acting professionally and moves to L.A., where she appears in commercials and small parts on TV hits like Beverly Hills, 90210 and ER. "I fulfilled my parents' dreams by going to the University of Michigan. I always knew I wanted to act, so I went up to my father and I said, 'I am going to go to California,'" she recalls. "Now, they are my biggest fans." She eventually appears in Gridlock'd with Thandie Newton, plays a dominatrix in Payback (right) and Tom Cruise's ex-girlfriend in Jerry Maguire.- 1998
Creating Ling Woo
Ally McBeal show creator David E. Kelley develops a new character specifically for Liu. She plays Ling Woo, a combative client who becomes the firm's most politically incorrect lawyer, and earns an Emmy nomination and a shared SAG Award for the best ensemble. But Liu is criticized for perpetuating the Asian "dragon lady" stereotype. "This role has been liberating for me. I can bring who I am into it," Liu tells Newsweek. When she leaves the show in 2001 to pursue film, Liu thanks Kelley for giving her a role that "taught me about myself and helped me grow as a person."- 1999
What a Beauty!
PEOPLE names Liu one its 50 Most Beautiful people. Her Ally costar and onscreen love Greg Germann remembers his first impression of Liu, "I looked at her and just went, 'Whoa!' She's stunning," he tells PEOPLE. In 2004, she makes her second appearance in the annual issue. The following year, she costars with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson as Princess Pei-Pei in Shanghai Noon.- 2000
A Heavenly Role
Liu kicks butt alongside Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz in the big-screen remake Charlie's Angels, which rakes in $264 million worldwide. Liu calls the high-profile role in the original all-white TV cast "a historical step for me." Director McG adds, "Nobody ever gave her anything...It was that sort of elegant tenacity that I wanted to reflect in this movie's Alex character…There was no real agenda to cast an ethnic Angel..."- 2002
A Murderess in Chicago
Liu makes a show-stopping appearance as a pineapple heiress-turned-killer in the movie adaptation of Chicago. The film, which stars Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere and Queen Latifah, wins the Best Picture Oscar and a SAG Award for outstanding cast.- 2003
Not the Marrying Kind
Liu begins dating playwright Zach Helm (right), and in 2004, the pair is engaged. But they never make it to the altar, calling it quits at the end of 2004. "I don't want to settle for anything else," she tells In Style. "[Love] should be like lightning. For me it happens almost immediately." In 2005, she moves on with actor Will McCormack.
Returning for More
Liu re-teams with Barrymore and Diaz for Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, and this time, they lure Demi Moore out of her film hiatus to join them as a retired Angel with a tarnished halo. Although the sequel doesn't perform as well as the first installment at the box office, it still earns more than $37 million during its opening weekend.
Chopping Off Heads
Liu plays Queen of the Tokyo Underworld, O-Ren Ishii, who attempted to murder Uma Thurman's character in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1. The film eventually earns $110 million worldwide. In one scene, Liu slices off another gang leader's head during a mob meeting. She earns the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain, but once again, Liu finds herself defending her role. "I think that because I'm Asian, people will immediately sort of label it as a 'dragon lady,'" she tells CBS. "I think if it was, you know, Renée Zellweger playing this role, nobody would say, 'Dragon lady.'"
- 2006
Code Clooney: Calling Dr. Hearthrob!
PEOPLE reports that Liu – who had guest slots on ER in 1995 – and former ER star George Clooney were seen "lip-locking" in a limo outside a downtown Manhattan restaurant. Clooney's rep denies any romance between the stars.
3 Needles
Liu and Sandra Oh star in the indie drama, 3 Needles, which examines the global AIDS epidemic. Liu plays a blood collector who unknowingly transmits HIV to an entire Chinese village. "It's the plague of our century and something we have to acknowledge. If the message can come out in any other way, let it be through cinema," Liu tells the Chicago Sun-Times.- 2007
Visiting Betty
Liu guest stars on ABC's Ugly Betty as an attorney who seeks revenge on Betty's boss Daniel Meade (played by Eric Mabius, right). Soon after, ABC gives Liu her own show, Cashmere Mafia, which is produced by Darren Star of Sex and the City fame. She will play Mia Mason, an ambitious publishing executive, in the ensemble cast about four high-powered female professionals who bonded in business school.- 2008
From Mafia to Money?
Cashmere Mafia premieres on ABC. EW says, "Lucy Liu has a curious habit of spinning blondes into career gold." The series costars Miranda Otto, Bonnie Somerville, and Frances O'Connor (left). The series is plagued by low ratings and is cancelled in its first season. But Liu sticks with ABC, joining the cast of Dirty Sexy Money.
Dirty Sexy Lucy
Liu joins Peter Krause, Donald Sutherland and William Baldwin as a series regular on the show, making her Dirty Sexy Money debut on ABC. Playing the scheming yet stunning Nola Lyons in the first episode of the show's second season, Liu’s whip-smart fashionista Nola is set to become a permanent member of the Darling family's inner circle.
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