Print this page
Lucy Liu Biography
Actress. Born Lucy Alexis Liu, on December 2, 1967, in Queens, New York. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Liu attended New York City’s prestigious Stuyvesant High School. She enrolled at New York University, but transferred after one year to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where she studied Asian languages and culture and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1990. During her senior year at Michigan, Liu auditioned for a supporting part in a school production of Alice in Wonderland; to her surprise, she won the lead role, that of the typically blond, blue-eyed Alice. With that, her acting career had officially begun.
Her earliest acting job found Liu in a small role on the teen drama Beverly Hills, 90210 during the 1991-92 season, playing a waitress at the gang’s favorite hang-out, the Peach Pit. Over the next several years, Liu made appearances on such popular television shows as Coach, The X-Files, and ER, and earned a spot in the cast of the short-lived sitcom Pearl (1996-97), starring Rhea Perlman. She made her mainstream movie debut as one of many former girlfriends of Tom Cruise’s character in Jerry Maguire (1996), but landed more substantial roles in such little-seen independent features as Guy (1996), Gridlock’d (1997), and City of Industry (1997), starring Harvey Keitel.
Actress. Born Lucy Alexis Liu, on December 2, 1967, in Queens, New York. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Liu attended New York City’s prestigious Stuyvesant High School. She enrolled at New York University, but transferred after one year to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where she studied Asian languages and culture and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1990. During her senior year at Michigan, Liu auditioned for a supporting part in a school production of Alice in Wonderland; to her surprise, she won the lead role, that of the typically blond, blue-eyed Alice. With that, her acting career had officially begun.
Her earliest acting job found Liu in a small role on the teen drama Beverly Hills, 90210 during the 1991-92 season, playing a waitress at the gang’s favorite hang-out, the Peach Pit. Over the next several years, Liu made appearances on such popular television shows as Coach, The X-Files, and ER, and earned a spot in the cast of the short-lived sitcom Pearl (1996-97), starring Rhea Perlman. She made her mainstream movie debut as one of many former girlfriends of Tom Cruise’s character in Jerry Maguire (1996), but landed more substantial roles in such little-seen independent features as Guy (1996), Gridlock’d (1997), and City of Industry (1997), starring Harvey Keitel.
