Lucy Alexis Liu (born December 2, 1968 in New York City, New York, United States) is an American actress of Chinese ancestry, who starred in the TV series Ally McBeal and in the 2000 film Charlie's Angels. Her Chinese name is Liú Yùlíng.
She was raised in Queens, New York by Chinese immigrant parents, and attended New York City's famous Stuyvesant High School. She attended New York University for one year, transferred to University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and graduated with a degree in Asian languages and cultures.
Liu is widely considered the most prominent Asian-American actress in American media. She had small stints in films and TV roles before landing a break on Ally McBeal, the once-popular Fox TV series centering around the lives of lawyers. Liu's role on the series was originally not meant to be a regular, but the enthusiastic audience response to the actress' feisty Ling Woo secured Lucy as a prominent cast member. She became more famous with her turn as Alex in the remake of the Charlie's Angels franchise, starring alongside more established modern Hollywood icons Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz. The sequel to the film, however, opened to poor reviews and box office receipts. Lucy was also paid sixteen million dollars less for her work in Charlie's Angles than co-star Cameron Diaz. While Liu is a recognizable actress, she is considered only moderately successful and famous.
Other various movie and TV roles had Lucy voicing her own character in a cameo on the Matt Groening animated series Futurama. Liu starred with Antonio Banderas in Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, a critical and box-office failure that was remarkable only in its casting of two minorities as the lead roles. Liu had a hit as Princess Pei-Pei in Shanghai Noon, costarring with Jackie Chan and acting as the romantic interest to Owen Wilson.
Lucy is perhaps most famous for her role as O-ren Ishii in director Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films. The movies were great successes at the box office. The first installment of the Kill Bill films, Volume 1, exposed Lucy as a more serious and physically adept actress than what she had portrayed in her past roles. She won an MTV Movie Award, further solidifying her fame with young, hip audiences, for "Best Movie Villain".
Lucy recently appeared on an episode of "Joey" with Matt LeBlanc, who played her love interest in the Charlie's Angels movies. She co-starred with Keira Knightley in the thriller Domino. Liu is also in talks to recreate the Charlie Chan series for modern audiences. Perhaps her largest personal accomplishment is to come, in which she will be the main lead in an upcoming vampire film.
Liu is not yet married, although rumors in the past have linked her with George Clooney. Recently, there was news that she is engaged to a New York playwright. However, Liu continues to keep her romantic life quite private.
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