Lucy Alexis Liu was born on December 2nd, 1968 in Queens, NY. She grew up in the Jackson Heights area, at 76th Street and Northern Boulevard (just in case anyone's interested in specifics...). Her father, after immigrating to the US, sold watches in Atlantic City, N.J, but that didn't bring much of a profit, so money, as well as food, was always an issue in the family. She first went to Brooklyn Tech and then Stuyvesant High, from which she graduated in 1986. While in high school, she wanted to be a cop, but then one day a stranger on the subway said she ought to be in commercials... At 15, she went to her first-ever audition, and got a part in an ad for school supplies... Not very influential work, but at least it was a start. After high school, she started off in NYU, but ended up at the University of Michigan, where she got a degree in Asian languages (she, by the way, is fluent in Mandarin Chinese) and cultures, and found out she had a lot of different talents, including acting, dance, voice, martial arts (in particular, Kali-Eskrima-silat - stick and knife fighting), as well as the accordian... There she also had her first boyfriend, who she later described as a "f*cking asshole" and a "total dick". Even before him, her experiences with the stronger sex were not at all great, for all the way through her childhood she was a tomboy whom no guy was willing to date. Nontheless, even if stricken by her bad experience with her first love, she continued to open her talents, and during her senior year auditioned for a role in a very un-Carroll-like version of "Alice in Wonderland", after which she returned to NY, worked three jobs and later decided to go to L.A. to pursue acting. She started off with the usual bits & gigs ("Home Improvement", "Nash Bridges" and the cancelled "Pearl", to name a few) and with a usual small role in a big movie ("Jerry Maguire", that is), and living off of the money she made from those parts, she stayed in L.A. Then, in 1998, she wound up in front of David E. Kelley, auditioning for the part of Nelle Porter for "Ally McBeal". The part didn't quite suit her, and it was Portia de Rossi who was chosen as Nelle. OK, so David didn't like Lucy as Nelle... But he liked her reading, and most of all, he liked her coldness in acting (No wonder she read for the part of "Sub-Zero" Nelle!)... So David decided, instead of having to find an actress for the part, to find a part for the actress... Thus the character of Ling Woo, written solely for Lucy, was born... Although she was only supposed to appear in 5 episodes during Season 2, her name was soon in the opening credits and she became a regular. Now Ling is one of TV's most popular characters, someone wild, unconventional and frigid that leaves you wondering what she'll do next... As for her alter-ego, Lucy, she's happy with the way things are right now... She currently lives in L.A. with her dog, Luciano.

Lucy Liu: Selected Credits

TV:

*Ally (1999-?) - "Ling Woo"
*Ally McBeal (1997-?; Liu on since ep. 202 "They Eat Horses, Don't They?" - 1998) - "Ling Woo"
*NYPD Blue (guest star; 4/15/97) - "Amy Chu"
*Jonny Quest: The New Adventures (1997) - "Melana"
*Riot (1997; TV movie) - "Boomer's Girlfriend"
*Pearl (series regular; 1996) - "Amy"
*The X-Files (guest star in ep. 3x19 "Hell Money"; 3/29/96) - "Kim Hsin"
*L.A. Law (guest star; 10/28/93) - "Foreign Correspondent"
*Home Improvement (unknown)

FILM:
*Charlie's Angels (2000) - Alex
*Shanghai Noon (2000)
*Molly (1999)
*Payback (1999) - "Pearl"
*True Crime (1999)
*City of Industry (1997) - "Cathi Rose"
*Gridlock'd (1997) - "Cee-Cee"
*Flypaper (1997) - "Dot"
*Guy (1996) - "Woman at newsstand"
*Jerry Maguire (1996) - "Former Girlfriend"



See bios: Calista Flockhart -- Gil Bellows -- Courtney Thorne-Smith -- Peter MacNicol -- Portia de Rossi -- Lucy Liu -- Greg Germann -- Lisa Nicole Carson -- Jane Krakowski -- Vonda Shepard