Lucy Liu has had great critical and commercial success in film, television and on Broadway. Liu co-stars in the #1 new drama series for the 2012 - 2013 television season Elementary on CBS as Dr. Joan Watson alongside Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes. Liu’s portrayal of Dr. Joan Watson has earned her a 2013 nomination for the Teen Choice Awards for Choice TV Actress. The show was also nominated for a Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding New Program.
In 2012, Liu joined the cast of the critically acclaimed series Southland produced by John Wells and starring Michael Cudlitz, Shawn Hatosy, Regina King and Ben McKenzie. Her portrayal of Officer Jessica Tang won a 2012 Critics’ Choice Award for Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series and a 2013 NAACP nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
Liu’s most recent film project, The Man With The Iron Fists, co-starring Russell Crowe was directed by THE RZA. She recently reprised her voice as Viper in Paramount’s animated smash hit Kung Fu Panda 2, which has made $615 million to date worldwide. In 2011, Liu co-starred in three films: Tribeca Film’s Detachment, directed by Tony Kaye, part of a stellar cast including Adrien Brody, James Caan, and Marcia Gay Harden, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival; East Fifth Bliss, a comedy co-starring Michael C. Hall and Peter Fonda, which premiered at the Newport Beach Film Festival; Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You, Roberto Faenza’s adaptation of the novel by Peter Cameron, which premiered at the Rome Film Festival.
Liu made her Broadway debut in March 2010 in the Tony Award-winning play God Of Carnage, starring as Annette in a cast that included Jeff Daniels, Dylan Baker and Janet McTeer. The critically acclaimed film, Freedom’s Fury, premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival in 2006, marking Liu’s debut as a producer.
Some of Liu’s previous film credits include Charlie’s Angels, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, Kill Bill, Chicago, Code Name: The Cleaner, Rise, Watching the Detectives, Domino, Lucky Number Slevin, 3 Needles, Shanghai Noon, Payback, Play It to the Bone, Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever and The Year Of Getting To Know Us.
On television, Liu was nominated for the NAACP award for Outstanding Actress for her starring role in the December 2010 Lifetime Network romantic comedy, Marry Me. Liu appeared as the unforgettable Ling Woo in the hit Fox series, Ally McBeal, a role for which she earned an Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She has also appeared in starring roles on the hit series Cashmere Mafia and Dirty Sexy Money and has guest-starred on HBO’s Sex & The City, Joey, and Ugly Betty. She has lent her voice to such animated television hits as The Simpsons, Futurama and King of the Hill.
Liu has also collaborated with musician and singer Jeymes Samuel of the UK band THE BULLITTS with their LP, They Die By Dawn And Other Short Stories. Liu’s spoken word surrounding the main character in the album, “Amelia Sparks”, rounds out Samuel’s Sinister Six, which include Jay Electronica, Mos Def, Tori Amos, and Idris Elba.
When not appearing on stage or screen, Liu can often be found in her art studio in New York City. Liu is a successful visual artist who has exhibited works in several prior shows over the past twenty years with media ranging from painting, sculpture, photography and mixed media. Salma Editions published her first book of art in the fall of 2012, a collection of ink and acrylic paintings on paper, entitled Seventy Two.
A passionate human rights advocate, Liu has been involved in three films exposing and chronicling the tragedies and injustices of the international child-trafficking industry.
In 2008 Liu produced and narrated the short film, The Road To Traffic, about the Cambodian heroine Somaly Mam. The film was co-produced by photographer Norman Jean Roy and let to a partnership with producers on the documentary film Redlight,which Liu produced and narrated. The film focuses on the plight of women and children sold into sexual slavery and premiered at The Woodstock Film Festival in 2009 and aired on Showtime in 2010.
In 2010 Liu travelled to India to mark her directorial debut with the short narrative Meena, an adaptation of the true story of Meena Haseena, who was kidnapped and sold to a brothel at age eight and forced into sexual slavery for the next decade. While in captivity, she gave birth to two children, whom she later rescued after her own escape from the brothel.This film highlights the story featured in the first chapter of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s New York Times #1 bestselling book Half The Sky.
Liu has been a UNICEF ambassador since 2004 and has travelled on missions to Lesotho, Pakistan, Cote D’Ivoire, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Cairo, Peru, Egypt, Haiti and Lebanon.
In 2006, Liu was awarded the Woman’s World Award for her outstanding humanitarian work, presented to her by former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and sponsored by the World Award organization headed by former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev. In 2008, she received UNICEF’S Danny Kaye Humanitarian Award for helping to advocate child survival by harnessing the power of celebrity to further worldwide issues and causes.
2012 found Liu being honored by Women for Women International with their prestigious Champion For Peace Award and The Muse Award from New York Women In Film.
A native New Yorker, Liu graduated from Stuyvesant High School, attended NYU and later received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan.
