Simu Liu

Liu was born in Harbin, and immigrated to Canada at the age of five. He was raised in Erin Mills, an area of Mississauga, Ontario. He is an only child. [3] He attended University of Toronto Schools for high school. For his post-secondary education, Simu studied for two years at The University of Western Ontario and two years studying finance and accounting at the Ivey Business School from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in the class of 2011. He worked as an accountant at Deloitte but was eventually laid off.[4] He decided to explore other career options before deciding to pursue a career as an actor and stuntman. He has a background in martial arts such as Taekwondo and Wing-Chun, as well as gymnastics.[5]

Liu first got his start working as an extra on Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim.[4] His early onscreen credits include Nikita (2012) and Beauty and the Beast (2014). In 2015, he was a member of the Heroes Reborn stunt team, appearing in three episodes as a stunt double. He next appeared as a series regular in the OMNI Television crime drama series Blood and Water (2015–2016), for which he received ACTRA and Canadian Screen Award nominations in 2017.[6][7]

Liu in 2016

In 2016, Liu was cast in three television series. Liu was cast as Jung in the CBC television adaptation of the hit Canadian play Kim's Convenience.[8] He was cast as the ex-CIA analyst Faaron, loosely modeled on real-life ex-analyst Rodney Faraon, in the NBC prequel series Taken based on the film franchise starring Liam Neeson.[9] Later that year, Liu joined the cast of the hit BBC-Space series Orphan Black for its fifth and final season.[10] On stage, Liu was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award in the Outstanding Ensemble category alongside his castmates in the Factory Theatre remount of the play Banana Boys.[11]

In 2017, Liu joined the cast of the second season of Slasher as well as the CityTV miniseries Bad Blood, both as recurring characters.[12] The following year, he appeared in the science fiction television series The Expanse and the YouTube series Yappie.

In early 2019, it was announced that Liu would be joining the cast of ABC's Fresh Off the Boat as a guest star.[13] He ended up starring as a noodle vendor named Willie in the 100th episode of the series.[14]

At Comic-Con 2019, it was announced that he has been cast as the Marvel Comics superhero Shang-Chi in the upcoming film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will be Marvel's first Asian-led film.[15][16] Liu had previously petitioned for the role on Twitter back in December 2018 when the movie was revealed to be in development.[17] Before his casting, Liu expressed interest in playing either Sunfire or Namor.[18]

In December 2020, it was announced that Liu would be starring alongside Mark Wahlberg in Arthur the King.[19] The casting announcement, along with his subsequent removal of a 2018 tweet criticizing Wahlberg for his race-related hate crimes and request for a pardon prompted heavy backlash and accusations of "selling out" against Liu.[20] Liu explained that he joined the movie because he adored the screenplay and deleted his tweet "as a gesture of professionalism and to open the door to progressive conversations and (hopefully) positive change". While acknowledging his initial anger at Wahlberg, Liu expressed hope that working with him would be an "opportunity to educate and do some good... [progressive] discussion will lead to dialogue, and dialogue will lead to action.”[21]

Aside from his work performing onscreen, Liu is also a writer and filmmaker. Liu participated in the writing room for Blood and Water, during which he helped break the story for the show and wrote an episode for its second season.[2] He also wrote an online piece for Maclean's magazine in December 2017 detailing his experiences growing up in an immigrant family. The article was later published in the magazine's January 2018 issue.[22] As a filmmaker Liu has written, directed and produced short films which have screened and won awards in festivals across the US and Canada. His most recent short film Meeting Mommy, which he wrote and produced with Tina Jung, was released in February 2018 on the Wong Fu Productions Youtube channel. The film amassed over 250,000 views in its first week.[23]

He is currently developing long-form projects under his 4:12 Entertainment banner.[24][25]

A news item in January 2021 stated that Liu had been in Australia shooting the Marvel film during a part of 2020 and was unable to return to Toronto on the planned date, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was finally able to do so as season 5 of Kim's Convenience was nearing the end of production. According to Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Liu then spent "an almost crazy bootcamp-esque period of like nine straight days, where he [shot] all the stuff that he missed out on". The production followed strict COVID protcols.[26]

Liu was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award and an ACTRA Award in 2017 for his work in Blood and Water.[2] He, along with his Kim's Convenience castmates, won the ACTRA Award for Outstanding Ensemble in 2017. Liu and his castmates were subsequently nominated for the same award in 2018 and 2019. Kim's Convenience also went on to win the award for Best Comedy Series at the 2018 Canadian Screen Awards.[27]

Liu was named one of Hello!'s 50 Most Beautiful Canadians and 25 Hottest Bachelors in 2017 and 2018.[28][29][30]

• Simu Liu at IMDb
• Simu Liu on Twitter
• Simu Liu on Instagram