Best known to television audiences as Ling Woo, the raging force of political incorrectness on Ally McBeal, Lucy Alexis Liu has managed to cross over to the big screen in such features as Payback and Play It to the Bone and of course Charlie's Angels.

Angel: Alex Munday Perhaps the most controversial of the new Angels, people working on first Charlie’s Angels movie said that the blood was so bad between Liu and funnyman Bill Murray that he refused to return for the second one. But no matter. As much as we would’ve liked to see Murray return, Charlie’s Angels is about the Angels, after all. Lucy Liu plays new angel, Alex, but her actions are similar to Jaclyn Smith's Kelly Garrett. They both pick locks and are electronics experts. Alex is a sophisticated class act, with dark brown eyes and never a blue-black hair out of place. An expert fencer and horsewoman, Alex has been a government aerospace engineer and on-call consultant for NASA. She was also an early pioneer in the creation of the laptop computer. Alex is so on top of everything, it’s easy to bore her and hard to keep her amused.

Lucy Liu Profile

Born to Chinese parents in Jackson Heights, NY, on December 2, 1968, Liu grew up speaking both English and Mandarin. After graduating from Manhattan's Stuyvesant High School, she earned a degree in Asian languages and cultures from the University of Michigan, where she also studied acting, dance, and voice. Liu's first professional job was playing a waitress on Beverly Hills 90210, something that led to more substantial work on various TV shows, including a regular part on the TV series Pearl.
Liu's biggest breakthrough came in 1998, when she was cast as Ling Woo on Ally McBeal. She had originally auditioned for the role of Nelle Porter, which ultimately went to Australian actress Portia DeRossi. David E. Kelley, the show's producer, was so impressed with Liu's audition, however, that he created the role of Ling Woo specifically for her. The character was initially supposed to be included on only a few episodes but proved so popular with the show's audience that Liu was made into a regular cast member.

2003's Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle placed Liu firmly back inside the spotlight, though she was somewhat overshadowed by the blonde glint that is Cameron Diaz. Luckily for Liu, she was given the chance to shine quite independently when Quentin Tarantino cast her as the deadly O-Ren Ishii, AKA Cottonmouth, in Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003).

Rising High Having previously appeared in supporting roles in several films and as a regular on the CBS sitcom "Pearl" (1996-97), actress Lucy Liu skyrocketed to popularity in 1998 as the malicious Ling Woo on "Ally McBeal" (Fox, 1997-2002). David E Kelley, who originally auditioned her for the role of Nelle Porter (later played by Portia de Rossi), wrote the popular character for Liu, whose fiery performance in her first episode soon eventually led to a regular role. During her run on the series, Liu’s scene-stealing portrayal earned many fans and a share of the 1998 SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. Before making her name on "Ally McBeal,” Liu could be seen frequently in guest appearances on television, including a 1991 stint as a waitress on "Beverly Hills, 90210" (Fox). One of her more memorable turns came with a recurring part in 1995 as a woman whose young son was suffering from complications of AIDS on NBC's medical drama "ER". Additionally, Liu portrayed the self-hating girlfriend of Luke Perry's Los Angeles police officer in "Riot", a 1997 Showtime movie dramatizing different stories in 1992's racially charged Los Angeles riots.

The latter film provided a major boost to Liu's public image, placing her in an on-screen pantheon of A-listers Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz. As famously as she got on with her female co-stars, Liu did have to contend with numerous media reports of serious friction between herself and comedian Bill Murray, who played Bosley in the film.

Following the phenomenal success of "Charlie's Angels" in 2000, a wealth of exciting film roles fell into Liu's lap. In addition to immediately signing up for the glitzy sequel to the hit franchise, Liu starred opposite Antonio Banderas in the little-seen sci-fi thriller "Ecks vs. Sever" in 2002. She also nabbed a part in the much anticipated film version of "Chicago" (2002), turning in a juicy if all-too-brief performance as murderess Kitty Baxter; In 2003, Lui reunited with Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore for the action-packed, eye-candy heavy "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle." The feature, again directed by McG, allowed Liu re-emphasized the ass-kicking style of female bonding the Angels trio--by then very close friends off-screen as well as on--demonstrated in the first film and in their media appearances together.