Simu Liu is a Chinese-born Canadian actor and model who is most famously known for playing the superhero Shang-Chi in the 2021 MCU film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. He first gained public attention after he landed the role of Jung Kim in the CBC Television sitcom Kim’s Convenience. The actor has starred in a number of TV shows and films, including Yappie, Women Is Losers, Slasher: Guilty Party, Orphan Black, The Expanse, Fresh Off the Boat, and The Simpsons. In 2022, he was featured in Time’s 100 most influential people in the world list and released his memoir We Were Dreamers the same year. Here’s everything you need to know about actor Simu Liu including his personal and professional life and why his family immigrated to Canada from China and how he pursued his ambition to become an actor.
Simu Liu Biography
Birth Name
Simu Liu
Nick Name
Simu
Born
April 19, 1989
Age
33 years old
Birth Place
Harbin, Heilongjiang, China
Birth Sign
Aries
Profession
Actor, Model, Martial Artist, Stuntman
Nationality
Canadian
Ethnicity
He is of Chinese descent.
Family and Education
Simu was born to Chinese parents Zhenning and Zheng Liu and lived with his grandparents in Harbin, China, until the age of 5. His parents were both engineering graduates and they immigrated to Canada when he was a young boy. They later became successful aerospace engineers.
He grew up in the Greater Toronto Area and attended the University of Toronto Schools, graduating in 2007. He later enrolled at the University of Western Ontario, where he studied business administration. After that, he went to Ivey Business School, where he graduated with a degree in economics.
Religion
Residence
He splits his time between Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and Los Angeles, California, United States.
Height
5 feet 11 inches or 180 cm
Body Build
Athletic
Hair Color
Black
Eye Color
Dark Brown
Sexuality
Straight
Personal Life
Simu Liu is currently in a relationship with the digital marketing manager, Allison Hsu. The pair made their first red carpet-appearance at the Violent Night premiere in November 2022.
He was previously linked to actress Jade Bender. They dated for a few months in 2022 before they called it quits in September of that year.
Career Overview and Net Worth
Liu began his career as a stuntman working in several films and TV shows, including Sick: Survive the Night (2012). His first onscreen appearance came in 2013 with the movie Pacific Rim as an extra and earned his first proper acting role in 2015 as a series regular, playing the role of Paul Xie in the Omni Television crime drama series Blood and Water. In 2016, Liu was cast as Jung Kim in the CBC sitcom Kim’s Convenience. The show has been a critical and commercial success, and Liu has received numerous awards and nominations for his performance.
Liu’s breakthrough role came in 2021 when he landed the role of superhero Shang-Chi in the Marvel film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. He received many accolades for his performance, including the People’s Choice Awards in the category The Action Movie Star of 2021.
He is also an avid martial artist and has trained in various disciplines, including Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Taekwondo.
As of 2024, Simu Liu has a net worth of about $4 million dollars.
Simu Liu Facts
Liu worked as an accountant before he got into acting.
He worked as a stuntman and extra in the early days of his acting career and earned recognition as an actor after he started playing Paul Xie in the sitcom Blood and Water.
Liu was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award in the Outstanding Ensemble category alongside his castmates in the 2016 Factory Theatre remount of the play Banana Boys.
Liu was named one of Hello!’s 50 Most Beautiful Canadians and 25 Hottest Bachelors in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
In May 2021, Liu became the first East Asian man to cover Men’s Health magazine in over a decade since Jet Li in 2010.
In 2022, Liu was included in Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. He also hosted the 2022 Juno Awards event.
In January 2023, he won the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s Radius Award at the 11th Canadian Screen Awards.
His upcoming releases include Barbie, Hello Stranger, One True Loves, Arthur the King, and Atlas.