Poppy Liu

Poppy Liu is a classically trained, bilingual, first generation Chinese American actress born in Xi'An, China and raised between Minnesota and Shanghai.Poppy began performing at age 4. Her early performance background began with traditional Chinese dance which she performed for 10 years from childhood through early adolescence. At age 14 Poppy moved to Shanghai with their family and began performing and directing theater with a focus on Theater of the Absurd and ensemble work. In college Poppy began exploring how storytelling informs identity and culture formation and, after training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, developed a strength for handling classical text.Upon moving to New York, Poppy made her theater debut as the original cast of the 5 years and running Drunk Shakespeare appearing most frequently as Lady M. Around the same time Poppy became active in New York's downtown theater and puppetry scenes and founded what would later become a community-centered production company with the mission of centering and uplifting the stories of queer, femme, and migrant communities.Poppy's entry into film and TV began with a number of collaborations with Chinese American and women indie filmmakers. In 2016 Poppy produced her first narrative short film Names of Women (2017) which she toured around the country speaking at numerous college campuses and conferences. In 2017 Poppy and her collaborators began producing the web series Mercy Mistress (2018), a story based on the memoirs of a Chinese American professional dominatrix in which Poppy stars as the title character Mistress Yin. The following year Margaret Cho and her team joined 'Mercy Mistress' as Executive Producers.In the fall of 2018 Poppy made their network television debut on NBC's New Amsterdam (2018) guest starring as Amy Chiang, a first generation Chinese American girl struggling with depression. Over the next several months Poppy booked guest spots on New York - Unité spéciale (1999) and Better Call Saul (2015) and in 2019, her first ever pilot season, Poppy landed the series regular role of Mei Lin starring alongside Kal Penn on NBC's Sunnyside (2019), Executive Produced by Michael Schur.In addition to acting and producing, Poppy is a full spectrum doula and a member of the Board of Directors for SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. Show less «