Eugenie Liu was born Liu Si-ting[1][2] on 12 November 1990 in Taiwan.[3] Her grandfather Kao Ming [zh] and her great uncle Liu Lin [zh] are both actors,[4][5] although Liu did not disclose her relationship with Kao Ming until his death in 2017.[6] Her father is a Taekwondo coach, who sparked her interest in sports from a young age.[7][8] Liu attended a unisex school starting in junior high,[9] and was part of the athletics team in primary school, as well as the basketball and volleyball teams in high school.[10] Aspiring to become a sports journalist since sixth grade,[11] she enrolled at Chinese Culture University to major in journalism and spent all her remaining credits on sports science.[12] Upon graduating with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2013,[13] she initially secured a job at Videoland Sports Channel.[11] However, when her father went bankrupt and her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in her final year,[14] leaving the family with $7 million in debt,[15] Liu was compelled to enter the entertainment industry, a decision she described as a means to "spare more time to take care of her mother" and "alleviate his father's financial burden".[16] She signed with Star Ritz International Entertainment [zh] and debuted as a model shortly after graduation.[13][17] In 2014, she was cast in a leading role in the sports film Volleyball Sweetheart, for which she underwent several months of volleyball training,[8][18] but the film was ultimately scrapped that same year.[19]
Career
In 2015, Liu made her acting debut as Lin Yu-chiao in the Line TV series Happy Together [zh], starring alongside Bruce Hung.[9] The following year, she played Wen Hsiao-kuang in A Good Day [zh] and Lei Xinyu in Behind Your Smile.[20][21] In 2017, she made her feature film debut in Giddens Ko's horror comedy Mon Mon Mon Monsters as the Older Monster, with Ko writing the screenplay specifically for her and Liu agreed to the role after reading the script.[11][22] She then starred as one of the five leading actresses in the 2018 romantic comedy film How to Train Our Dragon [zh] and portrayed police detective Chang Ju-hsin in the 2019 crime film The 9th Precinct [zh].[23][24]
Liu landed a main role as Angie Ni, the daughter of a gang boss, in the 2019 Netflix romance comedy series Triad Princess alongside Jasper Liu.[25] Stephen McCarty of South China Morning Post called Liu's performance in Triad Princess "stealing the show",[26] while John Serba of Decider praised her flexibility to be "funny and badass at the same time".[27] She appeared as Yang Nian-jun in another Netflix series Futmalls in the following year.[28] In 2021, she made a cameo in Giddens Ko's Till We Meet Again and had a leading role in the Hong Kong supernatural comedy series Sometimes When We Touch [zh].[29][30] She also released her first solo single "Oblivion" in the same year, which she composed during the COVID-19 pandemic after filming Sometimes When We Touch, crediting it as a song to "farewell her deceased family members".[31]
In 2023, Liu portrayed Liu Chen-chen, the secretary of Akio Chen's character, in the crime film Old Fox,[32] earning nominations for Best Supporting Actress in the 60th Golden Horse Awards and Best Supporting Actress in the 26th Taipei Film Awards.[33][34] Andrew Tomoe, writing for The News Lens, described Liu's performance in Old Fox as the "biggest surprise of the film", applauding her "charming" side character arc in which she secretly loves Liu Kuan-ting's character;[35] while in Alex Chung's review for HK01, he particularly complimented Liu's performance, noting that although the character is "relatively complex", she portrayed it "fittingly" with a "good grasp".[36] She also starred as Liang Jing-tsen in the SET-CTS television series Trick or Love [zh] that same year.[37] In 2024, Liu took on a lead role as Fan Zuer alongside Sylvia Chang and Karena Lam in the drama film Daughter's Daughter,[38] for which she received another nomination for Best Supporting Actress in the 61st Golden Horse Awards.[39] Josh Slater-Williams of IndieWire described Liu's performance as "magnetic", contributing to the delivery of the character and her complicated relationships, making them "incredibly compelling".[40]
Personal life
As of December 2017, Liu resided in Neihu District, Taipei, Taiwan.[5] As of 2024, she has been in a relationship with Hong Kong actor and action choreographer Jimmy Hung [zh] for seven years.[41][42]
