Lucy Liu does on 2nd December - check out my tribute to this Birthday Girl turning 48, at the end of this feature.
Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!
Sunday 27th November
- Kathryn Bigelow - Born 1951, turns 65 - Director | Producer | Writer
- Robin Givens - Born 1964, turns 52 - Actress | Producer
- William Fichtner - Born 1956, turns 60 - Actor | Producer
- Sharlto Copley - Born 1973, turns 43 - Actor | Producer
Monday 28th November
- Randy Newman - Born 1943, turns 73 - Composer | Singer | Songwriter
- Joe Dante - Born 1946, turns 70 - Director | Producer | Actor | Editor
- Ed Harris - Born 1950, turns 66 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer
- Judd Nelson - Born 1959, turns 57 - Actor | Producer | Writer
- Alfonso Cuaron - Born 1961, turns 55 - Director | Producer | Writer | Editor | Cinematographer
- Ryan Kwanten - Born 1976, turns 40 - Actor
- Mary Elizabeth Winstead - Born 1984, turns 32 - Actress | Producer
Tuesday 29th November
- Anna Faris - Born 1976, turns 40 - Actress | Producer | Singer
- Joel Cohen - Born 1954, turns 62 - Director | Producer | Writer | Editor
- Tom Sizemore - Born 1961, turns 55 - Actor | Producer | Writer
- Andrew McCarthy - Born 1962, turns 54 - Actor | Director
- Don Cheadle - Born 1964, turns 52 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer | Singer
- Lucas Black - Born 1982, turns 34 - Actor
Wednesday 30th November
- Ridley Scott - Born 1937, turns 79 - Director | Producer
- Terrence Malick - Born 1943, turns 73 - Director | Producer | Writer
- David Mamet - Born 1947, turns 69 - Director | Producer | Writer
- Mandy Patinkin - Born 1952, turns 64 - Actor | Singer
- David Yates - Born 1963, turns 53 - Director | Producer
- Ben Stiller - Born 1965, turns 51 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer | Singer
- Mark Foster - Born 1969, turns 47 - Director | Producer | Writer
- Gael Garcia Bernal - Born 1978, turns 38 - Actor | Director | Producer | Writer
Thursday 1st December
- Woody Allen - Born 1935, turns 81 - Director | Writer | Actor
- Larry Charles - Born 1956, turns 60 - Director | Producer | Writer
- Jeremy Northam - Born 1961, turns 54 - Actor | Singer
- Bette Midler - Born 1945, turns 71 - Actress | Producer | Director | Singer
- Zoe Kravitz - Born 1988, turns 28 - Actress
Friday 2nd December
- Lucy Liu - Born 1968, turns 48 - Actress | Producer | Director
Saturday 3rd December
- Julianne Moore - Born 1960, turns 56 - Actress | Singer
- Daryl Hannah - Born 1960, turns 56 - Actress | Producer
- Amanda Seyfried - Born 1985, turns 31 - Actress | Singer
- Jean-Luc Godard - Born 1930, turns 86 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor | Editor | Cinematographer
- Brendan Fraser - Born 1968, turns 48 - Actor | Producer
Lucy Alexis Liu was born in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City to mother Cecilia who worked as a biochemist and father Tom Liu who was a civil engineer and sold digital clock pens. Her parents came separately from China via time in Taiwan before meeting in New York. She has an older brother Alex and an older sister Jenny. Liu learned Mandarin at home and began learning English from five years of age. She attended the public Joseph Pulitzer Middle School in Jackson Heights and graduated from Stuyvesant High School in New York in 1986. From there she attended New York University before moving to the University of Michigan from where she graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Asian languages and cultures.
While in her final year at the University of Michigan she scored the lead role in a college production of 'Alice in Wonderland' and her performance was hailed a great success. Spurned on by this, she decided to pursue more acting opportunities. In 1990 she auditioned for 'Miss Saigon' on Broadway. She made her stage debut in 'Fairy Bones' in 1992. Her break into television came in 1991 with an episode on 'Beverly Hills 90210' with a string of television appearances following throughout the '90's including 'L.A. Law', 'Home Improvement', 'Hercules : The Legendary Journeys', 'ER', 'Nash Bridges', 'The X-Files', 'NYPD Blue', on 22 episodes of 'Pearl' and then she scored a role in the main cast of 'Ally McBeal' which for Liu ran for 72 episodes between 1998 and 2002.
Liu's big screen debut came in the Honk Kong production of 'Rhythm of Destiny' in 1992, with a short 25 minute film, 'Protozoa' following for Director Darren Aronofsky. A small part in 'Bang' came before 'Jerry Maguire' with Tom Cruise, 'Gridlock'd' with Tim Roth, 'City of Industry' with Harvey Keitel, 'Flypaper' with Vincent D'Onofrio, 'Payback' with Mel Gibson, 'True Crime' with Clint Eastwood and 'Play It To The Bone' with Woody Harrelson and Antonio Banderas seeing out the decade.
'Shanghai Noon' opened up the new decade with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson, followed by the big screen adaptation of the late '70's television series 'Charlie's Angels' with Liu appearing next to Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz as Alex Munday - one of three Angels of the title. The film made US$264M and spawned a sequel in 2003 - 'Charlie's Angels : Full Throttle' in which Liu reprised her role, with that film bringing in US$259M. 
'Hotel' followed for Director Mike Figgis, and then 'Ballistic : Ecks vs Sever' in 2002 which was critically panned and a commercial disaster, subsequently appearing on many 'most hated films' and 'worst ever movie' lists. That same year year came 'Cypher', and then 'Chicago' with Richard Gere which raked in six Academy Awards plus another 49 award wins and a further 121 nominations together with a Box Office haul of US$307M. 
During the decade there were also further television show appearances on the likes of 'Futurama', 'King of the Hill', 'Game Over', 'The Simpsons', 'Sex and the City', 'Ugly Betty', 'Cashmere Mafia' and 'Dirty Sexy Money'.
'Nomads', 'Detachment', 'The Trouble With Bliss' and 'The Man with the Iron Fists' bring us up to date in terms of live action films. Since then there has been Liu's recurring role as Joan Watson on televisions 'Elementary' opposite Jonny Lee Miller's Sherlock Holmes in this modern day retelling of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries set in New York. The series has so far run for 103 episodes over five seasons and has picked up five award wins along the way and another eighteen nominations. There has also been 'Southland' and 45 episodes across three seasons of the television series spin off 'Kung Fu Panda : Legends of Awesomeness' running from 2011 through to 2016 so far. Next up is 'Future World' due in 2017 Directed by and starring James Franco.
All up Liu has 88 Acting credits to her name, three as Director and three as Producer. She has garnered fourteen award wins and another 28 nominations so far in her career.
When she's not working in film and television Liu works as an artist across several media showcasing her skills as a painter, photographer and collage artist. She attended the New York Studio for drawing, painting and sculpture from 2004 to 2006 and through a number of exhibits since has donated the profits to UNICEF. She works across other charitable organisations too including breast cancer research and education, as an ambassador for UNICEF, she supports gay and lesbian marriage equality and the Human Rights Campaign. She speaks Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, some Japanese and English of course. In August 2015 Liu welcomed to the world her first child - a boy Rockwell Lloyd born via a gestational surrogate.
Lucy Liu - busy, busy, busy; TV, Film, live action and animation featuring lots of voice work; keeps fit with rock climbing, skiing and horse riding; is proficient in the martial art of Kali-Eskrina-Silat (knife and stick fighting); is an acclaimed artist; is a spiritualist and is interested in all things metaphysical; and sits on the US Committee of 100 forging stronger links between the US and Greater China. Keep doing what you're doing Lucy and we'll keep watching - Happy Birthday to you, from Odeon Online.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
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