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Beyond the ScreenA guide · fact-checked July 2026
For more than twenty years, Lucy Liu has put her name behind children's rights and humanitarian work — quietly, and around the world.
UNICEF, since 2004
Liu has served as a UNICEF Ambassador since 2004, one of the organization's longest-serving celebrity supporters. Over two decades she has traveled on field visits to see UNICEF's work first-hand, in countries including Peru, Pakistan, Egypt, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Lesotho, and Lebanon, witnessing programs for clean water, nutrition, education, and health. She became a national spokesperson for the UNICEF Tap Project, which raises money for safe drinking water, and she has been honored with the Danny Kaye Humanitarian Award for the work. In 2024 she marked her twentieth anniversary with UNICEF, speaking at the United Nations about the importance of play in children's development.
Redlight (2009)
Liu lent her voice and her name to the fight against child trafficking as executive producer and narrator of Redlight (2009), a documentary following children trafficked into the sex trade in Cambodia over several years. It remains one of the clearest examples of how she has used her platform for advocacy rather than publicity.
A place in history
In May 2019, Liu received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, becoming only the second Asian-American woman to be honored there, after the trailblazing Anna May Wong — and her star was placed near Wong's, a detail Liu and observers noted as meaningful. She has also spoken often about Asian-American representation and heritage, work that runs alongside her long humanitarian record and her parallel life as a visual artist.