Lucy Liu became an action-film favorite in Charlie’s Angels and Kill Bill, but she has never worked in just one lane.
Her recent career includes the drama Rosemead, the 2026 film The Devil Wears Prada 2 and a solo painting exhibition in New York. She also has a substantial television and directing career behind those newer projects.
As of November 2026, the answer to what happened to Lucy Liu is straightforward: she has continued acting while making room for other forms of creative work.
Her early success created a recognizable screen image
Liu’s breakthrough on Ally McBeal was followed by films including Charlie’s Angels, Chicago and Kill Bill. Those roles established a public image of confidence, precision and formidable presence.
In a 2026 interview with W, she described a childhood quite different from that image. She was shy, and her mother had kept school reports noting how little she spoke in class.
That contrast is worth remembering when looking at her career. The characters an actor makes convincing are not necessarily straightforward reflections of the person playing them.
Liu’s later choices have included roles that draw on quieter emotions and less polished lives. The range becomes clearer when the familiar action characters are placed alongside her television work and recent dramas.
Original photograph, licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Elementary became a substantial television chapter
On Elementary, Liu played Joan Watson opposite Jonny Lee Miller’s Sherlock Holmes. The series placed the familiar detective partnership in contemporary New York.
Paramount’s official program description identifies the pair as the central crime-solving team. The show ran for seven seasons, giving Liu a long period in which to develop Joan rather than define her through a single film.
It also became part of her experience behind the camera. A career biography filed with the City of Los Angeles records her directing work on the series.
A long television run can change how audiences encounter a performer. Someone known internationally through action films also becomes a weekly presence, with relationships and character choices unfolding over years.
That shift has parallels with Robin Wright’s career, where television opened space for both a sustained character and directing work.
Rosemead asked audiences to see her differently
Rosemead offered Liu a particularly demanding dramatic role. Directed by Eric Lin, the film follows Irene, a seriously ill Chinese American mother facing a crisis involving her teenage son.
The film is inspired by real events, but it remains a dramatization. Its particular family story should not be treated as a general portrait of mental illness or of Chinese American families.
In her Fresh Air interview, Liu discussed the project, returning to Mandarin and the work involved in bringing the story to the screen.
The part moved away from the glamorous, controlled characters with which she is often associated. It required viewers to sit with fear, uncertainty and a family’s isolation.
Speaking to W about that change, Liu said, “The more we show how imperfect we are, the better it is for the audience.”
The film’s focus on a woman and community she wanted audiences to see made it more than a simple change of genre. It was another way to explore whose experiences receive space on screen.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 brought her into a large ensemble
Liu also joined the cast of The Devil Wears Prada 2, released in the United States on May 1, 2026.
20th Century Studios’ official page confirms her involvement alongside returning stars Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci.
The sequel reunited director David Frankel and writer Aline Brosh McKenna with the world of Runway magazine. Liu was among the new cast members added to that familiar setting.
Placed beside Rosemead, the film shows the breadth of her recent work. One project centers an intimate family crisis; the other belongs to a widely recognized comedy-drama franchise.
There is no reason to force those choices into a single comeback narrative. They are different parts of an active career, each offering a distinct setting and ensemble.
Laura Dern’s recent film work offers another example of an actress moving between intimate stories and larger productions.
Original photograph, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Painting is another established part of her work
Liu’s creative life also includes visual art. In 2026, Alisan Fine Arts presented Hard Feelings, a solo exhibition of her paintings in New York.
The show ran from May 14 through June 6. The gallery’s exhibition record describes work concerned with memory, family and cultural inheritance.
The paintings drew on family photographs, including images of her parents. Some works obscured their original references through layers of paint, while others retained clearer figures and relationships.
Those details help explain why the exhibition belongs in an account of her current career. Painting gives her a way to work with memory and personal history outside a screenplay or a production schedule.
The exhibition has finished, so it should not be presented as a current show to visit. It is a documented part of her 2026 work.
Where Lucy Liu is now
Liu’s recent projects span acting, film production and painting, building on years of television and directing experience.
For viewers who lost track of her after Elementary or mainly remember her action roles, Rosemead and The Devil Wears Prada 2 offer very different ways to reconnect with her work.
The gallery exhibition adds another part of the picture. Her creative output is not limited to the moments when a film arrives in theaters or a television series premieres.
The recognizable screen presence remains. The stories and mediums surrounding it have continued to expand.