Liu Ye

He was ranked 78th on Forbes China Celebrity 100 list in 2013, 48th in 2014, and 89th in 2015.

• Name — Liu Ye • Native Name — 刘烨 • Born — 23 March 1978 • Birthplace — Changchun, Jilin, China • Education — Central Academy of Drama • Occupation — Actor • Years Active — 1997–present • Agent — SMI Corporation • Children — 2 • Awards — * Golden Horse Award for Best Leading Actor (2001) • Golden Rooster Award for Best Actor (2004) • Golden Goblet Award for Best Actor (2016) • Illustration — Liu in 2007

Liu began his acting career as a student majoring in performing arts at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing. He made his debut in Postmen in the Mountains (1999) by Huo Jianqi, which won the Best Feature Film Award at China's Golden Rooster Awards and earned Liu a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Liu then played a young homosexual man in the film Lan Yu (2000) by Stanley Kwan, which earned him the Best Actor award at the Golden Horse Awards. Thereafter, Liu starred in many acclaimed films such as Sky Lovers (2002), which won him the Artistic Contribution Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival; Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (2002), as well as the avant-garde drama film Purple Butterfly (2003), which competed in the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. Liu's first Hollywood film Dark Matter, based on the 1991 University of Iowa shooting, was filmed in 2006. Starring opposite Meryl Streep, Liu played the role of a Chinese physics postgraduate named Liu Xing. Dark Matter won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and was released in the United States in April 2008. Regarded by many as one of mainland's top actors, Liu has appeared on screen in versatile roles, such as a cocky young man in Stanley Kwan's The Foliage (2003), which won him the Best Actor award at the Golden Rooster Awards; a menacing snow wolf in Chen Kaige's The Promise (2005) and a scheming prince in Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower (2006); his performance nabbed him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards. He shed off his melancholic and weak on-screen image to play tougher and more complex roles such as a gangster in John Woo's Blood Brothers (2007) and Ding Sheng's The Underdog Knight (2008), where he played a retired and mentally ill soldier. Liu also took on his first villainous role in Connected (2008), a remake of the American film Cellular. Liu's brooding onscreen presence came into full view with the nearly simultaneous release of Lu Chuan's tribute to the Nanjing massacre, City of Life and Death, and Yin Li's Iron Man (both in 2009). The leading man in both films, Liu plays a brave soldier in Lu's war epic and a bronzed oil worker in Yin's film about those who struggled to develop China's oil industry in the Taklamakan desert in West China, shedding off his previous screen image. In the 2011 patriotic tribute, The Founding of a Party, it was reported that Liu was required to gain 10 kg in order to play a 30-year-old Mao Zedong, a feat he achieved by eating 20 eggs a day. After filming Andrew Lau's romantic film A Beautiful Life the same year, Liu reunited with Lu Chuan in The Last Supper (2012), a US$15-million historical epic where he plays Liu Bang. Liu received the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2013. In 2014, Liu starred in war drama All Quiet in Peking by novelist Liu Heping. The series, based on the events of the War for Liberation in the late 1940s, earned widespread acclaim for its interesting story and historical accuracy, and was a massive success in China. Liu won the Golden Goblet Award for Best Actor for his performance as a car mechanic who is unexpectedly involved in a murder case in the film Cock and Bull (2016), his first award in ten years.

Liu married French photographer Anais Martane in Beijing on July 5, 2009. Their first child, a son named Noé (Nuoyi in Chinese), was born on October 10, 2010, in France. Two years later, their daughter named Nina was born on January 22, 2012, in Beijing.

• Year — English title — Chinese title — Role — Reference • 1998 — zh-Hans — Sun Xi'an • 2000 — Happy Street — 幸福街 — Xu Xiaoyang • 2002 — Don't Rent a Room — zh-Hans — Ding Yufei • Love & Sword — zh-Hans — Shao Da • 2003 — How Can I Rescue My Love — 拿什么拯救你，我的爱人 — Long Xiaoyu • Painted Soul — zh-Hans — Tian Shouxin • 2004 — Summer's Taste — zh-Hans — Zhang Yi • Assassinator Jing Ke — zh-Hans — Jing Ke • 2005 — Blood Color Romance — 血色浪漫 — Zhong Yuemin • 2006 — zh-Hans — Su Yan • Harmony — 天和局 — Min Huatang • Surrender to the Innocent Girl — zh-Hans — Wang Qian / Wang Zhiyuan • 2008 — Our Life Time — zh-Hans — Yuan Haodong • 2009 — The Epic of a Woman — zh-Hans — Ouyang Yu • 2010 — Invisible Target — zh-Hans — Zhou Chuanxiong • The Sniper — zh-Hans — Peng Kehu • 2013 — Fire Line, Three Brothers — zh-Hant — Tian Erlin • 2014 — Red Path — zh-Hans — Wu Quan • All Quiet in Peking — zh-Hans — Fang Meng'ao • 2018 — Old Boy — 老男孩 — Wu Zheng • 2019 — National Treasure Legendary Journey — zh-Hans — Ren Hongyi • On the Road — zh-Hans — Yao Yuan

• Year — English title — Chinese title — Role — Ref. Reference • 2013 — China's Got Talent — zh-Hans — Judge • 2014 — Grandpa Over Flowers — zh-Hans — Cast member • 2015 — Where Are We Going, Dad? — zh-Hans • 2017 — The Birth of Actors — zh-Hans — Mentor

Liu was named ambassador of the French Riviera in 2016. He has been previously appointed tourism goodwill ambassador for Israel in 2014. On April 6, 2018, Liu received an Honorary Citizen Medal from Nice, where his wife is from, for his contribution to the promotion of the French Riviera region.

• Year — English title — Chinese title — Role — Reference • 1998 — A Century's Dream — zh-Hans — Zhao Xiling • 1999 — Postmen in the Mountains — 那山、那人、那狗 — Son • 2000 — Team Spirit — zh-Hans — Yan Kai • 2001 — Lan Yu — zh-Hans — Lan Yu • 2002 — Flowers Bloom — zh-Hans — Ding Tian • Sky Lovers — zh-Hans — Wang Jiakuan • Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress — 巴尔扎克与小裁缝 — Ma Jianling • 2003 — The Floating Landscape — zh-Hans — Lit • Purple Butterfly — zh-Hans — Szeto • Sudden Lover — zh-Hans — Xiaoxie • The Foliage — 美人草 — Liu Simeng • 2004 — Jasmine Women — zh-Hans — Xiaodu • 2005 — The Ghost Inside — zh-Hans — Fang Cheng • The Promise — zh-Hans — Snow Wolf • Mini — 米尼 — Kang • Mob Sister — zh-Hans — Heung-tung • 2006 — Curse of the Golden Flower — zh-Hans — Crown Prince Wan • 2007 — Blood Brothers — 天堂口 — Kang • Dark Matter — zh-Hans — Liu Xing • 2008 — The Underdog Knight — zh-Hans — Laosan • Connected — zh-Hans — Fok Tak-nang • 2009 — City of Life and Death — 南京！南京！ — Lu Jianxiong • Iron Men — zh-Hans — Liu Sicheng • The Founding of a Republic — zh-Hans — Red Army old soldier • 2010 — Lan — zh-Hans — Xiaoqiang • Driverless — zh-Hans — Zhixiong • Color Me Love — zh-Hans — Luan Yihong • 2011 — He-Man — zh-Hans — Laosan • A Beautiful Life — zh-Hans — Fang Zhendong • The Founding of a Party — zh-Hans — Mao Zedong • 2012 — The Last Supper — zh-Hans — Liu Bang • 2013 — The Chef, the Actor, the Scoundrel — zh-Hans — Chef • Redemption — zh-Hans — Xiao Ligun • Police Story 2013 — 警察故事2013 — Wu Jiang • 2014 — The Boundary — zh-Hans — Tang Yue • 2015 — Beijing, New York — zh-Hans — Lan Yi • Saving Mr. Wu — zh-Hans — Xing Feng • 2016 — Night Peacock — 夜孔雀 — Jian Min • Cock and Bull — zh-Hans — Song Lao'er • My War — zh-Hans — Sun Beichuan • 2017 — The Founding of an Army — zh-Hans — Mao Zedong • 2018 — Air Strike — zh-Hans — Xue Gangtou • 2021 — Island Keeper — zh-Hans — Wang Jicai • 2022 — Steel Will — zh-Hans — Zhao Tiechi • 2024 — Tiger Wolf Rabbit — zh-Hans — Zhao Zishan • 2025 — Moon the Panda — zh-Hans — Zhao's father • 2026 — Crossing — zh-Hans — Mao Zedong