Lee was born and raised in Los Angeles, and was a fourth-generation Chinese-American.[1] She had two sisters, Priscilla "Puggy" and Virginia.[2] She began a career as a child actress and dancer at age three, and performed in a song and dance team with her sister Virginia in Las Vegas for three summers.[2] She graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in Paleontology and from UCLA with an MS in Geology.[2] She subsequently managed an alternative wastewater treatment plant as a Disney Imagineer.[3] In 1977, she returned to the stage, performing in A Chorus Line.[4][1] In 1983, she began writing plays, poetry, and fiction.[1] Her plays include The Legacy Codes about the Wen Ho Lee affair and Carry the Tiger to the Mountain about the death of Vincent Chin.
In 2015, Lee self-published an autobiography, "Just Like Really": An Uncommon Chinese American Memoir.[2] On March 18, 2016, Lee died in her sleep with her two sisters at her side, after a long battle with breast cancer.[5]
