Liu Hsiu-fu

Liu was born in 1997.^[1] He has an elder sister who studied abroad in Hong Kong.^[2] His parents divorced when he was in kindergarten, and the siblings were raised by their father.^[3][4] Liu described his relationship with his father as close and his childhood as one spent in a "strict household", which contributed to him achieving good academic results.^[5] He attended a private school starting in junior high, and was a member of the rock club in high school.^[6] He later enrolled at National Taichung University of Science and Technology, graduating with a Bachelor of Design, majoring in product design.^[7] During his university years, he was invited by a friend to star in a senior's graduation film project, which sparked his interest in acting,^[8] and he also worked as a model for magazine covers and advertisements.^[7]

When Liu was in his third year of university, he participated in an audition on his sister's recommendation.^[8][9] He was selected by director Chen Wei-ling, who found his "melancholic aura" very suitable for the role after seeing him at casting.^[10][11] Liu made his debut at the age of 19 as Chung Kuo-yen in the segment "Child of the Cat" of the 2018 PTS series On Children,^[4][12] starring alongside Chung Hsin-ling.^[13] His performance earned him a nomination for Best Newcomer in a Miniseries or Television Film in the 54th Golden Bell Awards,^[14] and prompted him to move to Taipei to work full-time as an actor after receiving the nomination.^[15] Following his debut, Liu starred as Ying Si-de, the stepbrother of the characters played by Pets Tseng and JC Lin, in the 2019 drama series The World Between Us,^[16] and took on a main role as Bryan Chang's deceased brother in the 2020 series The Haunted Heart [zh].^[17]

In 2021, he appeared in a supporting role in the sci-fi thriller Plurality,^[18] and was named Top Talent by the Taipei Film Festival.^[19] Liu played another significant role as Guan Heng-da, the younger brother of the male lead played by Marcus Chang, in the 2023 romance series Trick or Love [zh].^[20] In 2024, he appeared as the son of characters played by Christopher Lee and Tien Hsin who suffers from ALS, in the sci-fi series Q18 Quantum Dice [zh].^[21] That same year, Liu landed his first lead role in the feature film Pierce, a Singapore-Taiwan-Poland project, where he played Zijie, a fencer and the younger brother of a former fencing champion portrayed by Tsao Yu-ning.^[22] John Lui of The Straits Times praised Liu's "breakthrough performance", which captures "both the physical demands of competitive fencing and the psychological complexity of a young man";^[23] while John Berra of Screen Daily described Liu's portrayal as "wholly empathetic", naturally reflecting the character's youthful and skeptic nature.^[24]