Maggie Q, born Margaret Denise Quigley (stage name: Chinese: 李美琪; pinyin: Lǐ Měiqí, born May 22, 1979), is an American actress and former fashion model. She initially gained fame in Hong Kong.
Biography
Early life
Q was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to an American father of French, Polish and Irish descent, and a Vietnamese mother.[1][2] Her parents met while her father was stationed in Vietnam. Maggie is the youngest of 5 children. She has two sisters and two half-siblings from her mother's previous marriage in Vietnam. She still visits Hawaii with her family[citation needed]. After graduating from Mililani High School she travelled to Japan and Hong Kong to earn money as a fashion model. In 1998 she got her first role in a Chinese-language TV series, and she has been acting ever since.
Career
While still relatively unfamiliar[citation needed] to audiences in the United States, she has achieved celebrity status[citation needed] in Hong Kong and elsewhere in East Asia. Because of her non-Chinese heritage[citation needed], many of her Asian film appearances are in English or dubbed in the Chinese language. She has, however, stated that she took Mandarin and Cantonese lessons during her career in Asia. Her big breakthroughs[citation needed] into the film world came when she bagged the lead roles in the Hong Kong action thrillers Gen-Y Cops and Naked Weapon, in which she played the sexy but vulnerable martial artist assassin Charlene Ching. She has also played the titular role of Harmony in the German-Singapore telemovie collaboration Das Haus Der Harmonie, opposite leading Singaporean actress Fann Wong.
Recently, she starred in her biggest Hollywood role to date alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible III. She played Zhen, the only female member of his elite IMF team. Maggie plays one of the computer-hacking extortionists in the 2007 Bruce Willis action thriller, Live Free Or Die Hard, the fourth film in the popular Die Hard franchise.[3] On August 29, 2007, Balls of Fury opened nationwide in the U.S. starring Maggie as the ping pong paddle-wielding niece of table tennis guru Master Wong (James Hong).
Filmography
Year Movie Role
2000 The Legendary 'Tai Fei' Kei, wife of Fei
Model from Hell Anna
Gen-Y Cops Jane Quigley
2001 Manhattan Midnight Susan/Hope
Rush Hour 2 Girl in Car
2002 Naked Weapon Charlene Ching
2004 Magic Kitchen May
Around the World in 80 Days Female Agent
Rice Rhapsody Gigi
2005 Taped Maggie
House of Harmony Harmony
Dragon Squad Song
2006 The Counting House The Girl
Mission: Impossible III Zhen Lei
2007 Die Hard 4.0 / Live Free or Die Hard Mai Linh
Balls of Fury Maggie Wong
The Tourist
2008 Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon Cao Yin
