Simu Liu discusses his journey from rock bottom to becoming a Marvel and Barbie star.

• After working as an accountant for eight months, Simu Liu lost his job because he left work to become a film extra.
• Liu starred in the Marvel movie "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings."
• Alongside acting, Liu now invests in Asian American and Pacific Islander startups.

Simu Liu, Marvel's first Asian superhero star, admits he hit "rock bottom" before achieving "enlightenment" as an actor after his career as an accountant failed.

He admitted to CNBC's Samantha Vadas that he spent the first 22 years of his life trying to live someone else's definition of success. However, after losing his job and hitting rock bottom, he was liberated from that idea and was able to define success on his own terms.

Liu, who was born in China and moved to Canada as a child, joined accounting firm Deloitte in Toronto in 2011. However, he lost his job after eight months when he "skipped work" to take a role as an extra in the action movie "Pacific Rim." This experience led Liu to suffer an existential crisis, which ultimately resulted in his enlightenment regarding the definition of success on his own terms. He then became an actor instead.

He would take on small roles as a struggling actor, auditioning for parts with no recognition, such as "desktop number one" and "paramedic number three," he said to CNBC.

""We were not the central figures in our own story, but the release of 'Crazy Rich Asians' in 2018, which was Hollywood's first movie with a mostly Asian cast since 1993's 'The Joy Luck Club,' certainly changed the game," Liu stated."

In 2019, Liu starred in Marvel's "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," while "Saturday Night Live" welcomed its first Asian member, Chinese American actor Bowen Yang.

Liu stated that we have an Asian superhero, an Asian cast member on SNL, and numerous Asian stand-up comedians. We also have Asian movies such as "Minari," "The Farewell," and "Past Lives," which explore the experience of growing up in between cultures, generations, and languages. In 2023, Liu played the "Ken" character in "Barbie," which broke box-office records, and in May he starred in "Atlas," alongside Jennifer Lopez.

Liu has recently joined Markham Valley Ventures as a general partner, where he invests in Asian American and Pacific Islander startups.

He graduated in finance and accounting and worked at Deloitte for a brief period before being fired. However, he believes that entering this field is a natural progression for his career, as he told CNBC.

'Representative of our community'

Jennifer Liao and Caleb Wang founded MiLa, a Chinese soup dumpling company based in Seattle, where Liu serves as both an investor and chief content officer.

He said that in order for him to invest in a business, he considers its operations, founder, and product, and that he would prefer it to be uplifting or representative of the community.

Liu hopes to inspire people unfamiliar with Asian cuisine to "explore and connect with our community" through MiLa.

Liu stated that he is "vocal" about discrimination faced by Asian Americans due to his background as a child of immigrants. He explained that he inherited his parents' "sense of restraint, of keeping quiet to avoid causing trouble, and simply getting the job done."

To ensure the success of people in our generation and those to come, Liu emphasized the importance of being more vocal.

This quote resonates with me because it reflects the person I needed as a child: someone who was confident, assertive, unafraid to speak up, and unapologetically proud of their identity.

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