Simu Liu

 Liu was born in Harbin (China) on 19 April 1989. Liu is the son of Zhenning Liu and Zheng Liu. His parents were able to go to Beijing University, despite considerable opposition, to pursue engineering. His father, Zhenning, went to America to pursue a PhD while his mother worked in Beijing as a teacher. Liu was raised from the age of five by his parents in Harbin, China, "in a small apartment, without running water for much of the day", in circumstances that he described as "idyllic and happy". His parents then emigrated together to Canada in the late 1960s, and they supplemented their scholarships with dish-washing jobs. They eventually went on to become highly successful aerospace engineers. Liu was born in Mississauga, Ontario.In his memoir, We Were Dreamers, he wrote of the deprivation and trauma his parents had endured during China's Cultural Revolution,and their subsequent "tiger parenting" style, saying they "wanted to rid [his] life of joy or happiness" and reminiscing "the weight of what he described as unrealistic expectations of being the most popular child, the academically literate, the obedient son'", being "belittled and physically punished" for apparent failings.Liu's parents "hothoused him in maths at the age of five and set 'homework' that included biographies of famous scientists as well as learning algebra".He went to the University of Toronto Schools for high school and studied in business administration at the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario, having graduated with distinction in the year 2011.