Simu Liu

 Liu was born in Harbin, China, on 19 April 1989, son of Zhenning Liu and Zheng Liu. His parents had succeeded in the face of a lot of competition in getting into Beijing University to study engineering. His father, Zhenning, went to America to pursue a PhD while his mother was working in Beijing, and Liu was raised until the age of 5 by his grandparents in Harbin, China, "in tiny apartments, with no running water throughout the day" and in a situation Liu described as "idyllic and blissful" His parents then emigrated together with Liu to Canada, where they supplemented their scholarship with jobs as dishwashers and then became successful aerospace engineers; Liu was born in Mississauga, Ontario.In his memoir, We Were Dreamers, he wrote of the deprivation and trauma his parents endured growing up in China's Cultural Revolution, and their subsequent "tiger parenting" style. He said the parents "wanted to strip his life of joy or happiness" and reminiscing "the burden of what he calls unrealistic expectations: 'to be the most famous child, the academic, studious as well as the one who obeys his parents'", being "belittled and physically punished" for apparent failures. Liu was five years old when his parents "hothoused" him in maths, and demanded that he do 'homework' which included studying algebra and biographies of scientists. Liu attended University of Toronto Schools for high school and then studied management at the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario, receiving an honours degree in 2011.