Jessica Lu

Jessica Lu is an American actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Ming Huang on the MTV television series Awkward. Early life Jessica Lu was born and raised in Schaumburg, a northwest suburb of Chicago, Illinois. Her parents are from South Korea, with her father being Chinese and Japanese, and her mother Chinese. They speak English, Mandarin and Korean at home. Her father is a photographer, and her mother, a singer. After arriving in the United States, they established a restaurant in Chicago. Lu has been a natural performer since early childhood. At 6 years old, she started dancing, specializing in ballet, tap, and jazz. After watching Kristi Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan compete in the 1992 Olympics, she pursued figure skating and took private lessons at 4am every morning before school. She also had singing, piano, and violin lessons. With her parents’ restaurant as her stage with a daily rotating audience, Jessica would entertain each table with a theatrical reading, violin playing, a tap dance, or a song. After starting modeling and acting, she became a sought after child talent in Chicago. By the time she was 10 years old, she had worked on ad campaigns such as Calvin Klein, Oshkosh, Marshall Fields, Got Milk?, and Chicago Place, as well as commercials for McDonald's, Ford Motors, Orville Redenbacher's, Samsung, and Kaiser Permanente.