Dallas Liu

The black belt before the script

Dallas Liu started hitting before acting. Born in 2001 and raised in the San Gabriel Valley, his childhood wasn't spent going to commercial auditions but on the mat. He practiced Shotokan karate from age five, and that physical discipline ended up being his way into the entertainment industry.

By the age of seven he was already competing on international circuits. But acting knocked on his door by chance when a major production was looking for a boy with real martial arts skills. His debut came in 2009 playing the young version of Jin Kazama in the film Tekken.

That location shoot changed his view of competitive sports. He realized he could channel his athletic aggression into a visual story. So he decided to set aside kata tournaments to understand how a film camera works.

It wasn't a smooth road right away.

For years, he took small roles in series such as Mortal Kombat: Legacy and Bones. These were jobs where his body mattered more than his voice. But Liu used that time to observe the veterans on set and learn the downtime of television production.

Comedy as a proving ground

In 2019, his career took a necessary turn away from kicks and punches. He joined the cast of PEN15, the Hulu series that dissected teenage embarrassment with uncomfortable honesty. Playing Shuji Ishii-Peters pushed him to work on his comic timing and emotional vulnerability.

Critics took notice of his ability to hold his own in absurd situations. He was no longer just the guy who could fight. He was an actor who could carry a close-up without relying on special effects or complex choreography.

And then the fire came.

In 2021 he had a brief role in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. It was a small part as Ruihua, Katy's brother, but it helped him get noticed by major casting directors in Los Angeles. That same year, word came out that his professional life was about to change completely.

The fire of the Fire Nation

In August 2021, Netflix announced that Liu would bring Prince Zuko to life in the live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The challenge was enormous, since the character carried the emotional weight of millions of fans of the original animated series.

To prepare for the role of Zuko in 2024, he had to undergo training that mixed his karate roots with dual sword handling. But the most complex part wasn't the action scenes. Liu had to find the balance between the blind rage of an exile and the pain of a son rejected by his father.

It was a high-risk technical bet.

The series premiere in February 2024 confirmed that his performance was one of the project's solid pillars. His on-screen chemistry with Paul Sun-Hyung Lee made the relationship between Zuko and Uncle Iroh feel organic and less caricatured than in previous adaptation attempts.

Liu stays out of the spotlight when he isn't working and prefers to keep a low profile on social media. He isn't chasing instant fame on the red carpet. He focuses on the craft, and his past as an elite athlete lets him endure 14-hour shooting days under facial burn prosthetics.

Netflix confirmed the series would be renewed for a second and third season in March 2024, with a budget exceeding fifteen million dollars per episode.