Asian-American actress Julia Ling was born on February 14, 1983 in Temple City, California. Despite being known as an actress, a career in the performing arts was far from her original plans. As a child, she was known for her art, having won several art contests before after turning three years old, and has attracted considerable attention from local news outlets. Later into her childhood, she became known for her solo dance performances, which she did across California. Her budding career was put on hold after she decided to become a neurosurgeon; she eventually took a chemical engineering degree at the University of California–Los Angeles. However, it wasn’t to last long; she left UCLA early to pursue an acting career.
Ling made her acting debut in 2003, when she appeared in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Although most of her acting credits were on television, she appeared in several films, debuting in the 2005 horror short We All Fall Down, and later starring in other films like Ride or Die, Undoing and Love Sick Diaries. But she became more known for her television roles, appearing as a recurring guest on ER and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, where she played viola prodigy Kim Tao. Her first regular television role came in 2007, when she took a role in the television series Chuck; she played the role of Anna Wu, one of Chuck Bartowski’s (Zachary Levi) colleagues at Buy More.