Lucy Sheen was born in Hong Kong and, as she puts it, "exported to the UK as a transracial adoptee" in the 1960s. She describes herself as "a dyslexic actor, published writer, filmmaker, trainer and transracial adoptee advocate." Sheen trained at Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, graduating in 1985. Her first professional job was playing the female lead in the British feature film Ping Pong (1987), directed by Po Ch’ih Leong. This was the first ever UK feature film to look at the history and issues of the British-Chinese community. Sheen was the first British East Asian actress to be nominated for a major UK theatre award: TMA for Best Supporting Actress for Drink the Mercury in 1990. Sheen was also nominated for a Best Actress award at the Offies for her role in Tim Luscombe's production of his play Hungry Ghosts at the Orange Tree Theatre in 2010.

“I am a cultural Frankenstein. I have no definable history before I was abandoned and taken in by the orphanage in Hong Kong. I truly am a blank sheet. I have been disconnected from my ancestors. I don't know who they are, where they came from or whether any of their line still exists. The ancestral umbilical cord that would have connected me to my past and linked me to my future, was permanently severed. It cannot be reattached.”

    Extract from Transracial Adoption -  a talk that was delivered in 2013 to a small group of     NHS  adoption and childcare professionals

(http://www.lucysheen.com/#!transracial-adoptee/c1mba)