Richard Lui

Richard Lui is an American author, journalist, and filmmaker. He anchors for MSNOW and formerly MSNBC and NBC News. Lui is currently a breaking news anchor for MSNOW, broadcasting from Times Square in Manhattan, New York City.

Lui's enterprise reporting has focused on humanitarian issues including gender equality, human trafficking, and affordable housing. His charity work in the same spaces has led him to work with Plan International USA as a global ambassador (alongside Freida Pinto and Marcia Cross) for its Because I am a Girl campaign. He also is ambassador for the Epilepsy Foundation and sits on the president's council for America's largest food source to the poor, Food Bank for New York City. Lui's work and reporting on humanitarian issues spans 30 years and six continents. He has received civil rights awards from organizations including AAJA, WWAAC, and OCA.

Lui has directed two Academy Award qualified films, Sky Blossom in 2020, and Unconditional in 2023, which was screened at the White House by First Lady Jill Biden.

Business career

Lui started in business in 1985, working in manufacturing, strategy consulting, food and beverage, environmental, oil, and technology industries. He has held chief roles from operations to marketing.

As an ambassador for Plan International USA, Lui works to identify and advise on ways of talking about the role male adults and children have in gender inequality and female victim blaming, as well as help to generate organizational growth strategies. For Plan International USA, he has travelled to Central America, South America, Asia, and Oceania for research and to assess global trends.

Lui has collaborated with Polaris Project, a global anti-human trafficking organization. He has reported and consulted on human trafficking stories for a decade, and spoken on domestic and global trends at high schools, universities, and conferences globally. He is a UN Foundation Fellow and hosted programs alongside former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for the United Nations Association of New York. He has given commencement speeches at UC Berkeley and City College of San Francisco, and spoken at events for Harvard University, Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

In the affordable and homeless housing space, Lui volunteered for Habitat for Humanity in Ghana, the Golan Heights, and Haiti with former President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. The Asian American Journalists Association awarded Lui the Suzanne Ahn Civil Rights and Social Justice Award in 2013, an honor in memory of humanitarian Suzanne Ahn. Civil Rights organization OCA awarded Lui with its Community Service Award in 2012 and 2013.

Politics Lui's interest in politics started in the 1970s, when he debated California's controversial Proposition 13 during bus rides to school. That interest turned into a job at 19: campaign manager for San Francisco College Board incumbent Alan Wong. After the election, Lui returned to college and planned to write on policy and the affairs of state, subscribing to The Washington Post when it had to be mailed to the West Coast. APA Presidential Inaugural Ball, and APA Congressional Caucus' forum at the Capitol. He also conducted Asian Pacific American Institute on Congressional Studies (APAICS) training sessions for elected and appointed officials. Lui also contributes political opinion pieces to publications, including The Seattle Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Politico, and Huffington Post.

Later, in the 2000s, Lui moved to Asia to capture a heated moment in regional politics. He was at Channel NewsAsia, an English language network reaching 24 territories.

Lui joined MSNBC in 2010. Lui anchored Early Today for NBC News for several years. He is currently a breaking news anchor at MS NOW (formerly MSNBC). He is currently based at MS NOW's offices in Times Square. In the past, Lui covered sports for both NBC News and MSNBC morning shows. He also served as news anchor for The Weather Channel’s program with Al Roker, Wake Up With Al when NBC co-owned the weather-focused network.

Some of the events he's anchored breaking coverage of include the Scotland independence vote, 2013 government shutdown, Boston Marathon bombing, Japanese earthquake and tsunami, NATO's attack in Libya, and the Arab Spring and Egypt’s revolution.

Personal life Because his grandfather, an undocumented immigrant, filed false paper son documents, Lui's real last name is Wong. He said in an op-ed he grew up on welfare and almost flunked out of high school. He is an automobile enthusiast, and is an aerodynamics and airplane industry hobbyist.