Michelle Yeoh

Lore & Background

Michelle Yeoh was born on 6 August 1962 in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia, to Yeoh Kian-teik, a politician, and Janet Yeoh. She began ballet at age four and moved to England at fifteen to train at The Hammond School, but a spinal injury ended her dance career. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Crewe + Alsager College of Higher Education in 1983. That year, she won Miss Malaysia World and represented Malaysia at Miss World 1983, placing eighteenth. Her first acting work was a television commercial with Jackie Chan, leading to a contract with D&B Films. She initially used the stage name Michelle Khan for international appeal.

Reader's Guide

Michelle Yeoh rose to fame in Hong Kong action films of the 1980s and 1990s, performing her own stunts in movies such as Yes, Madam (1985), Police Story 3: Super Cop (1992), and Wing Chun (1994). She gained global recognition for her role in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and for Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), which earned her a BAFTA nomination. Her later work includes Crazy Rich Asians (2018), Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2020), and the Marvel film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021). In 2022, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Everything Everywhere All at Once, becoming the first Asian to win that category. Rotten Tomatoes ranked her the greatest action heroine of all time in 2008. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2024.

Did You Know?

• Yeoh was credited as Michelle Khan in her early Hong Kong films.
• She learned to speak Cantonese and Mandarin fluently in the 1980s and 1990s but never learned to read or write Chinese characters.
• She was blacklisted by the Burmese government after portraying Aung San Suu Kyi in The Lady (2011).
• Time named her one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2022 and its Icon of the Year.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"I have been filming a lot away from home this year. So the minute I finish, I will dash home to be with my family and be surrounded by Christmas trees and Christmas cheer." — Michelle Yeoh "As quoted in Harvard Magazine article, May 24, 2023." — Michelle Yeoh "Understanding what you can do is essential, understanding what you can’t do is pretty important too." — Michelle Yeoh "I knew I had made it [as an action star] when soon after, I joined Jet Li and Jackie Chan as the three people who Hong Kong insurance refused to cover." — Michelle Yeoh