Michelle Yeoh
From ballet to Bond: the action icon who broke barriers.
Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng Todt (born Yeoh Choo Kheng on 6 August 1962) is a Malaysian actress whose career has spanned more than four decades. She has worked across a wide variety of film and television genres, earning an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and two BAFTA nominations. In her early Hong Kong action and martial arts films, she was credited as Michelle Khan and performed her own stunts. These included *Yes, Madam* (1985), *Magnificent Warriors* (1987), *Police Story 3: Super Cop* (1992), *The Heroic Trio* and *Tai Chi Master* (both 1993), and *Wing Chun* (1994).
Yeoh was born in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia, to Janet Yeoh and politician Yeoh Kian-teik, who served as a Malaysian Senator and founded the coach service "Sri Maju." She has a brother, Robert Yeoh, two half-brothers, Lam Hoe and Ronald Yeoh, and a paternal half-sister, Tan Chee Koon. Of Hokkien and Cantonese ancestry, she grew up speaking English with her father and understanding some Malaysian Cantonese from her maternal grandmother. She later learned Cantonese and Mandarin fluently while working in Hong Kong, though she never learned to read or write Chinese characters—something she has called her greatest regret.
She began ballet at age four, attended Main Convent Ipoh, and moved to England at fifteen to train at The Hammond School. A spinal injury ended her ballet ambitions, so she shifted to choreography and other arts, earning a Bachelor of Arts from Crewe + Alsager College of Higher Education in 1983. In 1983, she won Miss Malaysia World and placed eighteenth at Miss World 1983 in London. The following year, she won the Miss Moomba International pageant in Australia. Her first acting work was a television commercial for Guy Laroche watches with Jackie Chan, which led to a film offer from D&B Films. She initially adopted the stage name Michelle Khan for international appeal.
Yeoh married Dickson Poon in 1987 and retired from acting, but returned after their divorce five years later with *Police Story 3: Super Cop* (1992). She then starred in *The Heroic Trio* (1993) and Yuen Woo-ping’s *Tai Chi Master* and *Wing Chun* (1993–1994). She changed her stage name back to Michelle Yeoh when she began her Hollywood career with the James Bond film *Tomorrow Never Dies* (1997) and Ang Lee’s *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon* (2000), which earned her a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress. Her Hollywood roles continued with *Memoirs of a Geisha* (2005), *Sunshine* (2007), and *The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor* (2008). She also appeared in Hong Kong and Chinese films such as *True Legend* and *Reign of Assassins* (both 2010), *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny* (2016), and *Master Z: Ip Man Legacy* (2018). In 2011, she portrayed Aung San Suu Kyi in *The Lady*.
She played supporting roles in *Crazy Rich Asians* (2018), *Last Christmas* (2019), the Marvel film *Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings* (2021), and the series *Star Trek: Discovery* (2017–2020). Her voice work includes *Kung Fu Panda 2* (2011), *Minions: The Rise of Gru* and *Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank* (both 2022), *Transformers: Rise of the Beasts* (2023), and *The Tiger’s Apprentice* (2024). For her starring role as Evelyn Quan Wang in *Everything Everywhere All at Once* (2022), she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first Asian to do so. She later appeared in *A Haunting in Venice* (2023), *Wicked* (2024), *Wicked: For Good* (2025), and *It’s My Time* (2026).
In 2008, Rotten Tomatoes ranked her the greatest action heroine of all time. *People* named her one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" in 1997 and one of the "35 All-Time Screen Beauties" in 2009. *Time* listed her among the world’s 100 most influential people in 2022 and named her its Icon of the Year. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2024.
- born
- 6 August 1962, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
- field
- Actress
- nationality
- Malaysian
- known_for
- Action and martial arts films, Academy Award for Best Actress
Lore & Background
Yeoh was born on 6 August 1962 in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia, to Yeoh Kian-teik (1925–2014), a politician, and Janet Yeoh (born 1939). She has a brother, Robert Yeoh, an eye surgeon, two half-brothers, Lam Hoe, a medical professional, and Ronald Yeoh, an eye surgeon, and a paternal half-sister, Tan Chee Koon (born 1949). Her father was elected as a Senator of Malaysia from 1959 to 1969 as a member of Perak's Malaysian Chinese Association, the Chairman of the Perak Bar Association, and the founder of 'Sri Maju' in 1975, a major intercity coach service in Malaysia and Singapore. Of Hokkien and Cantonese ancestry, she grew up speaking English to her father, and could understand some Malaysian Cantonese from her maternal grandmother who lived with them. She learned to speak Cantonese and Mandarin fluently in the 1980s and 1990s after starting her career in Hong Kong. Despite that, she never learned to read or write Chinese characters, which she has said was her greatest regret. Yeoh was keen on dance from an early age, beginning ballet at age four. She went to the girls school Main Convent Ipoh. At age fifteen, she moved with her parents to England. There, she was enrolled in The Hammond School, Chester, where she started to train as a ballet dancer. However, a spinal injury prevented her from becoming a professional ballet dancer, and she shifted her attention to choreography and other arts. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Crewe + Alsager College of Higher Education in 1983.
Reader's Guide
After moving to the United States, Yeoh gained international recognition for her starring roles in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and in Ang Lee's wuxia martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000); the latter earned her a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Her Hollywood career progressed with roles in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Sunshine (2007), and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008). She continued to appear in Hong Kong and Chinese cinema, starring in True Legend and Reign of Assassins (both 2010); Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2016); and Master Z: Ip Man Legacy (2018). In 2011, she portrayed Aung San Suu Kyi in the British biographical film The Lady (2011). Yeoh played supporting roles in the romantic comedies Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and Last Christmas (2019), as well as in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) and the television series Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2020). Her voice acting work has included Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011); Minions: The Rise of Gru and Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (both 2022); Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023); and The Tiger's Apprentice (2024). For her starring role as Evelyn Quan Wang in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first Asian to win the category. She has since featured in the mystery film A Haunting in Venice (2023), the musical fantasy films Wicked (2024) and Wicked: For Good (2025), and the sports drama film It's My Time (2026).
Did You Know?
- The film review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes ranked her the greatest action heroine of all time in 2008.
- In 1997, she was chosen by People as one of the '50 Most Beautiful People in the World', and in 2009 the same magazine listed her as one of the '35 All-Time Screen Beauties.'
- In 2022, Time named her one of the world's 100 most influential people on its annual listicle and its Icon of the Year.
- In 2024, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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
More in Writers & Journalists
Elsewhere in the Historical Figures universe
Spotted an error? Know more?
This is a living reference — every entry is fact-audited, and reader corrections feed straight into our audit queue. Suggest an edit · See this site's audit record