From Crazy Rich Asians to an Oscar nomination! Michelle Yeoh started off her acting career in Hong Kong with action and martial arts films and has since become a critically acclaimed actress.
The Witcher: Blood Origin star was born in August 1962 in Ipoh, Perak. At a young age, Yeoh took an interest in ballet and later went on to study at the U.K.’s Royal Academy of Dance in London where she took her first acting class.
“I found I got completely tongue-tied,” the Malaysia native told Deadline in a March 2023 interview. “It was not a problem when I had to dance; that was my world. But, I was properly terrified of getting up on a stage where I had to speak. To memorize other people’s lines and then repeat them. I never imagined myself ever wanting to be an actress.”
Yeoh first started appearing and performing her own stunts in Hong Kong films such as 1985’s Yes, Madam and 1992’s Police Story 3: Supercop. The Golden Globe Award winner made her Hollywood debut in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies.
After appearing in several films including the award-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the Memoirs of a Geisha star made her first television appearances in the fifth season of Strike Back in 2015 and 2017’s Star Trek: Discovery.
“I really, really am so grateful for this chance to be part of the Star Trek family because there’s so much love and passion that goes into it, the details, everything,” Yeoh told IndieWire in February 2018.
In 2022, Yeoh made headlines for her performance as Evelyn Wang in the film Everything Everywhere All at Once, winning the Golden Globe and receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in 2023. The Crazy Rich Asians actress is the first Malaysia native to receive an Academy Award nomination in any category.
“What I found so beautiful was, it was giving a voice to a very ordinary woman, aging immigrant woman, who’s never really had a voice before,” Yeoh explained to CBS News in January 2023. “You know, it’s hard being, looking like this, because I have a lot of Asians who come up to me and say, ‘Thank you for doing this, because now I see it’s possible for us to be there.’ So, it is very important because what we are giving to all the Asian faces is that we’re not invisible.”
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Keep scrolling for a look back at Yeoh’s life and career over the years: