Michelle Yeoh, of Chinese Malaysian background with ancestral roots in Tong'an, Fujian, was born in Ipoh, Perak, on 6 August 1962, the daughter of a lawyer. She trained in ballet from childhood, moved to Britain with her family at fifteen and studied at the Royal Academy of Dance, majoring in dance and minoring in drama. Back in Malaysia after graduating, she won a local beauty contest in 1983 and was then invited by Dickson Poon to Hong Kong to appear in advertisements for the watch brand he represented, which launched her acting career. In September 1984 she signed with D & B Films as a contract player, appearing in The Owl vs Bombo (1984) without standing out; she then switched to action, training with stuntmen and making a striking impression as an inspector in Yes, Madam (1985). She followed with Royal Warriors (1986) opposite the Japanese star Hiroyuki Sanada, gaining more popularity, and the big-budget Magnificent Warriors (1987) confirmed her modern martial-arts image despite modest box office, also travelling well overseas. Injured by filming, she reinvented herself as a mysterious, quick-witted thief in Easy Money (1987). She married Dickson Poon in February 1988 and retired, the marriage ending in 1991. Returning in Police Story III: Super Cop (1992), she took on more varied roles than in her D & B days: action films such as Butterfly and Sword, The Heroic Trio, Executioners and Tai Chi Master (all 1993) and Wing Chun (1994), and dramatic parts including Ah Kam (1996), about a stuntwoman's life, and The Soong Sisters (1997), in which she played Soong Ai-ling. With Terence Chang as her manager she moved into Western cinema, playing a tough soldier in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) who replaced the usual glamorous 'Bond girl' with hard-edged action, and the restrained, strong-minded Yu Shu Lien in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), earning best actress nominations at the 20th Hong Kong Film Awards, the 37th Golden Horse Awards and the 54th BAFTA. In 2001 she founded Mythical Films, producing and starring in The Touch (2002) and Silver Hawk (2004), and executive-produced the environmental documentary Pad Yatra: A Green Odyssey (2013). She has appeared in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Sunshine (2007), Reign of Assassins (2010), Luc Besson's The Lady (2011), Master Z: Ip Man Legacy (2018), Crazy Rich Asians (2018), Last Christmas (2019) and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021). She served on the juries of the Berlin and Cannes festivals in 1999 and 2002. In 2008 she co-founded Stellar Entertainment with Chang and others to nurture talent. She received the Excellence in Asian Cinema Award at the 7th Asian Film Awards in 2013, and in 2023 won the Best Actress Oscar at the 95th Academy Awards for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), becoming the first Asian performer to take the prize.
Michelle Yeoh's self-performed stunts made her a rare modern female action star in 1980s Hong Kong cinema, reshaping what leading actresses could be. Moving between Chinese- and English-language films, she overturned the glamorous 'Bond girl' stereotype in Tomorrow Never Dies and showed her dramatic range as Yu Shu Lien in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Winning the Best Actress Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once in 2023 made her the first Asian winner of the award, lifting an actress trained in Hong Kong action cinema to the top of world film and opening new possibilities for Asian performers.
Achievements
- 1983 · Won a Malaysian beauty title in 1983 and was invited to Hong Kong by Dickson Poon to shoot commercials, beginning her screen career.
- 1985 · Broke through as an action star with her role as an inspector in Yes, Madam (1985).
- 2023 · Won the Best Actress Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), the first Asian performer to do so.