Michelle Yeoh

Ancestors

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Notables Project WikiTree [send private message], David Randall [send private message], Scott Fulkerson [send private message], and Josh Richard [send private message]

Michelle Yeoh is notable. Join: Notables Project Discuss: notables

Biography

Michelle Yeoh was born in Malaysia.

Michelle Yeoh was born Yeoh Choo Kheng, 6 Aug 1962, in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. She is the daughter of Yeoh Kian Teik and Janet Yeoh. Her father was a lawyer and politician of Han Chinese (Hokkien) descent.

Michelle was a ballet dancer from the age of four, and as a teenager moved to London, England to study at the Royal Academy where she earned a bachelor's degree in Dance. After a brief dance career, she won the Miss Malaysia 1983 beauty pageant title.

In 1984, she appeared in her first television commercial, alongside martial arts star Jackie Chan. In 1985, she began making action movies with D&B Films of Hong Kong, where she became known as the "queen of martial arts". She was first billed as Michelle Khan, then later as Michelle Yeoh.

In 1988, she married wealthy D&B Films executive Dickson Poon and retired from acting. They divorced in 1992. She has been in a relationship Jean Todt, President of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, since 2004.

In 1993, she released a single CD, "Love Quite Like a Comet", from her movie Butterfly and Sword (1993).

When she returned to acting, she became known to western audiences through her co-starring roles in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).

In 2022, she starred in the science fiction surreal comedy film Everything Everywhere All at Once earning her a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, an Independent Spirit Award, a BAFTA nomination, and a Critics' Choice Awards nomination. She also became the first Malaysian to be nominated for an Academy Award, and the first Asian and second "woman of color" to win the Academy Award for Best Actress.

In 2001, she was given the title of "dato'" (somewhat like an English knighthood) by the Sultan of Perak, her native state. In October 2007, was named a Chevalier of the French Legion d'Honneur, for her contributions to international culture.

Sources

• IMDB entry for Michelle Yeoh

• Wikipedia entry for Michelle Yeoh

Acknowledgements

• This profile has been contributed to by the members of the WikiTree 15 Nations Global Tour of 2023
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Yeoh