Ipoh, Malaysia is the place where Michelle Yeoh was born. Her mother, Janet Yeoh, and her father, Kian Teik Yeoh, are her parents. Her first language is English, followed by Malay, and then Chinese. She is of Hokkien heritage. Since she was four years old, she has been a ballet dancer. When she was a teenager, she relocated to London to attend the Royal Academy of Ballet. She had a brief career as a dancer before she went on to win the title of Miss Malaysia and the title of Miss Moomba in the early 1980s. Both of these beauty pageants were held in Melbourne, Australia. In 1984, she appeared in a commercial alongside Jackie Chan, who was a well-known celebrity in the martial arts. It was in 1985 when she started working with D&B Films of Hong Kong to produce action films. She was initially billed as Michelle Khan, and then changed her name to Michelle Yeoh. For the purpose of preparing for martial arts action scenes, she depended on her dancing discipline and on-set coaches. She had never had any formal training in martial arts.

She is most recognized in the Western world for her appearances as Wai Lin in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, which was released in 1997, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a martial arts film that was filmed in Mandarin and for which she was nominated for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for most Actress in the year 2000. The website Rotten Tomatoes, which is dedicated to film review, determined that she was “the greatest action heroine of all time” in the year 2008. People magazine designated her as one of the “35 All-Time Screen Beauties” in the year 2009, making her the only Asian actress to be included on the list.

In a few of her early films, she was given the name Michelle Khan as her official name. D&B studios took the decision to use this label because they believed it would be more appealing to listeners in western and international regions. In subsequent years, Yeoh began using her own name instead.

Awards

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role 2023 (Everything Everywhere All at Once) / Oscar