Lights, Camera, Actor: Michelle Yeoh

Michelle Yeoh is an icon of cinema, her filmography ranging from Kung Fu Panda to the multi-award winning Everything Everywhere All at Once. Her next appearance will be in Wicked - although it is yet to be seen whether this will pop or flop.

But if Michelle Yeoh is in it (alongside so many other big names) it is probably going to be a hit. Her outstanding and emotional performance in her most recent film, Everything Everywhere All at Once, earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress which made her the first Malaysian woman, as well as the first Asian woman, to win this award. For this role she also won a Golden Globe and her second BAFTA nomination - and all at the age of 60.

She didn’t always want to be an actor though. Growing up in Malaysia, she originally had dreams of becoming a professional ballet dancer, but an unfortunate back injury forced her to change career paths. It was at this point she changed to acting, under the stage name Michelle Khan, with her first appearance in an advert alongside Jackie Chan - not a bad start. In following years, she crafted herself into a queen of martial arts and stunts (which she almost always performed herself), her former ballet training now supporting her specialised acting career. In terms of Kung Fu movies, of which she starred in many, the masterpiece Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was arguably the pinnacle of this - a true cult classic. 

Upon breaking into the Hollywood scene in the late 90s, Yeoh cemented herself as an international star as a non-stereotypical Bond girl and first Asian female lead in Tomorrow Never Dies. Instead of the usual Bond girl that leans more into the damsel in distress stereotype, Yeoh, now performing under her actual surname, acted as a fighting partner for Bond, taking on a more equal part of the action. 

But her success didn’t stop as a young woman. Her career has only progressed upwards as she has got older, fighting the idea of a ‘female expiry date’ that can be so prevalent in the film industry - the idea that as a woman ages, her looks and consequent on screen value declines. In the last five years, she has continued to impress with appearances as a voice actor in the Minions: the Rise of Gru as well as in the Marvel movie Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and in the Agatha Christie adaptation A Haunting in Venice. Her varied filmography is testament to her success - a success that will only continue to increase with upcoming features in both Wicked films and in Avatar 4.