Jean Yoon
윤진희
Yoon in 2018
Born	(1962-05-04)May 4, 1962 (age 63) Champaign, Illinois, U.S.
Education	University of Toronto (BA)
Occupations	Actress,writer
Years active	1998–present
Children	1

Jean Yoon (Korean:윤진희; born May 4, 1962) is an American and Canadian actress and writer. An actress ofKorean descent, Yoon is best known for originating the role of family matriarch Umma in the 2011 playKim's Convenience and in the award-winningCBC Televisionseries adapted from the play, for which she won anACTRA Award and received twoCanadian Screen Award nominations.^[1][2]

Yoon was born inChampaign, Illinois to parents ofKorean descent in 1962 and subsequently raised inToronto, where she currently resides and works.^[3]

Yoon started her career in theatre as an actress in the early 1980s, but soon quit in frustration after she struggled to find work and went on to complete her degree at theUniversity of Toronto (BA Innis 1989^[4]).^[5] A decade later, in 1995, she returned to acting and started her own group called Loud Mouth Asian Babes, through which she has written and produced plays that focus on theKorean diaspora, mostly in Canada.^[5]

Yoon's acting career began to flourish in the early 2000s, with small roles in several television series, includingLa Femme Nikita (1996–2001),Witchblade (TNT, 2000–2002) andStreet Time (Showtime, 2001–2003).^[6] In 2006, Yoon achieved wider recognition after playing flight attendantBetty Ong in the controversialmini-seriesThe Path to 9/11. Also in 2006, Yoon had a recurring role as June Kim in thelegal drama seriesThis Is Wonderland.^[7]

In 2007, Yoon received aGemini Award nomination for her work in theCBC mini-seriesDragon Boys.^[8] In 2009, she portrayed Dr. Montague in the hitromantic comedy filmThe Time Traveller's Wife, based on thenovel of the same name.^[9]

Throughout the 2010s, Yoon has played a wide array of characters in several television programs, most notably Imena Khumalo in themedical drama seriesRemedy (2014–2015), Connie in the animated seriesPeg+Cat (2013–2016), Captain Theresa Yao in thescience fiction seriesThe Expanse (2015), and Janis Beckwith in the hitBBC-Space seriesOrphan Black.^[7]

From 2016 to 2021, Yoon portrayed Kim Yong-mi ("Umma"), thematriarch of the Kim family, in the CBC sitcomKim's Convenience.^[10] She also portrayed the same role in the2011 play,^[1] which she originated and performed over 240 times in six cities.^[2]

For her role in the television series, she has received considerable attention and has publicly discussed the importance of diversity in mainstream media, specifically forAsian Canadians and immigrants.^[1] In an interview with the CBC, Yoon said:

The generational conflict between first generation and second generation immigrants, it's rich territory, and if you've lived through it, I mean, it's laugh and cry, laugh and cry, laugh and cry. But we haven't seen those stories on television on a national level. We are starting to see those stories coming out in novels and in theatre ... We are starting to see an awareness that this is territory that hasn't been explored. There's comedy there, there's talent there, and there's a sudden pop of interest. But also it's a question of critical mass.^[1]

For her role onKim's Convenience, Yoon won anACTRA Award, and was a five-timeCanadian Screen Award nominee forBest Actress in a Comedy Series, winning at the10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022.^[11] Yoon played the role for the show's entire five-season run.^[12]

Yoon is also a writer and playwright. She has written several plays, poems, and essays,^[3] includingThe Yoko Ono Project, a multi-media performance art comedy aboutOno, her art, and her impact, which earned aDora Mavor Moore Award nomination and aJessie Richardson Award.^[5]

In December 2022, Yoon and retired South Korean competitivefigure skaterYuna Kim were designated honorary ambassadors on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of thediplomatic relations between Canada and South Korea in 2023.^[13]

Yoon has a son; in a 2017 interview withNOW Magazine, she described herself as a "mom who acts."^[14]

• Jean Yoon atIMDb

• 1962 births
• Living people
• 20th-century Canadian actresses
• 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights
• 20th-century Canadian poets
• 20th-century Canadian women writers
• 21st-century Canadian actresses
• 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights
• 21st-century Canadian poets
• 21st-century Canadian women writers
• Actresses from Illinois
• Actresses from Toronto
• Canadian actresses of Korean descent
• Canadian film actresses
• Canadian Film Centre alumni
• Canadian people of Korean descent
• Canadian stage actresses
• Canadian television actresses
• Canadian voice actresses
• Canadian women dramatists and playwrights
• Canadian women poets
• Canadian writers of Asian descent
• People from Champaign, Illinois
• University of Toronto alumni
• Writers from Illinois
• Poets from Toronto
• Best Actress in a Comedy Series Canadian Screen Award winners
• Actors from Champaign County, Illinois

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