Yeoh was born on 6 August 1962 inIpoh,Perak, Malaysia,[11] to Yeoh Kian-teik (1925–2014), a politician, and Janet Yeoh (born 1939).[12][13] She has a brother, Robert Yeoh, an eye surgeon, two half-brothers, Lam Hoe, a medical professional, and Ronald Yeoh, an eye surgeon, and a paternal half-sister, Tan Chee Koon (born 1949).[14] Her father waselected as a Senator of Malaysia from 1959 to 1969 as a member of Perak'sMalaysian Chinese Association,[15][16][17][12] the Chairman of the PerakBar Association,[when?][15][12] and the founder of "Sri Maju" in 1975, a majorintercity coach service in Malaysia and Singapore.[15][18][12] OfHokkien andCantonese ancestry,[19] she grew up speaking English to her father, and could understand someMalaysian Cantonese from her maternal grandmother who lived with them.[20] She learned to speak Cantonese andMandarin fluently in the 1980s and 1990s after starting her career in Hong Kong. Despite that, she never learned to read orwrite Chinese characters, which she has said was her greatest regret.[21]
Yeoh was keen on dance from an early age, beginning ballet at age four. She went to the girls schoolMain Convent Ipoh. At age fifteen, she moved with her parents to England. There, she was enrolled inThe Hammond School, Chester, where she started to train as a ballet dancer.[22][23] However, a spinal injury prevented her from becoming a professional ballet dancer, and she shifted her attention to choreography and other arts.[24] She received aBachelor of Arts degree fromCrewe + Alsager College of Higher Education in 1983.[25]
In 1983, twenty-year-old Yeoh won theMiss Malaysia World beauty contest.[26] She was Malaysia's representative at theMiss World 1983pageant in London, where she placed eighteenth.[27] Later that year, she traveled to Australia where she won the 1984Miss Moomba International pageant.[28] Her first acting work was in a television commercial forGuy Laroche watches withJackie Chan.[28] This caught the attention of a fledgling Hong Kong film production company, D&B Films. Although she had a passive understanding of theIpoh Cantonese spoken in her hometown, she could not speak it. During a phone call in Cantonese, she was offered to co-star in a television commercial with a Sing Long, and only realized that was Chan's Cantonese name when she arrived in the studio.[29] She learned to speak Cantonese as she began her career in Hong Kong.[30]
Yeoh began her acting career in action and martial arts films, in which she performed her own stunts.[31] Yeoh's first lead role came in her third film,Yes, Madam (1985).[24][32] Yeoh initially used thepseudonym Michelle Khan, a stage name selected by D&B Films for its potential appeal to international and Western audiences. In 1987, Yeoh married her first husbandDickson Poon, a co-founder of D&B Films, and decided to retire from acting.[33]
She changed her stage name back to Michelle Yeoh when she started her Hollywood career withTomorrow Never Dies in 1997.[26] In the 1997James Bond film, she playedWai Lin opposite starPierce Brosnan.[34] Brosnan was impressed, describing her as a "wonderful actress" who was "serious and committed about her work."[35] He referred to her as a "female James Bond" in reference to her combat abilities. Yeoh wanted to perform her own stunts but was prevented because directorRoger Spottiswoode considered it too dangerous. Nevertheless, she performed all of her own fighting scenes.[36][37]
In 2002, Yeoh produced her first English film,The Touch, through her own production company Mythical Films. In 2004, Yeoh metJean Todt, a French motor racing executive, in Shanghai during a publicity event for Ferrari. They became engaged later that same year.[41]
In 2011, she portrayedAung San Suu Kyi inLuc Besson'sThe Lady.[43][44] Yeoh was blacklisted by the Burmese government allegedly because of her participation inThe Lady; she was refused entry toMyanmar on 22 June 2011 and was deported on the same day.[45] In October 2011, Yeoh was chosen byGuerlain to be its skincare ambassador.[46] Yeoh's role was to help strengthen the French cosmetics company's relationship with Asia.[47]
Yeoh did not branch out into television until 2015, with her first role playing Mei Foster, wife to the British Ambassador to Thailand, who is secretly a North Korean spy named Li-Na,[48] on the fifth season of the Cinemax/Sky seriesStrike Back.[49]
In 2016, Yeoh was cast asStarfleet CaptainPhilippa Georgiou of the starship USSShenzhou in the seriesStar Trek: Discovery, and recurs as Georgiou's "mirror" doppelganger later in the series.[50][51] Yeoh went on to play the role for three seasons, garnering critical acclaim and becoming a fan favourite. Following the success ofStar Trek: Discovery, a spin-off series with Yeoh in the leading role, was commissioned in 2019.[52] The series, which would centre on Yeoh's character, Emperor Georgiou working as a member ofSection 31, a secret galactic spy organization, was still "in development" as of January 2023,[53] but in April, Paramount+ announced it had ordered aStar Trek: Section 31 feature film starring Yeoh, rather than a series.[54]
In May 2024, Yeoh was cast in a lead role as a replicant alongsideHunter Schafer in theAmazon science-fiction television seriesBlade Runner 2099.[83] She will also star as human scientist Dr. Karina Mogue inAvatar 4, set to release on 21 December 2029 andAvatar 5, set to release on 19 December 2031.[84] In November 2025, The Berlin International Film Festival announced it will award the 2026 Honorary Golden Bear to Yeoh in recognition of her outstanding achievements in film and cinema.[85]
Yeoh has donated her time as aWildAid ambassador for endangered animals and is agoodwill ambassador for theUnited Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the Sustainable Development Goals initiative since 2016.[93][94] Yeoh is a patron of theSave China's Tigers project committed to protecting the endangeredSouth China tiger.[95] She also joined UNDP's first-ever animal ambassadors, two panda cubs, to kick off the Pandas for the Global Goals campaign.[96] In order to raise awareness about wildlife conservation and climate change, she collaborated withNational Geographic to produce the documentaryAmong the Great Apes with Michelle Yeoh,[97] while emphasising the importance of responsible consumerism, sustainable fashion, and ethical business practices.[98] In 2013, she changed to the role of executive producer for the projectPad Yatra: A Green Odyssey. The film recorded a journey of 700 people, led by the12th Gyalwang Drukpa, to the perilousHimalayan mountain range. They traveled 450 miles, planted 50,000 trees, and educated the villagers on environmental responsibility.[99]
Yeoh's activism extends to health and well-being issues, ranging from patrons to ambassadors, through organisations including AIDS Concern,[100]Hong Kong Cancer Fund,[101]amfAR,[102] Live To Love,[103] andParis Brain Institute.[104] She also joinedUNAIDS's commissioner team,[105] and serves on the board of directors of the Suu Foundation, a non-political charity established to support the health, education, human rights, and development of the people ofMyanmar.[106] As one of the survivors ofthe 2015 Nepal earthquake,[107] after evacuation, she returned to the disaster-hit country to help rehabilitate affected people and donate €100,000 for victims.[108][109]
Throughout her career, Yeoh has always portrayed strong roles and been defiant in working againststereotypes. AfterTomorrow Never Dies, she did not work for nearly two years due to the stereotypical roles offered to her in America.[110] She toldPeople: "At that point (1990s), people in the industry couldn't really tell the difference between whether I was Chinese, Japanese, Korean or if I even spoke English. They would talk very loudly and very slowly".[111] She has long spoken out about racism in Hollywood, typically in her awards acceptance speech at theGolden Globes.[112] The day after her Oscar win, she published an opinion essay inThe New York Times calling for true gender equality.[113]
Michelle Yeoh and her husbandJean Todt at the Festival Automobile International 2016
Yeoh was married to Hong Kong entrepreneurDickson Poon, known for his ownership of businesses such asHarvey Nichols andCharles Jourdan, from 1988 to 1992.[114] From 1998 to 2000, Yeoh dated and was eventually engaged to Alan Heldman, an American cardiologist.[115]
In 2004, she began datingJean Todt,[116] then the general manager and CEO ofScuderia Ferrari and later the president of theFIA.[117] They became engaged on 26 July 2004.[118] As of 2019, she lives inGeneva, Switzerland, with Todt.[119] In an Instagram post, former Scuderia Ferrari driverFelipe Massa said that Yeoh and Todt were married on 27 July 2023 in Geneva.[120][121]
Yeoh does not have any children,[122] and has cited her inability to have children as the reason for ending her first marriage.[123]
Yeoh is widely regarded as one of the greatest female action stars in cinema history.[128][129][130][131][132] Christina Newland ofBBC Online credited her early work in Hong Kong action films with helping "redress the male-dominated nature of that cinema scene",[133] and Pete Volk ofPolygon said she had already established herself as "one of the best action stars in the world" before breaking through in the United States.[134] She has been compared toJackie Chan throughout her career, and has often been nicknamed the "female Jackie Chan" by the press.[135][136]
In 1999, she was a member of the jury at the49th Berlin International Film Festival.[137] On 19 April 2001, Yeoh was awarded the Darjah Datuk Paduka Mahkota Perak (DPMP), which carries the title Dato', by SultanAzlan Shah, theSultan of Perak, her home state, in recognition of the fame she brought to the state.[138] On 25 November 2002, Yeoh was honoured as The Outstanding Young People of the World (TOYP) (Cultural Achievement) by JCI (Junior Chamber International).[139] On 23 April 2007, French PresidentJacques Chirac conferred upon Yeoh the title of Knight of theLegion of Honour (French:Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur). The decoration was presented to her in a ceremony inKuala Lumpur on 3 October 2007.[140][141] She was promoted to Officer of the same French order (Officier de la Légion d'honneur) by French PresidentNicolas Sarkozy on 14 March 2012 at a ceremony held at the president's residence, theÉlysée Palace, on that day,[142][143] and promoted to Commander (Commandeur), the highest honour available to non-French citizens, byFrançois Hollande at the official residence of the French ambassador in Kuala Lumpur on 27 March 2017.[144]
Michelle Yeoh's handprints on the "Avenue of Stars" in Hong Kong
On 9 January 2024, Yeoh was awarded the Crystal Award by theWorld Economic Forum for her role as a cultural leader and for her contributions to society as an exceptional artist.[156] On 3 May 2024, theWhite House announced Yeoh would receive thePresidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honour. Yeoh was cited for continuing "to shatter stereotypes and enrich American culture."[157]
^abThe term "Asian" is here used according to contemporary American parlance as described atAsian people § United States. While one Israeli actress and one actress of Armenian descent have won Best Actress, neither is considered Asian in this sense, which primarily includes East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia.[4][5]
^Kleeman, Alexandra (15 March 2022)."Michelle Yeoh's Quantum Leaps".The New York Times Magazine.Archived from the original on 16 December 2022. Retrieved16 December 2022.
^abcKee Hua Chee (10 January 2004)."Her own person".The Star. Malaysia. Archived fromthe original on 30 October 2012. Retrieved13 November 2011. Interview.
^鲁豫 (host) (6 October 2010)."杨紫琼-私家趣闻录".爱传万家·说出你的故事. 24:00–25:30 minutes in. 安徽卫视.Archived from the original on 19 February 2023. Retrieved19 February 2023. Also appear as鲁豫 (host) (11 October 2010)."杨紫琼-私家趣闻录".鲁豫有约. 24:00–25:30 minutes in. 凤凰卫视中文台.Archived from the original on 19 February 2023. Retrieved19 February 2023.
^Tikkanen, Amy (24 October 2025)."Michelle Yeoh".Britannica.com. Retrieved12 November 2025.considered to be one of the greatest female action movie stars
^Chamberlin, Tom (February 2023)."Everything to Everyone At All Times".The Rake. Retrieved12 November 2025.you have a woman who has asserted herself as the greatest female action hero of all time
Kho Tong Guan: "Yeoh Chu Kheng, Michelle". In: Leo Sury,Southeast Asian Personalities of Chinese Descent: A Biographical Dictionary. Chinese Heritage Centre, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2012,ISBN9789814345217, pp. 1347–1350
Ken E. Hall: "Michelle Yeoh". In: Garry Bettinson:Directory of World Cinema: CHINA 2. Intellect Books, 2015ISBN9781783204007, pp. 71–73
Lisa Funnell:Warrior Women: Gender, Race, and the Transnational Chinese Action Star. Suny Press, 2014,ISBN9781438452494, pp. 31–57 (chapter "Transnational Chinese Mothers: The Heroic Identities of Michelle Yeoh and Pei Pei Cheng")
Rikke Schubart:Super Bitches and Action Babes: The Female Hero in Popular Cinema, 1970–2006. McFarland, 2012ISBN9780786482849, pp. 123–143 (chapter "Beautiful Vase Made of Iron and Steel Michelle Yeoh")
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