MICHELLE YEOH
- Simona
- May 16, 2023
- 4 min read

Michelle Yeoh is the Master in Command.
That's how I see her. When on the screen, she dictates power, femininity, elegance, strength... everything so inspiring! When I look at her, I have the feeling of watching a self confident and poised person, who probably gets most of her force from her self-consciousness: she knows she has a big experience and put a big dedication to grow as a serious professional.
PERSONAL LIFE
I am sure that Michelle does the same I do, every once in a while: she must look back at that girl that was growing up in a town somewhere far from where she's today and she must think "Wow, look at the long way I have gone so far!".
Michelle Yeoh was born on 6 August 1962 in Ipoh, Perak.
She studied at Main Convent Ipoh, an all-girls secondary school, then, at age 15, she moved with her parents to the United Kingdom, where she was enrolled in The Hammond School, Chester.
She grew up speaking English, but also learned Malaysian Cantonese at home. At adult age, she learned to speak Cantonese fluently and some Mandarin.
Yeoh was married to Hong Kong entrepreneur Dickson Poon from 1988 to 1992. After an engagement with the American cardiologist Alan Heldman, in 2004, she started dating Jean Todt, living with him in Geneva, Switzerland.
She's Buddhist.
Yeoh is a patron of the Save China's Tigers project and a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and WildAid.
BUILDING UP HER CAREER

Yeoh began taking ballet classes at age four. At The Hammond School she started to train as a ballet dancer and she later studied at the Royal Academy of Dance in London, majoring in ballet. Her professional career was stopped for a spinal injury, therefore she shifted her attention to choreography and other arts. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Arts with a minor in Drama in 1982.
In 1983, twenty-year-old Yeoh won the Miss Malaysia World contest and her first acting role was in in a television commercial with Jackie Chan. From there, she started performing in action and martial arts films.
After a temporary interruption, after her divorce she returned on set and she began her Hollywood career with Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997. Brosnan referred to her as a "female James Bond", impressed by her strong commitment about her job.
When Ang Lee selected her to star as Yu Shu Lien in her first Mandarin-language martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), she had to learn Mandarin!
In 2005, she starred in Memoirs of a Geisha. In 2008 she was in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Her voice animated the carachter of The Soothsayer in KungFu Panda 2, in 2011, then she participated to the Marco Polo series, season 2. And what more... Star Treck, Crazy Rich Asians, up to Everything Everywhere All at Once!
It's difficult to summarize her entire career in few lines. What, I think, emerges from the few picked titles is her versatility: drama, action, cartoons, comedy... she's really a complete performer. My goal for this year is to try completing watching all the plays she was part of, so that I could really say that I have seen everything she did everywhere and all at once! :)
ACCOLADES & HONORS

Raise your hand if you cried seeing Michelle receiving the Academy Award 2022 as Best Actress. Be part of my team and let tears flow down to rivers!
Same as for her acting career, it is also difficult to list all the nominations and awards Michelle has received. I simply think that all of them are just a confirmation of the fact that whatever this powerful actress does is something worth to watch!
In 2001, Sultan Azlan Shah, the Sultan of Perak, her home state awarded her with the Darjah Datuk Paduka Mahkota Perak (DPMP), in recognition of the fame she brought to the state.
She received the Excellence in Asian Cinema award in occasion of the 7th Asian Film Awards in 2013 in Hong Kong.
In 2016, Yeoh was made an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French ambassador to Kuala Lumpur, becoming the first Malaysian citizen to receive that honour, and in 2017, the French president François Hollande promoted her to Commander (Commandeur), the highest honour available to non-French citizens, at the official residence of the French Ambassador in Kuala Lumpur.
BBC put her in the 100 Women list of 2020 and Time magazine inserted her in the list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.
Also in 2022, she became the first Asian artist to receive the honorary doctorate of fine arts degree from the American Film Institute for her contributions of distinction to the art of the moving image. She then was awarded the Kirk Douglas Award from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and won the Academy Award as Best Actress in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Comments