Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng PSM (
/ˈjoʊ/ YOH; born
Yeoh Choo Kheng; 6 August 1962) is a Malaysian actress. Credited as
Michelle Khan in her early films, she rose to fame in the 1990s after starring in a series of Hong Kong action films where she performed her own stunts, such as
Yes, Madam (1985),
Police Story 3: Supercop (1992), and
Holy Weapon (1993). She gained international recognition for her roles in the
James Bond film
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and in
Ang Lee's martial arts film
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). The latter role earned her a
BAFTA Best Actress nomination. After a career resurgence with a multi-year recurring role on
Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2020), she received widespread praise for her performance as Evelyn Wang in the 2022 film
Everything Everywhere All at Once, winning the
Golden Globe Award and the
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, and becoming the first Malaysian to receive an Academy Award nomination in any category with her nomination for the
Academy Award for Best Actress.
Yeoh's other works include
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005),
Reign of Assassins (2010),
Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011),
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2016), and
The Lady (2011), where she portrayed
Aung San Suu Kyi. She played supporting roles in the romantic comedies
Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and
Last Christmas (2019), and the
Marvel Cinematic Universe film
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021). On television, Yeoh recently starred in the fantasy miniseries
The Witcher: Blood Origin (2022).
The film review aggregation website
Rotten Tomatoes ranked her the greatest action heroine of all time in 2008. In 1997, she was chosen by
People as one of the "
50 Most Beautiful People in the World", and in 2009 the same magazine listed her as one of the "35 All-Time Screen Beauties". In 2022,
Time named her one of the world's 100 most influential people on its
annual listicle and its Icon of the Year.
