Michelle Yeoh was born in Ipoh, Malaysia. She's the daughter of Janet Yeoh & Kian Teik Yeoh. She's of Hokkien descent, speaking English and Malay before Chinese. A ballet dancer since 4, she moved to London to study at the Royal Academy as a teen. After a brief dance career, she won the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant title in and the Miss Moomba beauty pageant title in Melbourne, Australia in the early 1980s. Her first on camera work was a 1984 commercial with martial arts star Jackie Chan. In 1985, she began making action movies with D&B Films of Hong Kong. She was first billed as Michelle Khan, then Michelle Yeoh. Never a trained martial artist, she relied on her dance discipline and on-set trainers to prepare for martial arts action scenes.

She uses many dance moves in her films and does most of her own stunts. In 1988, she married wealthy D&B Films executive Dickson Poon & retired from acting. Even though they divorced in 1992, she's close to Poon's second wife and a godmother to his daughter. When she returned to acting, she became very popular w/ Chinese audiences. She later became known to Western audiences through role in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and in the phenomenally successful Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). She turned down a role in a sequel to The Matrix (1999).

She has her own production company, Mythical Films. She trained with the Shen Yang Acrobatic team for her role in The Touch (2002), an English-language film she both starred in and produced. She hopes to use her company to discover and nurture new film-making talent. She also aspires to act in roles that combine both action and deeper spiritual themes.

Michelle Yeoh at an event for Star Trek: Discovery (2017)

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Nicole Kidman and Michelle Yeoh in 82nd Golden Globe Awards (2025)

Michelle Yeoh in Star Trek: Section 31 (2025)

Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh in Wicked (2024)

Michelle Yeoh and Chau Long in The Brothers Sun (2024)

Michelle Yeoh and Sam Song Li in The Brothers Sun (2024)

Michelle Yeoh, Sam Song Li, and Justin Chien in The Brothers Sun (2024)

Jamie Lee Curtis, Michelle Yeoh, James Hong, Ke Huy Quan, and Stephanie Hsu in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Chang Chen, and Ziyi Zhang in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

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Michelle Yeoh

Michelle Yeoh

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