Sandra Oh Biography

Sandra Miju Oh (born July 20, 1971) is a Canadian actress known for her role as Cristina Yang on ABC's medical drama Grey's Anatomy, a role that earned her a Golden Globe, two Screen Actors Guild awards, and five nominations for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

She has also played notable roles in the feature films The Princess Diaries, Under the Tuscan Sun, Last Night, Sideways, and had a supporting role on the HBO original series Arliss. Other films she has appeared in include The Night Listener, Sorry, Haters, Blindness, Bean, Wilby Wonderful, Hard Candy, and Rabbit Hole.

She starred in the Asian Canadian films Double Happiness, The Diary of Evelyn Lau, and Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity the formers of which won her the Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role and the Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series respectively.

Early life

Oh was born on July 20, 1971, in the Ottawa suburb of Nepean, to middle-class Korean immigrant parents Oh Junsu (John) and Oh Young-nam, who had moved to Canada in the early 1960s. Her father is a businessman and her mother a biochemist.

Oh has a brother, Ray, and a sister, Grace. She grew up in a devout Christian household, living on Camwood Crescent in Nepean, where she began acting and ballet at an early age.

Growing up, Oh was one of the few youths of Asian descent in Nepean.

At the age of 10, she played The Wizard of Woe in a class musical, The Canada Goose.

Later, at Sir Robert Borden High School, she founded the Environmental club BASE (Borden Active Students for the Environment), leading a campaign against the use of styrofoam cups. While at Sir Robert Borden High School, she was Student Council President. She also played the flute and continued both her ballet training and acting studies; however, she knew that she "was not good enough to be a professional dancer" and eventually focused solely on acting. This interest led her to take drama classes, act in school plays, and join the drama club where she took part in the Canadian Improv Games and Skit Row High, a comedy group. Against her parents' advice, she rejected a four-year journalism scholarship to Carleton University to study drama at the prestigious National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal, paying her own way.

She told her parents that she would try acting for a few years, and if that failed, return to school. Reflecting on forgoing university, Oh said: "I"?m the only person in my family who doesn"?t have a master's in something."

Soon after graduating from the National Theatre School in 1993, she starred in a London, Ontario stage production of David Mamet's Oleanna. Around the same time, she won roles in biographical TV films of two significant female Chinese-Canadians: as Vancouver author Evelyn Lau in The Diary of Evelyn Lau (Oh won the role over more than 1,000 others who auditioned); and as Adrienne Clarkson in a CBC biopic of Clarkson's life.

Career

1994-2004: Early work

Oh came to prominence in Canada for her lead performance in the Canadian film Double Happiness (1994), playing Jade Li, a twenty-something Chinese Canadian woman negotiating her wishes and those of her parents. The film received critical acclaim, with Roger Ebert praising Oh's "warm performance." Janet Maslin of The New York Times also praised her performance, saying: "Ms. Oh's performance makes Jade a smart, spiky heroine you won't soon forget." Oh won the Genie Award for Best Actress for the role.

In 1997 she appeared in the film Bean playing the supporting role of Bernice, the art gallery PR manager. Her other Canadian films include Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity and Last Night, for which she again won a Best Actress Genie. Oh was cast in the drama Dancing at the Blue Iguana (2000), playing a stripper at an adult dance club opposite Daryl Hannah. The film received middling reviews from critics, though Oh was praised for her performance, with The New York Times saying "Oh make[s] the most of [her] opportunity to explore the vulnerability below [her] characters' hard-edged surface." The same year, she appeared in the drama Waking the Dead. In 2002, Oh appeared in the family comedy Big Fat Liar, followed by a minor role in Steven Soderbergh's Full Frontal (2002).

Oh received critical acclaim for her six seasons as Rita Wu, the assistant to the president of a major sports agency, on the HBO series Arliss. She received an NAACP Image Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and a Cable Ace award for Best Actress in a Comedy for her work on Arliss. In theatre, Oh has also starred in the world premieres of Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters at the La Jolla Playhouse and Diana Son's Stop Kiss at Joseph Papp's Public Theater in New York City. She made several guest appearances on the series Popular (1999) playing a humanities teacher. She also guest starred in the television series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Judging Amy, Six Feet Under and Odd Job Jack.

In 2003, she was cast in a supporting role opposite Diane Lane in Under the Tuscan Sun, followed by a supporting role in Alexander Payne's drama Sideways (2004). She considers Sideways to be one of the two best movies she has made, along with Evelyn Lau.

2005-14: Grey's Anatomy

In 2005, Oh appeared in several films, including David Slade's controversial thriller Hard Candy, and the independent anthology drama 3 Needles (2005), opposite Chlo Sevigny and Olympia Dukakis, in which she plays a Catholic nun in an AIDS-stricken African village. The same year, Oh was cast on the hit ABC medical series Grey's Anatomy as Cristina Yang. Oh's long-running role on the show earned her both a 2005 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Series and a 2006 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series. In July 2009, she received her fifth consecutive Emmy nomination for her work on the series. In August 2013, Oh announced that the program's tenth season would be her final season.

Aside from her work on Grey's Anatomy, Oh continued to appear in films. She costarred in the thriller The Night Listener (2006), alongside Robin Williams and Toni Collette; in the superhero comedy Defendor (2009); Ramona and Beezus (2010); and the critically acclaimed drama Rabbit Hole (2010), opposite Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart. In her only audiobook, she played Brigid O'Shaughnessy in a Grammy-nominated dramatization of The Maltese Falcon (2008), which also featured Michael Madsen and Edward Herrmann. She also has done a few voice roles in animation, including a few guest appearances in American Dragon: Jake Long, the voice of Princess Ting-Ting in Mulan II and the voice of Doofah in The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends.

Oh was host of the 28th Genie Awards on March 3, 2008. In 2009, Oh performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. During the off season hiatus from filming Grey's Anatomy in 2010, Sandra Oh took the part of Sarah Chen in the British crime drama Thorne. She took intensive dialect coaching in order to play her British character.

On June 28, 2011, it was announced that Oh would receive a star on Canada's Walk of Fame; she was inducted on October 1 at Elgin Theatre in Toronto. In 2013, Oh formally announced that she would be leaving Grey's Anatomy. Oh made her last appearance as Cristina Yang, exiting the series, with the season 10 finale.

2013-present: Further film projects

In October 2014, Oh announced that she would be teaming up with Canadian director Ann Marie Fleming to collaborate on an animated feature film titled Window Horses. She also appeared in a supporting role in the comedy film Tammy (2014), playing the wife of Kathy Bates.

In 2015, she starred on the Refinery29 comedy web series Shitty Boyfriends. Oh began filming an upcoming comedy film, Catfight (2016), in New York City in December 2015.

Personal life

Oh was in a relationship with filmmaker Alexander Payne for five years. They married on January 1, 2003, separated in early 2005, and divorced in late 2006. On July 8, 2013, Sandra Oh received the key to the City of Ottawa, Ontario, from Mayor Jim Watson.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	The Journey Home		Short film
1994	Double Happiness	Jade Li
1995	Prey	Il Bae	Short film
1996	Cowgirl	Sarah Hwang	Short film
1997	Bean	Bernice Schimmel
1997	Bad Day on the Block
1998	Last Night	Sandra
1998	The Red Violin	Madame Ming
1998	Permanent Midnight	Friend
1999	Guinevere	Cindy
2000	Waking the Dead	Kim
2000	Dancing at the Blue Iguana	Jasmine Bulut
2000	Three Lives of Kate	Narrator	Short film
2001	The Princess Diaries	Vice Principal Gupta
2001	Date Squad	Alpha Baby	Short film
2001	The Frank Truth	Herself	Documentary
2002	Big Fat Liar	Mrs. Phyllis Caldwell
2002	Full Frontal	Fourth Fired Employee
2002	Rick	Michelle
2002	Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity	Kin Ho Lum
2002	Barrier Device	Audrey	Short film
2003	Under the Tuscan Sun	Patti
2003	Owning Mahowny	Craps Player	Uncredited
2004	Sideways	Stephanie
2004	Wilby Wonderful	Carol French
2004	Mulan II	Ting Ting	Voice role
2004	8 Minutes to Love	Joy	Short film
2005	Hard Candy	Judy Tokuda
2005	Break a Leg	Young Turk
2005	Cake	Lulu
2005	3 Needles	Mary
2005	Sorry, Haters	Phyllis MacIntyre
2005	Kind of a Blur	Joe
2006	The Night Listener	Anna
2006	For Your Consideration	Marketing Person
2007	The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends	Doofah	Voice role
2007	Falling	Melanie	Short film
2008	Blindness	Minister of Health
2009	Defendor	Dr. Park
2009	The People Speak	Herself	Documentary
2010	Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey	Gal 2000
2010	Ramona and Beezus	Mrs. Meacham
2010	Rabbit Hole	Gabby
2015	The Scarecrow	Evelyn	Short film
2014	Tammy	Susanne
2016	Window Horses	Rosie Ming	Voice role, producer
2017	Catfight	Veronica
2017	Meditation Park

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	Denim Blues	Gwen	Television series
1992	Degrassi High: School's Out	Waitress	Uncredited
1994	The Diary of Evelyn Lau	Evelyn Lau	Television film
1995	If Not for You		Episodes: "Taking a Shower with My Two True Loves", "The Kiss"
1995	Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years	Ming Li	Episode: "Badlands"
1995	Cagney & Lacey: The View Through the Glass Ceiling	Officer Angela Lum	Television film
1996	Kung Fu: The Legend Continues	Mai Chi	Episode: "The First Temple"
1996-2002	Arliss	Rita Wu	Main role 53 episodes
1999	Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child	Breadcrumb	Voice role Episode: "The Three Little Pigs"
2000	Popular	Humanities Teacher	Episodes: "Mo' Menace, Mo' Problems", "Under Siege"
2001	Further Tales of the City	Bambi Kanetaka	Television miniseries
2001	Six Feet Under	Porn Starlet	Episode: "An Open Book"
2001	Judging Amy	Detective Shelly Tran	3 episodes
2001-02	The Proud Family	Marsha Mitsubishi	5 episodes
2005, 2009, 2010, 2013	American Dad!	Katie / Hiko Yoshida	Voice role 5 episodes
2005-14	Grey's Anatomy	Dr. Cristina Yang	Main cast (Season 1-10): 220 episodes
2006	Odd Job Jack	Vanessa	Episodes: "Jack Ryder Gets Hitched", "My Big Miserable African Honeymoon"
2006-07	American Dragon: Jake Long	Sun Park	Voice role 6 episodes
2008, 2012	Phineas and Ferb	Dr. Doofenshmirtz's Girlfriend	Voice role 3 episodes
2009	Robot Chicken	Kate Winslet / Sarah Connor	Voice role Episode: "Cannot Be Erased, So Sorry"
2010	Thorne	DS Sarah Chen
2011	Sesame Street	Fairy Cookie Person
2011	Michael: Every Day	Dr. Judy Song	Episode: "Ridicule"
2014	Betas	Sharron	Episode: "Steppin' Out"
2015	Shitty Boyfriends	Kathy	6 episodes
2016	[[Peg + Cat]]	President	Voice role Episode: "The Package Problem / The Train Problem"
2017	American Crime	Abby Tanaka
2018	Killing Eve	Detective Eve	BBC American series

Awards and nominations

Year	Nominated work	Award	Category	Result
1994	Double Happiness	Genie Awards	Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
1998	Last Night	Genie Awards	Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
2004	Sideways	Boston Society of Film Critics	Best Cast
2004	Sideways	Broadcast Film Critics Association	Best Cast
2004	Sideways	Phoenix Film Critics Society	Best Cast
2004	Sideways	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2005	Grey's Anatomy	Golden Globe Awards	Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film
2005	Grey's Anatomy	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
2005	Grey's Anatomy	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress - Drama Series
2005	Grey's Anatomy	Satellite Awards	Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film
2006	Grey's Anatomy	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress - Drama Series
2006	Grey's Anatomy	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
2007	Grey's Anatomy	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress - Drama Series
2007	Grey's Anatomy	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
2008	Grey's Anatomy	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
2008	Grey's Anatomy	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress - Drama Series
2009	Grey's Anatomy	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actress - Drama Series
2015	Grey's Anatomy	People's Choice Awards	People's Choice Awards for Favorite TV Character We Miss Most