As a high school student, Sandra Oh was determined to pursue an acting career, much against the wishes of her traditional Korean parents. Her parents, father Oh Joon-so and mother Oh Young-nam, left Seoul in the 1960s for the United States, attending different universities. They both transferred to the University of Toronto and moved to the Ottawa area in the 1970s. Sandra Oh was born in Nepean, Ont.
Despite her parents’ efforts to dissuade her, Oh enrolled in the National Theatre School in Montréal and got her first big break in 1993 in the CBC movie The Diary of Evelyn Lau. She is probably most recognized for her roles in Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) with Diane Lane and the seriocomic Sideways (2004) and particularly for her supporting role as Dr. Cristina Yang in the popular television drama Grey's Anatomy, which made its debut in early 2005, for which she has won a Golden Globe (2006) and a Screen Actors Guild Award (2007). She has a long list of movie and television roles to her credit, including Double Happiness (1994), for which she won a Genie Award, The Red Violin (1998), The Princess Diaries (2001) with Julie Andrews, Big Fat Liar (2002) with Frankie Muniz, Ramona and Beezus (2010) and Rabbit Hole (2010).
In an industry that unapologetically excludes people based on race and physical attributes, Oh has fought against typecasting, not because she is Asian, but because she does not fit a certain Asian stereotype. Or as she puts it, "I don't look like [Chinese actress] Gong Li." Oh does not pander to the White vision of what Asians should look like and unlike many Asian women onscreen, has not had eyelid surgery to look more Caucasian. Throughout her career, she has had to press her way into auditions to convince people that someone who looks like her can do a credible job in a certain role. She takes seriously her position as an Asian actress in Hollywood who is recognized for her talent.
About Korea, Sandra Oh says:
“Korea, to me, is a mystery. It is a place I am told I belong to and know somewhere deep in my genetics that I belong to, but it is a mystery to me. I could say it is the birthplace and homeland of my parents, but they are just as Canadian as they are Korean, having spent the majority of their lives here in North America. I'm sure that the Korea they know and remember is long gone. It is a sometimes painful reminder, since living in North America, that I am different. It is a place I long to feel comfortable in. Ultimately, Korea is a place I wish to visit and experience again. And maybe find another part of myself.” (KoreanMovie.com)
Learn more: Sandra Oh in The Canadian Encyclopedia
Sandra Oh