Bio
Sandra Oh is a Canadian actress best known for her role as Dr. Cristina Yang in the television drama series Grey's Anatomy and for her roles in the feature films Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) and Sideways (2004).
Oh was born to Korean immigrant parents in the Ottawa suburb of Nepean, Ontario, where she began dancing and acting at an early age.
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. While in high school, she 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 solely focussed 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.
Oh eventually studied drama at the National Theatre School in Montreal, whereafter 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 bio-pic of Clarkson's life.
Oh is known in Canada for her lead performance in the Canadian film Double Happiness, for which she won the Genie Award for Best Actress.
Her other Canadian films include Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity and Last Night, for which she again won a Best Actress Genie.
Oh also won FIPA d'Or Best Actress at Cannes Film Festival for her role in The Diary of Evelyn Lau.
Oh is most familiar to international audiences for her roles in the popular films Under the Tuscan Sun and Sideways.
In the less well-known "Dancing at the Blue Iguana," she played a poetry-writing stripper and performed several dance routines.
On television, she is renowned for her current role in the hit ABC medical series Grey's Anatomy, for which she has won both a 2006 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 2006, she received her second Emmy nomination for her work on the series.
Oh also received critical acclaim for her six seasons as Rita Wu on the HBO series Arli$$. She received an NAACP Image Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and a Cable Ace award for Best Actress in a Comedy for her work on Arli$$.
She had also made several guest appearances on the series Popular (1999) playing a humanities teacher.
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 Theatre in New York City.
In 2006, she co-starred in the film The Night Listener as "Anna," alongside Robin Williams and Toni Collette.