Appreciating women in entertainment. PHOTO CREDIT: thetimes.co.uk
Sandra Oh is one of the most well known actresses in Hollywood due to her iconic roles such as Cristina Yang from “Grey’s Anatomy,” Eve Polastri from “Killing Eve,” Vice Principal Gupta from “The Princess Diaries” and a bunch more.
According to Britannica.com, Sandra was born in Canada to two South Korean immigrant parents, her mother being a biochemist and her father being a businessman. She also has two siblings, a brother named Ray and a sister named Grace. Fun fact, her middle name is Miju which means “pretty pearl” in Korean. She also appeared in her first play which was “The Canada Goose” when she was ten years old.
Something interesting that I found out about her was that she was offered a four-year journalism scholarship at Carleton University. However, she rejected it to study drama at the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal, and she paid for it by herself. She graduated in 1993 and in 1994 she landed the lead role in her first film called “Double Happiness.”
Oh has been active in television shows and movies since 1989 and continues to shine through in all of her roles. She has been flawless in every film and show she has been in throughout her life. Although my all-time favorite role of hers is as Cristina Yang on “Grey’s Anatomy.”
I never thought in a million years that I would watch “Grey’s Anatomy” because it seemed like a stupid drama show that had no point. My mom then told me about the show and she thought I might enjoy it for the drama and comedy, so I bit the bullet and watched it.
I immediately fell in love with the show and especially with Oh’s character because of how funny and tough she was. Cristina is the stereotypical hard worker who is not there to make friends and is determined to be the best and be on top.
She provided a lot of comedic relief in every episode which is what I loved most about her. She was also sometimes the voice of reason in every situation, and for those who haven’t seen the show, Cristina left at the end of season 10, which is when I stopped watching.
The show continued after season 10 and is at season 19, and I think the show just got worse and worse. The original four cast members made the show so iconic, and when George and Izzie left the show around season five, it got a little bad.
However, Meredith and Cristina’s relationship remained strong throughout the remaining five seasons that Cristina stayed. When she left, the show went downhill and it got so boring and far-fetched.
Even though Sandra left the show, she went on to do a lot more exciting things, like feature in animated movies and get the lead role in the very popular show “Killing Eve.” I looked her up on Google and found out that she actually voice acts in a lot of animated movies that I watched when I was younger.
She voiced Princess Ting Ting in “Mulan II” which I was really shocked to find out because I love Mulan and I’ve watched both movies a ton of times. She also voiced Ming Lee in the hit 2022 film “Turning Red,” which was such a perfect role for her. Sandra seems like a very loving and overprotective mother type, so this role was great for her.
She was also the voice for one of the main antagonists in the film “Raya and The Last Dragon” named Virana. She is the mother of the other main antagonist Namaari and I felt that Sandra did really well with this performance.
One of my favorite moments of hers was during the 2019 Golden Globe Awards when she and Andy Samberg gave the opening monologue. When she mentioned “Crazy Rich Asians” and made a joke about how it’s the first film with an Asian American lead since “Ghost in the Shell” with Scarlett Johansson and “Aloha” with Emma Stone, both of whom are not Asian. Emma can be heard off-camera saying “I’m sorry!” Sandra found that funny and the rest of the crowd found it funny too.
At this same event, Sandra became the first Asian person to win multiple Golden Globes for her role in “Killing Eve.” She won and was praised by many critics for her portrayal of an intelligence agent who becomes obsessed with a female assassin.
She hosted an episode of “Saturday Night Live” and it is by far my favorite episode of SNL. All of her skits that she was in made me laugh so hard and I was so impressed with her commitment to every sketch.
I feel Sandra Oh is very underappreciated. She is so funny and she is also such an amazing actress. I think that more people should know about her and more people should appreciate her work.