Born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Sandra Oh is a two-time Genie Award-winning (Canada’s Emmy), Golden Globe Award-winning and a three-time Emmy Award-nominated Canadian actress. Since the age of four, she has been involved in entertainment including ballet, theater, and improv. Her first major role was in CBC television film The Diary of Evelyn Lau. Her performance brought her a Gemini nomination for Best Actress and the 1994 Cannes FIPA d’Or for Best Actress. A year later, Sandra won her first Genie (Canada’s Oscar) for her leading role in Double Happiness, a bittersweet coming-of-age story about a young Chinese-Canadian woman.

She moved to Los Angeles in 1996 to begin the first of seven seasons as Rita Wu, the smart and sassy assistant on the HBO comedy series Arli$$, for which she won the final Cable Ace award for Best Actress in a Comedy. Her other television work also includes the acclaimed series Six Feet Under, Further Tales of the City, and Judging Amy. Among her feature film credits are The Night Listener, For Your Consideration, Three Needles, Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity, Under the Tuscan Sun, Sorry Haters, Rick, Bean, Guinevere, The Red Violin, Waking the Dead, Dancing at the Blue Iguana, The Princess Diaries and Pay or Play. Her lead performance in Last Night, won her a second Genie Award for Best Actress, and in 2003 the enormously successful feature film Sideways, earned her a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

A talented and driven actress, Sandra Oh is also a Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award winner and has also received two Emmy Award nominations for her role as Dr. Cristina Yang on the hit series Grey’s Anatomy. With all the awards, she knows that she is one of the few Asian actresses in Hollywood recognized for her talent. Although her success in Canada opened doors for her, she still experienced many difficulties in Hollywood based on her race. Getting a lead role in the US is much more difficult than in Canada. The Hollywood entertainment industry always want to keep her in the supporting roles.

Sandra Oh talks about being Asian American on the set of Grey’a Anatomy:

Watch Sandra Oh as Dr. Cristina Yang in Grey’s Anatomy on Thusday nights at 9pm/8pm Central on ABC: