Years active 1998–present Name Jean Yoon | Role Actress Books The Yoko Ono Project | |
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Occupation Actress, poet, playwright Nominations Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series Movies Compulsion, The Time Traveler's Wife, Dragon Boys, Dream House, Cow Belles Similar People Jerry Ciccoritti, Robert Schwentke, Jim Sheridan, Don McBrearty, Bruce McDonald | ||
Kim's Convenience Stars: "The assumption was, if I was asian, I must be an extra"
Jean Yoon (born 1962) is a Canadian actress, writer, poet and playwright. She is known for her most recent role in the award-winning CBC television series Kim's Convenience, for which she received an ACTRA Award and a Canadian Screen Award nomination in 2017.
Contents
- Kims Convenience Stars The assumption was if I was asian I must be an extra
- Kims Convenience debuts on CBC
- Early life
- 1980s1990s Early career in theatre
- 2000s Transition into television and film
- 2010spresent Further success in television
- Kims Convenience
- Other work
- Personal life
- References
Kim's Convenience debuts on CBC
Early life
Yoon was born in in Illinois to parents of Korean descent, in 1962, and subsequently raised in Toronto, where she currently resides and works.
1980s–1990s: Early career in theatre
Yoon started her theatre career in the early 1980s, but soon quit in frustration after struggling to attract work. A decade later, in 1995, she returned to acting and started her own group called Loud Mouth Asian Babes, through which she has written and produced plays that focus on the Korean diaspora.
2000s: Transition into television and film
Yoon's acting career began to flourish in the early 2000s, with small roles in several television series, including La Femme Nikita (1996–2001), Witchblade (TNT, 2000–2002) and Street Time (Showtime, 2001–2003). In 2006, Yoon achieved wider recognition after playing flight attendant Betty Ong in the controversial mini-series The Path to 9/11. Also in 2006, Yoon had a recurring role as June Kim in the legal drama series This Is Wonderland.
In 2007, Yoon received a Gemini Award nomination for her work in the CBC mini-series Dragon Boys. In 2009, she played Dr. Montague in the hit romantic comedy film The Time Traveller's Wife, based on the novel of the same name.
2010s–present: Further success in television
Throughout the 2010s, Yoon has played a wide array of characters in several television programs, most notably Imena Khumalo in the medical drama series Remedy (2014–2015), Connie in the animated series Peg+Cat (2013–2016), Captain Theresa Yao in the science fiction series The Expanse (2015), and Janis Beckwith in the hit BBC-Space series Orphan Black.
Kim's Convenience
Yoon currently portrays Umma, the matriarch of the Kim family in Kim's Convenience, a sitcom which debuted in the fall of 2016 on CBC. She also portrayed the same role in the 2011 play, which she originated and performed over 240 times in six cities.
For her role in the television series, she has received considerable attention and has publicly discussed the importance of diversity in mainstream media, specifically for Asian Canadians and immigrants. In an interview with the CBC, Yoon said:
For her role on Kim's Convenience, Yoon won an ACTRA Award and received a Canadian Screen Award nomination in 2017. Yoon is currently filming season two of Kim's Convenience in Toronto.
Other work
Yoon is also a writer and playwright. She has written severals plays, poems, and essays, including The Yoko Ono Project, a multi-media performance art comedy about Ono, her art, and her impact, which earned a Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination and a Jessie Richardson Award.
Personal life
Yoon has one child; in a 2017 interview with NOW Magazine, she described herself as a "mom who acts."