True to the name of her film, actor Michelle Yeoh, star of Everything Everywhere All at Once, is winning everything, everywhere these days. And she is breaking ground left and right. She is only the second Asian woman to win a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Musical/Comedy). The first Asian woman to win the award, Awkwafina, won it just three years ago, in 2020. Now with the upcoming Academy Awards on March 12, Yeoh is the first Asian woman to be nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. Asian actors earned a record four nominations in the major acting categories—Yeoh’s co-stars Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu and The Whale’s Hong Chau—while Daniel Kwan, along with his co-director Daniel Scheinert, is up for Best Directing.
There is, however, a slight distinction to be made here: Yeoh, who is of Malaysian Chinese descent, is the first openly Asian woman to be nominated for the Best Actress award, but not the first Asian woman to be nominated.
The first Asian woman to be nominated for Best Actress was Merle Oberon in 1936, for The Dark Angel. The Mumbai-born actor, who was of mixed race and did not promote her Asian heritage, played white women in her film roles. More than eight decades later, Yeoh has said that wants to be seen as a role model for Asian women everywhere. In her speech accepting the Screen Actors Guild Award on Feb. 26, she said, “This is not just for me, this is for every little girl that looks like me.”
Here’s what to know about the history of actors of Asian descent at the Oscars, from Oberon’s hidden identity to 2023’s groundbreaking year.
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