Sandra Oh Biography

news-detailsSolidly carving her niche in Hollywood with a series of scene-stealing supporting roles in either television or film features, Sandra Oh certainly is one excellent example to point out the outstanding potentiality that Asian people really possess in the world of playacting. A Canadian native born to Korean immigrants on July 20, 1971 in a suburb of Ottawa called Nepean, Ontario, Sandra has started her involvement in performing arts since she was still a child, practicing ballet at age 4 then going on-stage at age 10 in a theatrical production of "The Canada Goose." More inclined to the latter field, the girl thus enthusiastically nurtured the interest upon attending her hometown's Sir Robert Borden High School where she eagerly took drama classes and joined its plays while became an active member of the drama club, even participated in the Canadian Improv Games, an education based format of Improvisational theatre for the country's high schools.

As screen roles came next in 1989 through Marc Voizard's short feature of "The Journey Home" also TV series "Denim Blues", Sandra in turn became really convinced to go professional in acting which subsequently prompted her to enter Montreal's National Theatre School to hone her craft persistently up to her graduation in 1993. A chance to materialize her aim afterwards came forward when CBC held an open audition for a lead role in its TV-movie production of "The Diary of Evelyn Lau" and decided to answer the call despite her parents' disapproval, she brilliantly secured the part out of other 1,000 hopefuls beyond everyone's expectation. Putting the opportunity into good use, this lively performer wonderfully strove to deliver such stunning portrayal of the title character in her problematic life that critical praise plus honors inevitably poured in heavily soon after the feature's airing in the same year.

Undeniably shot right away to national recognition following those exaltations, Sandra amazingly did not wait long to strike the screen hard for the second time as she again gained rave reviews a year later for her enactment in Mina Shum's 1994 film work of "Double Happiness." This thereafter provided her enough confidence to make a leap into American entertainment industry yet the initial step sadly resulted in disappointment when her first project in the country, a CBS' comedy series entitled "If Not for You" (1995), was suddenly canceled even before its fifth episode could see the surface. Fortunately, things turned contrastingly different by the time she managed to be included in the regular cast of HBO's sitcom "Arli$$" in 1996 since it was through this show that the actress finally made her name in the country, thanks to her bright performance as Arliss Michaels' underpaid assistant, Rita Wu.

With this growing popularity, the road sure became more velvety for Sandra to undergo afterwards and riding high on the success, she tirelessly took time to move further in the industry, appearing in a number of movies like "Bean" (1997), "Permanent Midnight" (1998), plus "The Princess Diaries" (2001) among others. The fact that "Arli$$" met its end in 2002 apparently did not slow down her career, otherwise enabled her to put full focus on film feature as she smoothly went on to take parts in "Big Fat Liar" (2002), "Under the Tuscan Sun" (2003), and notably "Sideways" (2004). Not only could act under the direction of her husband, Alexander Payne, whom she married to on January 1, 2003, in the latter flick, the star also received a greater degree of prominence when she gloriously shared the title of Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at Screen Actors Guild Awards held in 2005.

Seemingly unstoppable from then on, Sandra continued to glow under the spotlight in the same year after she returned to the small screen to show up in ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" which later directed her to nab an Emmy nomination in Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series category by September, but this accomplishment sadly did not run in line with her marriage as she by that time had already filed for a divorce from Payne. Nevertheless, the gifted star kept moving forward consistently to acquire more accolades in 2006, even taking double honors of Golden Globes and Actor Award through that medical series. The same year, in the meantime, also spotted her taking roles in mystery thriller "The Night Listener" and dramatic "3 Needles" before audience could notice her again in "Blindness" (2008), Miramax Films' film adaptation of the Jose Saramago acclaimed novel.

Back to her private life, Sandra ultimately had her divorce to Payne finalized on October 18, 2007, more than two years after she filed the legal papers on the matter. By this time, she already found a new love in Andrew Featherston, a percussionist in indie band The Hereafter.