| Grey’s Anatomy is competitive as hell, but, based
on her glowing resume, we suspect she is just as gung ho in real life. Yes,
it shows… Born and raised in Ottawa, Canada, Sandra Oh started ballet
lessons at the age of four and performed in her first play, The Canada Goose,
at the age of ten. She started working professionally at age sixteen in television,
theatre and commercials. After three years at the prestigious National Theatre
School of Canada, she beat out more than 1000 other hopefuls and landed the coveted
title role in the CBC telefilm, The Diary of Evelyn Lau, based on the true story
of a tortured poet who ran away from home and ended up a drug addict and prostitute
in Vancouver. Her performance brought her a Gemini (Canada's Emmy) nomination
and the 1994 Cannes FIPA d'Or for Best Actress. Oh 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 six seasons as Rita Wu, the smart and sassy assistant on the HBO
comedy series, Arli$$, for which she won a Cable Ace Award for Best Actress in
a Comedy. Additional television credits include HBO's Six Feet Under and Showtime's
Further Tales of the City. She has been nominated for multiple Emmy Awards and
won a Golden Globe Award (Best Actress in a Supporting Role), a Screen Actors
Guild Award (Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series) and
a Diversity Award (2005 Creative Liberty Award) for her portrayal of Cristina
on Grey's Anatomy. On the big screen Oh can be seen in the films The Night
Listener, 3 Needles and For Your Consideration. She starred in Sideways (for which
she received a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast
in a Motion Picture), Hard Candy and Sorry Haters. Other feature films include
Under the Tuscan Sun with Diane Lane, Dancing at the Blue Iguana, Rick, Bean,
Guinevere, The Red Violin, Waking the Dead, The Princess Diaries, Pay or Play
and Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity. For Last Night, a Canadian film about
the end of the world, Oh won her second Genie Award for Best Actress. In
2006 Oh starred in the play Satellites at New York's Public Theater for playwright
Diana Son, and received both Drama Desk and Drama League nominations for her performance.
She starred additionally in the world premieres of Son's Stop Kiss, for which
she received a Theatre World Award, and Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters at the La
Jolla Playhouse. She was also seen in The Vagina Monologues in New York. Oh
resides in Los Angeles. - description by ABC.com |
