Age, Biography, and Wiki
Michelle Yeoh was born on August 6, 1962, in Malaysia. She is known professionally as Michelle Yeoh, though she was credited as Michelle Khan in her early films. Yeoh rose to fame in the 1980s and 1990s with roles in Hong Kong action and martial arts films, where she performed her own stunts. Her Wikipedia page provides a detailed account of her life and career achievements.
| Occupation | Pageant Contestant |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 6 August 1962 |
| Age | 63 Years |
| Birth Place | Ipoh, Perak, Federation of Malaya |
| Horoscope | Leo |
| Country |
Height, Weight & Measurements
While specific details about Michelle Yeoh's height and weight are not widely documented, she is often noted for her athletic build, which has been a hallmark throughout her career in performing her own stunts.
| Height | |
| Weight | |
| Body Measurements | |
| Eye Color | |
| Hair Color |
Dating & Relationship Status
Michelle Yeoh has been married to French millionaire Jean Todt since 2004. Todt is a prominent figure in the motorsport world, having served as the President of the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile).
Her father was elected as a Senator of Malaysia from 1959 to 1969 as a member of Perak's Malaysian Chinese Association, the Chairman of the Perak Bar Association, and the founder of "Sri Maju" in 1975, a major intercity coach service in Malaysia and Singapore. Of Hokkien and Cantonese ancestry, she grew up speaking English to her father, and could understand some Malaysian Cantonese from her maternal grandmother who lived with them. She learned to speak Cantonese and Mandarin fluently in the 1980s and 1990s after starting her career in Hong Kong. Despite that, she never learned to read or write Chinese characters, which she has said was her greatest regret.
Yeoh was keen on dance from an early age, beginning ballet at age four. She went to the girls school Main Convent Ipoh. At age 15, she moved with her parents to England. There, she was enrolled in The Hammond School, Chester, where she started to train as a ballet dancer. However, a spinal injury prevented her from becoming a professional ballet dancer, and she shifted her attention to choreography and other arts. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Crewe + Alsager College of Higher Education in 1983.
Yeoh began her acting career in action and martial arts films, in which she performed her own stunts. Yeoh's first lead role came in her third film, Yes, Madam (1985). Yeoh initially used the pseudonym Michelle Khan, a stage name selected by D&B Films for its potential appeal to international and Western audiences. In 1987, Yeoh married her first husband Dickson Poon, a co-founder of D&B Films, and decided to retire from acting.
In October 2011, Yeoh was chosen by Guerlain to be its skincare ambassador. Yeoh's role was to help strengthen the French cosmetics company's relationship with Asia.
Yeoh did not branch out into television until 2015, with her first role playing Mei Foster, wife to the British Ambassador to Thailand, who is secretly a North Korean spy named Li-Na, on the fifth season of the Cinemax/Sky series Strike Back.
In 2004, she started dating Jean Todt, then the general manager and CEO of Scuderia Ferrari and later the president of the FIA. On 26 July 2004, the couple got engaged. As of 2019, she lives in Geneva, Switzerland, with Todt. In an Instagram post, former Scuderia Ferrari driver Felipe Massa said that Yeoh and Todt were married on 27 July 2023 in Geneva.
| Parents | |
| Husband | Dickson Poon (m. 1988-1992) Jean Todt (m. 2023) |
| Sibling | |
| Children |
Net Worth and Salary
As of 2025, Michelle Yeoh's net worth is estimated to be around $40 million. Her annual salary is reported to be $1,420,000. Her earnings are a testament to her successful career in film and television, with notable roles in movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Crazy Rich Asians, and Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Career, Business, and Investments
Michelle Yeoh's career began in the 1980s with her early successes in Hong Kong cinema. She gained international recognition with films like Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). Her more recent roles in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Everything Everywhere All at Once have further solidified her position in Hollywood. Yeoh has also been involved in television, starring in Star Trek: Discovery and The Witcher: Blood Origin.
After moving to the United States, Yeoh gained international recognition for starring in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and in Ang Lee's wuxia martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000); the latter gained her a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Her Hollywood career progressed with roles in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Sunshine (2007), and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008). She continued to appear in Hong Kong and Chinese cinema, starring in True Legend, Reign of Assassins (both 2010), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2016), and Master Z: Ip Man Legacy (2018). In 2011, she portrayed Aung San Suu Kyi in the British biographical film The Lady.
In 1983, twenty-year-old Yeoh won the Miss Malaysia World contest. She was Malaysia's representative at the Miss World 1983 pageant in London, where she placed eighteenth. Later that year, she traveled to Australia where she won the 1984 Miss Moomba International pageant. Her first acting work was in a television commercial for Guy Laroche watches with Jackie Chan. This caught the attention of a fledgling Hong Kong film production company, D&B Films. Although she had a passive understanding of the Ipoh Cantonese spoken in her hometown, she could not speak it. During a phone call in Cantonese, she was offered to co-star in a television commercial with a Sing Long, and only realized that was Jackie Chan's Cantonese name when she arrived in the studio. She learned to speak Cantonese as she began her career in Hong Kong.
She changed her stage name back to Michelle Yeoh when she started her Hollywood career with Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997. In the 1997 James Bond film, she played Wai Lin opposite star Pierce Brosnan. Brosnan was impressed, describing her as a "wonderful actress" who was "serious and committed about her work." He referred to her as a "female James Bond" in reference to her combat abilities. Yeoh wanted to perform her own stunts but was prevented because director Roger Spottiswoode considered it too dangerous. Nevertheless, she performed all of her own fighting scenes.
In 2002, Yeoh produced her first English film, The Touch, through her own production company Mythical Films. In 2004, Yeoh met Jean Todt, a French motor racing executive, in Shanghai during a publicity event for Ferrari. They became engaged later that same year.
Michelle Yeoh has donated her time as a WildAid ambassador for endangered animals and is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the Sustainable Development Goals initiative since 2016. Yeoh is a patron of the Save China's Tigers project committed to protecting the endangered South China tiger. She also joined UNDP's first-ever animal ambassadors, two panda cubs, to kick off the Pandas for the Global Goals campaign. In order to raise awareness about wildlife conservation and climate change, she collaborated with National Geographic to produce the documentary Among the Great Apes with Michelle Yeoh, while emphasizing the importance of responsible consumerism, sustainable fashion, and ethical business practices. In 2013, she changed to the role of executive producer for the project Pad Yatra: A Green Odyssey. The film recorded a journey of 700 people, led by the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa, to the perilous Himalayan mountain range. They traveled 450 miles, planted 50.000 trees, and educated the villagers on environmental responsibility.
Throughout her career, Yeoh has always portrayed strong roles and been defiant in working against stereotypes. After Tomorrow Never Dies, she did not work for almost two years due to the stereotypical roles offered to her in America. She told People: "At that point (1990s), people in the industry couldn't really tell the difference between whether I was Chinese, Japanese, Korean or if I even spoke English. They would talk very loudly and very slowly". She has long spoken out about racism in Hollywood, typically in her awards acceptance speech at the Golden Globes. The day after her Oscar win, she published an opinion essay in The New York Times calling for true gender equality.
Yeoh was married to Hong Kong entrepreneur Dickson Poon, known for his ownership of businesses such as Harvey Nichols and Charles Jourdan, from 1988 to 1992. From 1998 to 2000, Yeoh dated and was eventually engaged to Alan Heldman, an American cardiologist.
Social Network
Michelle Yeoh is active on social media platforms, though specific details about her followers are not widely available. Her presence online is often highlighted through news articles and interviews.
Yeoh Choo Kheng (born 6 August 1962), known professionally as Michelle Yeoh, is a Malaysian actress. In a career spanning over four decades, Yeoh has appeared in projects encompassing a wide array of genres, and received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for two British Academy Film Awards. Credited as Michelle Khan in her early films, she rose to fame in the 1980s and 1990s after starring in Hong Kong action and martial arts films where she performed her own stunts. These roles included Yes, Madam (1985), Magnificent Warriors (1987), Police Story 3: Super Cop (1992), The Heroic Trio, Tai Chi Master (both 1993), and Wing Chun (1994).
After five years of marriage, Yeoh divorced Poon and returned to acting with Police Story 3: Super Cop (1992). She appeared in The Heroic Trio (1993), and the Yuen Woo-ping films Tai Chi Master and Wing Chun in 1993 and 1994, respectively.
Education
Michelle Yeoh attended St. Mary's School in Ipoh, Malaysia, and later studied ballet at the Royal Academy of Dance in London. However, her pursuit of a career in dance was interrupted by a spinal injury, leading her to transition into acting.
In conclusion, Michelle Yeoh's net worth and career achievements reflect her dedication and versatility as an actress, making her one of the most successful and influential figures in the entertainment industry today.
Yeoh appeared in the Disney+ series American Born Chinese, based on the book of the same name by Gene Luen Yang. She starred as a psychic medium alongside Kenneth Branagh in A Haunting in Venice, released in 2023. In the same year, Yeoh became an International Olympic Committee member, and delivered a speech at Harvard Law School's 2023 class day.
Yeoh's activism extends to health and well-being issues, ranging from patrons to ambassadors, through organizations including AIDS Concern, Hong Kong Cancer Fund, amfAR, Live To Love, and Paris Brain Institute. She also joined UNAIDS's commissioner team, and serves on the board of directors of the Suu Foundation, a non-political charity established to support the health, education, human rights, and development of the people of Myanmar. As one of the survivors of the 2015 Nepal earthquake, after evacuation, she returned to the disaster-hit country to help rehabilitate affected people and donate 100.000 euros for victims.
On 12 February 2016, Yeoh was made an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French ambassador to Kuala Lumpur, becoming the first Malaysian citizen to receive that honour. Yeoh was included in the BBC's 100 Women list of 2020. She was placed on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022. On 13 August 2022, Yeoh received an honorary doctorate of fine arts degree from the American Film Institute for her contributions of distinction to the art of the moving image. She became the first Asian artist to receive the honour. On 9 December 2022, Yeoh received the Kirk Douglas Award from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
