Sandra Oh

After being in a relationship with filmmaker Alexander Payne for five years, Sandra Oh married him on January 1, 2003. However, they separated in 2005, and divorced in 2006.

On July 8, 2013, she received the Key to the City of Ottawa, Ontario—an honor bestowed upon esteemed residents—from Mayor Jim Watson.

Sandra Miju Oh was born on July 20, 1971, in the Ottawa suburb of Nepean, to Korean immigrant parents Oh Junsu and Oh Young-Nam, who had shifted to Canada in the 1960s.Her mother is a biochemist, and her father is a businessman. She has a brother, Ray, and a sister, Grace.

She learned ballet and began acting at a very early age. When she was 10, she played The Wizard of Woe in a musical, ‘The Canada Goose’.

She attended Sir Robert Borden High School, where she founded the environmental club Borden Active Students for the Environment, and led a campaign against the use of styrofoam cups. At her high school, she was also the Student Council President.

During her high school days, she started playing the flute, took ballet training and studied acting. She also joined the drama club, and participated in the comedy group called Canadian Improv Games and Skit Row High.

Going against her parents' wishes, she rejected a four-year journalism scholarship at Carleton University to study drama at National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal. She is the only person in her family who doesnot have a master's degree.

On graduating from the National Theatre School in 1993, Sandra Oh was cast in a London, Ontario (in Canada) stage production of David Mamet's two-character play ‘Oleanna’. Around the same time, she won roles in ‘The Diary of Evelyn Lau’, the biographical TV film on the author’s life, and in a biopic of Adrienne Clarkson's life. Sandra won the former role after competing with more than 1,000 participants who auditioned.

She came to prominence with her lead role in the Canadian film ‘Double Happiness’ in 1994, where she portrayed Jade Li, an actress struggling to assert her independence from the expectations of her Chinese-Canadian family.

In 1997, she portrayed Bernice, the art gallery PR manager, in the film ‘Bean’. In 1998, she starred in ‘Last Night’ a Canadian apocalyptic black comedy-drama film. She then appeared in ‘Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity’, a 2002 Canadian film.

She starred in ‘Stop Kiss’, a play written by the American playwright Diana Son, and produced Off-Broadway in 1998 at The Public Theater in New York City.

She starred in an American drama film ‘Dancing at the Blue Iguana’ in 2000, where she played a stripper at an adult dance club. In the same year, she was featured in ‘Waking the Dead’, a drama film directed by Keith Gordon.

The film ‘Double Happiness’ won her critical acclaim, with Roger Ebert praising her “warm performance." ‘The New York Times’ also praised her performance, saying that people will not forget her soon.

Her performance in the film ‘Dancing at the Blue Iguana’ was praised, and ‘The New York Times’ said, "Sandra makes the most of her opportunity". She also received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Rita Wu on the television series ‘Arliss’.