Gwendoline Yeo
Gwendoline See-Hian Yeo (simplified Chinese: 杨时贤; traditional Chinese: 楊時賢; pinyin: Yáng Shíxián; born July 10, 1977) is an American actress, voice actress, writer and musician best known for her role as Xiao-Mei in Desperate Housewives, Sun Fu in the film Broken Trail (for which she was nominated for a Best Actress NAMIC Vision Award [1]) and as the voice of Shinigami in Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Gwendoline Yeo | |
|---|---|
 Yeo in 2018 | |
| Born | Gwendoline See-Hian Yeo July 10, 1977 |
| Alma mater | UCLA San Francisco Conservatory of Music |
| Occupation | Actress, voice actress, writer, musician |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Relatives | George Yeo (uncle) |
| Website | www |
Film
Yeo starred opposite Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church in the Emmy Award-winning Western Broken Trail as Sun Fu (also known as "Number Three"), a Chinese woman sold into prostitution in the 1800s. After a worldwide search, Duvall personally selected her to star opposite him in the role.[2] Her performance in the film earned her critical acclaim and a NAMIC Vision Award nomination for Best Actress in 2007.[1]
In the independent film Heathens and Thieves, Yeo played Kun Hua, a role which garnered her Best Actress Awards at both the WorldFest Houston International Film Festival and the Iowa Film Festival.[3]
Yeo also starred in the Emmy Award-nominated Amazon original special, American Girl: Ivy & Julie.
Other notable film roles include Dr. Samantha Yep in The Jane Austen Book Club with Emily Blunt and Hugh Dancy, June in Night Skies, and The Magic of Ordinary Days with Keri Russell.
Television
Yeo is perhaps best known for her recurring guest star role as Xiao-Mei, the Chinese maid of Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) and Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) in Desperate Housewives. The character's popularity in the series led to an offer for a series regular contract the next season.[4]
She also had a recurring role as the Oklahoma-born Sargent Richelle (opposite Felicity Huffman in the critically acclaimed series American Crime, played Kelly Lee on General Hospital, and has also guested on other popular shows such as NCIS, Grey's Anatomy, Castle, The Mentalist, and Chuck.
Voice acting
Yeo is a prominent voice artist in several animated series, films, video games, and commercials, and has multiple action figures based on her characters. She started her career in voice-over in 2003 with guest role on What's New, Scooby-Doo?.
Her character Shinigami, from Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, was officially launched during San Diego Comic-Con to a huge crowd of fans.[5] She has voiced several other popular animated characters including Cato Parassiti in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Domino in Wolverine and the X-Men, Li Mei in The Invincible Iron Man, Lola Chong in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Gramma on Stitch!, Mercy Graves in The Batman and Li-en in Zatch Bell!. She has also guest starred on Phineas and Ferb, Kim Possible and What's New, Scooby Doo?.
In video games, Yeo is best known as Paine in Final Fantasy X-2 and Kingdom Hearts II. She was also the female lead in SOCOM 4 U.S. Navy SEALs as the character Forty-Five.[6] Other notable video game credits include Lady Deathstrike in X-Men: Next Dimension, Yuma in Far Cry 4, and Four-Eyes in Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.
Other projects
Yeo's love of music led her to specialize in playing the Chinese long zither, also known as the guzheng, which culminated into a one-woman radio show on NPR-KCRW about her immigrant and ugly duckling story. It also included the debut of her first two zither/vocal tracks "Kiss My Grits" and "Lovers."
Her radio show evolved into a theater piece which Yeo wrote, scored, and starred in called Laughing With My Mouth Wide Open, which received rave reviews during its run at the El Centro Theatre.[6][7]
Yeo also designed her own limited-edition clothing line, which quickly sold out, and donated the proceeds to Kentucky's Christian Appalachian Project.[8]
Personal life
Born in Singapore, Yeo moved to California as a teenager, graduating (with honors) from St. Ignatius College Preparatory in 1994. Yeo graduated summa cum laude from UCLA in 1997 and also earned a diploma in Classical Piano from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.[9]
Yeo was crowned Miss Asian America in 1995 and was also named Miss Chinatown USA in 1998-1999.
She is the niece of George Yeo, former Singaporean Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Filmography
Live-action
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Perfect Girl | Perfect Girl | Short film |
| 2004 | A Day Without a Mexican | Newscaster | |
| 2004 | Code | Nurse Kyra Chen | Short film |
| 2007 | Night Skies | June | |
| 2007 | Dead Tone | Detective Anne Hastings | |
| 2007 | The Jane Austen Book Club | Dr. Samantha Yep | |
| 2008 | Vacancy 2: The First Cut | Bride | Direct-to-video |
| 2009 | Freshmyn | Li Yen Su | Short film |
| 2009 | I Do... I Did! | Dr. Wong | |
| 2012 | Heathens and Thieves | Kun Hua | |
| 2012 | Freeloaders | Yue Jie | |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Grounded for Life | Linda | 2 episodes |
| 2002 | The Random Years | Happy Dragon Hot Waitress | Episode: "Don't Make Me Have Sex in the Hamptons" |
| 2003 | Watching Ellie | Andrea Barlow | Episode: "Shrink" |
| 2004 | The O.C. | Sara / Amy | Episode: "The Strip" |
| 2004 | Judging Amy | Lisa Bart | Episode: "Consent" |
| 2005 | The Magic of Ordinary Days | Rose | Television film |
| 2005 | NYPD Blue | Ai Watanabe | Episode: "Moving Day" |
| 2005 | JAG | Lt. Chang | Episode: "Unknown Soldier" |
| 2005 | 24 | Melissa Rabb | 2 episodes |
| 2006 | General Hospital | Dr. Kelly Lee | 7 episodes |
| 2006 | Desperate Housewives | Xiao-Mei | 9 episodes |
| 2006 | Broken Trail | Sun Fu | Television film |
| 2006 | Hannah Montana | Bree Samuels | Episode: "New Kid in School" |
| 2007 | Standoff | Ratana Sadka | Episode: "No Strings" |
| 2007 | The 1/2 Hour News Hour | Yujira Shinato | 1 episode |
| 2007 | Chuck | Mei-Ling Cho | Episode: "Chuck Versus the Sizzling Shrimp" |
| 2008 | Eli Stone | Joanna Kim | Episode: "Unwritten" |
| 2008 | The Mentalist | Alexandra | Episode: "Red-Handed" |
| 2009 | The Beast | Jennifer Ling | Episode: "The Walk In" |
| 2011 | Gigantic | Val | 2 episodes |
| 2012 | Days of Our Lives | Female Movie Voice | 3 episodes |
| 2014 | Math Bites | Girl at Cash Register | Episode: "Math Heads: Do The Math in Your Heads" |
| 2014 | Two and a Half Men | Computer | Episode : "Alan Shot a Girl" |
| 2015 | Castle | Elise Kim | Episode: "The Wrong Stuff" |
| 2015 | American Crime | Richelle | 4 episodes |
| 2016 | Grey's Anatomy | Michelle Carpio | Episode: "Mama Tried" |
| 2017 | Switched at Birth | Ling | Episode: "The Call" |
| 2017 | An American Girl Story: Ivy & Julie 1976 - A Happy Balance | Marilyn Ying | Television film |
| 2017 | Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders | Lin Huang | Episode: "Cinderella and the Dragon" |
| 2017 | Wisdom of the Crowd | Deputy Chief Elaine Wu | Episode: "User Bias" |
| 2018 | NCIS | NCIS Special Agent Joanna Wright | Episode: "Death From Above" |
Voice acting
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | The Invincible Iron Man | Li Mei | Direct-to-video |
| 2011 | Dead Space: Aftermath | Isabel Cho | |
| 2011 | Green Lantern: Emerald Knights | Blu | |
| 2011 | Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur | Ms. Deitch | |
| 2012 | Back to the Sea | Waitress | |
| 2012 | Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 | Lola Chang | Direct-to-video |
| 2013 | Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 | Lola Chang | |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | What's New, Scooby Doo? | Lt. Keiko Tanaka | Episode: "Big Appetite in Little Tokyo" |
| 2005 | Higglytown Heroes | Dentist Hero | Episode: "Kip's Sweet Tooth/Wayne's Lollipop" |
| 2005–2006 | Zatch Bell! | Li-en | 3 episodes; English dub |
| 2006 | Hellboy: Sword of Storms | Kitsune | Television film |
| 2006–2007 | Lou and Lou: Safety Patrol | Mom, Lulu | 10 episodes |
| 2007 | Kim Possible | Hoodie | 2 episodes |
| 2007 | The Batman | Mercy Graves | 2 episodes |
| 2008–2009 | Wolverine and the X-Men | Domino, Master Mold, Madeline Drake, Mariko Yashida | 11 episodes |
| 2008 | Phineas and Ferb | Fifi | Episode: "Greece Lightning/Leave the Busting to Us!" |
| 2008–2009, 2011, 2014, 2020 | Star Wars: The Clone Wars | Nala Se, Bettie-Bot VJ, Peppi Bow, Cato Parasitti, Kalifa | 9 episodes |
| 2009 | Special Agent Oso | Jack's Mother | Episode: "Octo-Puzzle/One Suitcase Is Not Enough" |
| 2009 | Uncharted: Eye of Indra | Rika Raja | Motion comic |
| 2009–2013 | Stitch! | Gramma (Obaa), Adult Lilo Pelekai | 11 episodes; English dub |
| 2011 | Marvel Anime: Wolverine | Mariko Yoshida | 4 episodes; English dub |
| 2011 | Marvel Anime: X-Men | Dr. Yui Sasaki | 7 episodes; English dub |
| 2013–2014 | Ben 10: Omniverse | Nyancy Chan, Sheelane | 3 episodes |
| 2015 | Star vs. the Forces of Evil | Mrs. Liao | Episode: "Blood Moon Ball/Fortune Cookies" |
| 2015 | Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! | Dr. Lang | Episode: "Be Quiet Scooby-Doo!" |
| 2015 | Regular Show | Waitress #2, Mary, Girl #2 | Episode: "Hello China" |
| 2016–2017 | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | Shinigami | 6 episodes |
| 2019 | Young Justice | Lady Shiva | Episodes: "Home Fires" and "Exceptional Human Beings" |
| 2019 | Love, Death & Robots | Tsiao Jung | Episode: "Good Hunting" |
| 2020 | Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | Hamato Karai | Episodes: "Finale Part 1: E-Turtle Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", "Finale Part 2: Shreddy or Not", "Finale Part 3: Anatawa Hitorijanai", and "Finale Part 4: Rise" |
Video games
References
- Sneider, Jeff (2007-01-24). "NAMIC announces nominees". Retrieved 2018-12-26.
- "About Gwendoline - Gwendoline Yeo". Retrieved 2018-12-26.
- "46TH Annual Worldfest Houston". Retrieved 2018-12-26.
- "Singapore girl in Hollywood". 2006-06-18. Retrieved 2018-12-26.
- Whitten, Emily S. (2016-06-30). "Nickelodeon and Nostalgia @ SDCC 2016". Retrieved 2018-12-26.
- Allred, Laurie (November 17, 2010). "Alumna Gwendoline Yeo emphasizes family dynamics in her one-woman show 'Laughing With My Mouth Wide Open'". Daily Bruin. UCLA.
- "Theater Reviews: Cinderella, Schmutzigen Deutsche Kabarett". 2010-12-02. Retrieved 2018-12-26.
- Copley, Rich (2016-09-20). "Actress Gwendoline Yeo's heart-to-heart with Christian Appalachian Project". Retrieved 2018-12-26.
- "DIP INTERVIEW: Interview with Gwendoline Yeo". UCLA. November 7, 2003.
External links
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