Gwendoline Yeo

Gwendoline See-Hian Yeo (Chinese: 杨时贤; pinyin: Yáng Shíxián; born 10 July 1977)^[1] is an American actress, best known for her roles as Dr. Kelly Lee on General Hospital , Xiao-Mei on Desperate Housewives , and Sun Fu in Broken Trail .^{[2] [3] [4]} She is also known for voicing different roles in voiceover projects.

Born in Singapore, Yeo moved to California, United States when she was eleven,^[5] where she attended St. Ignatius College Preparatory before graduating with honors in 1994. Yeo graduated summa cum laude from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1997. She also completed a diploma in classical piano at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.^[6]

Yeo was crowned Miss Asian America in 1995 and was also named Miss Chinatown USA in 1998–99.^[5]

She is the niece of George Yeo, a Singaporean former politician who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs between 2004 and 2011.

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.^[7] Her performance in the film earned her critical acclaim and a NAMIC Vision Award nomination for Best Actress in 2007.^[2]

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.^[8]

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.

Yeo is perhaps best known for her recurring guest star role as Xiao-Mei, the Chinese maid of Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria) and Carlos Solis (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.^[9]

Set to debut in the 2020–21 television season, Yeo was cast as a series regular on The CW's Kung Fu as Zhilan, a dangerous nemesis with criminal ties and a connection to the Shaolin monastery.^{[3] [4]} Before the series aired, Yeo was replaced by Yvonne Chapman.^[10]

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 .

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? . More recently, she voiced Lady Shiva in the 2019 animated series Young Justice , and Tsiao Jung in the 2019 Emmy Award-winning series Love, Death & Robots .^[11]

Her character Shinigami, from Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , was officially launched during San Diego Comic-Con to a huge crowd of fans.^[12] In 2020, she voiced another iconic role from the TMNT universe, Karai, in Nickelodeon's Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles .

She has voiced several other popular animated characters including Nala Se, Jedi Kalifa, and Cato Parassiti in Star Wars: The Clone Wars , Domino and Master Mold in Wolverine and the X-Men , Mariko Yashida in Marvel Anime: Wolverine , Dr. Yui Sasaki in Marvel Anime: X-Men , Li Mei in The Invincible Iron Man , Lola Chang in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns , Gramma on Stitch! , Mercy Graves in The Batman , Kitsune in Hellboy: Sword of Storms , and Li-en in Zatch Bell! . She has also guest starred on Phineas and Ferb , Kim Possible , Curious George , Yasuke , and Ben 10: Omniverse .

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.^[13] 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 .

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.^{[13] [14]}

Yeo also designed her own limited-edition clothing line, which quickly sold out, and donated the proceeds to Kentucky's Christian Appalachian Project.^[15]

• Official website
• Gwendoline Yeo at IMDb

• 1977 births
• Living people
• Actresses from California
• American actresses of Chinese descent
• American musicians of Chinese descent
• American soap opera actresses
• American video game actresses
• Miss Asian America winners
• Musicians from California
• San Francisco Conservatory of Music alumni
• Singaporean emigrants to the United States
• Singaporean film actresses
• Singaporean people of Chinese descent
• Singaporean television actresses
• Singaporean voice actresses
• University of California, Los Angeles alumni
• 21st-century American actresses
• St. Ignatius College Preparatory alumni

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• All Wikipedia articles written in Singapore English
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