Sandra Oh Opens Up About The Importance Of Asian Representation

Sandra Oh is one of the most respected and celebrated actresses in Hollywood. The "Grey's Anatomy" and "Killing Eve" star has been working in the entertainment industry for over 20 years (via People). 

She got her start with bit parts in the '90s before becoming a breakout star in "The Princess Diaries" with her wit and humor. The rest has been history.

Speaking of history, Oh is constantly making it. In 2019, she broke records three times in one night. Oh was the first Asian to host the Golden Globe Awards (via Vox). The night of firsts didn't end there as she would go on to become the first Asian woman to win multiple Golden Globes and the first woman of Asian descent to win the award for best actress in a TV drama in almost 40 years.

Oh has always been proud of her Korean Canadian heritage, and she now gets to portray a Chinese Canadian character in Pixar's new movie "Turning Red" (via Narcity). Her role in the film has her opening up about the importance of Asian representation in film and television.

Sandra Oh is passionate about Asian representation in the media, and she has been outspoken about why people of Asian descent need to see themselves in film and television.

And no role has hit closer to home than her voice portrayal of Ming, a Chinese Canadian preteen going through puberty, in "Turning Red." Oh opened up to CP24 about how special the opportunity was to her.

"Ming is a full-fledged character," she said. "My experience with my mother is not so much like Ming, who can be seen as overprotective and embarrasses her daughter really intensely. My mother was an extremely demanding person in other ways."

Oh enjoyed playing a character whom Asian viewers can hopefully relate to and explained why racial bias in Hollywood has to end. She shared that the racism within the industry gave her an internal bias.

"That moment of internalized racism, I'm not holding that all the time," she said. "What I think is important about the past two years, as a lot of people have come to the forefront with the demand for racial justice and racial reckoning, is you have to take a look at what's going on inside yourself."