01of 13Steven Yeun’s Early YearsAMCSteven Yeun was born on Dec. 21, 1983, in Seoul, South Korea, and was raised in Troy, Michigan, where he graduated high school. He began his career in improv and sketch comedy in Chicago, where he trained at the prestigious Second City.Once he felt he had hit a ceiling with the opportunities he was getting, Yeun took his talents to Hollywood and landed his first big role as Glenn Rhee in the highly successful AMC horror seriesThe Walking Dead(2010 to 2016). After spending seven seasons on the show and becoming a household name in television, Yeun was still only just beginning what’s become a promising career path — one that he has thought out with intention as he learns to find his voice in the industry.“Leaving [The Walking Dead], if I had any weird feelings about it, was mostly that I hadn’t taken the time for myself to understand who I was and maybe my voice and what I wanted to say,” Yeun toldVarietyin December 2020. “I was always kind of in service to this larger narrative. And in some ways that reflects kind of how I was raised in my early years. I think I’m done. I think I want to try the other side.”
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Steven Yeun’s Early Years
AMC
Steven Yeun was born on Dec. 21, 1983, in Seoul, South Korea, and was raised in Troy, Michigan, where he graduated high school. He began his career in improv and sketch comedy in Chicago, where he trained at the prestigious Second City.
Once he felt he had hit a ceiling with the opportunities he was getting, Yeun took his talents to Hollywood and landed his first big role as Glenn Rhee in the highly successful AMC horror seriesThe Walking Dead(2010 to 2016). After spending seven seasons on the show and becoming a household name in television, Yeun was still only just beginning what’s become a promising career path — one that he has thought out with intention as he learns to find his voice in the industry.
“Leaving [The Walking Dead], if I had any weird feelings about it, was mostly that I hadn’t taken the time for myself to understand who I was and maybe my voice and what I wanted to say,” Yeun toldVarietyin December 2020. “I was always kind of in service to this larger narrative. And in some ways that reflects kind of how I was raised in my early years. I think I’m done. I think I want to try the other side.”
02of 13Steven Yeun in ‘Mayhem’Sanja Bucko /© RLJ Entertainment /Courtesy Everett CollectionYeun went from major side character to bonafide lead in the 2017 horror-comedyMayhem. The star plays Derek Cho, a lawyer who starts to lose himself in his corporate job and gets trapped in quarantine with his colleagues as a vicious virus rips through the building and causes everyone to act on their darkest impulses.
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Steven Yeun in ‘Mayhem’
Sanja Bucko /© RLJ Entertainment /Courtesy Everett Collection
Yeun went from major side character to bonafide lead in the 2017 horror-comedyMayhem. The star plays Derek Cho, a lawyer who starts to lose himself in his corporate job and gets trapped in quarantine with his colleagues as a vicious virus rips through the building and causes everyone to act on their darkest impulses.
03of 13Steven Yeun in ‘Okja’Jae Hyuk Lee/NetflixNext up was Yeun’s role as K in director Bong Joon-ho’sOkja(2017),which was written specifically with him in mind. The star toldVulture’s E. Alex Jung that he received an email from Bong that said, “I wrote something for you.” Without hesitation, Yeun accepted and found that his part as the film’s Korean American radical animal rights activist allowed him to experience a kinship with his character in a way he hadn’t before in other roles.“Director Bong is a Korean native, and he’s gracious and intelligent enough to know there is a Korean-American struggle and put light to it,” Yeun explained to Jung, who is also Korean American. “But the nuances are still specific to me and you in a way they’re not to him, and we got to explore it to his extent.““I’d love to see something more, but it is interesting to have an experience as a Korean-American that nobody else is going to be able to do,” he added. “That’s awesome.”
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Steven Yeun in ‘Okja’
Jae Hyuk Lee/Netflix
Next up was Yeun’s role as K in director Bong Joon-ho’sOkja(2017),which was written specifically with him in mind. The star toldVulture’s E. Alex Jung that he received an email from Bong that said, “I wrote something for you.” Without hesitation, Yeun accepted and found that his part as the film’s Korean American radical animal rights activist allowed him to experience a kinship with his character in a way he hadn’t before in other roles.
“Director Bong is a Korean native, and he’s gracious and intelligent enough to know there is a Korean-American struggle and put light to it,” Yeun explained to Jung, who is also Korean American. “But the nuances are still specific to me and you in a way they’re not to him, and we got to explore it to his extent.”
“I’d love to see something more, but it is interesting to have an experience as a Korean-American that nobody else is going to be able to do,” he added. “That’s awesome.”
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Steven Yeun’s Voice Work
Netflix
“Somehow, some way, someone let me in the door and I’ve been really lucky to do these things,” he said. “For me, the enjoyment is also being able to play something I would never be cast in, so it’s been really fun to do that.”
05of 13Steven Yeun in ‘The Star’Sony/Columbia/Kobal/ShutterstockThe same year, he also voiced Bo the donkey in the holiday animated film,The Star, alongside actors Keegan-Michael Key, Aidy Bryant and Gina Rodriguez.
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Steven Yeun in ‘The Star’
Sony/Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock
The same year, he also voiced Bo the donkey in the holiday animated film,The Star, alongside actors Keegan-Michael Key, Aidy Bryant and Gina Rodriguez.
06of 13Steven Yeun in ‘Sorry to Bother You’Annapurna Pictures /Courtesy Everett CollectionIn 2018, Yeun appeared in Boots Riley’s wildly original, dark sci-fi comedySorry to Bother You, as union organizer Squeeze. The film follows Cassius “Cash” Green (LaKeith Stanfield) as he uses his “white voice” to become more successful at his telemarketing job and decide if he wants to continue to get rich or fight the powers that be with his union-forming colleagues.
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Steven Yeun in ‘Sorry to Bother You’
Annapurna Pictures /Courtesy Everett Collection
In 2018, Yeun appeared in Boots Riley’s wildly original, dark sci-fi comedySorry to Bother You, as union organizer Squeeze. The film follows Cassius “Cash” Green (LaKeith Stanfield) as he uses his “white voice” to become more successful at his telemarketing job and decide if he wants to continue to get rich or fight the powers that be with his union-forming colleagues.
07of 13Steven Yeun in ‘Burning’Well Go USA/courtesy Everett CollectionYeun was chosen to play Ben in Lee Chang-dong’s 2018 psychological thrillerBurning. The adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s 1983 short story allowed the star to shed his Asian American identity as he acted alongside Korean actors Yoo Ah-in and Jeon Jong-seo, and allowed him to take on a different type of lead role without adding that extra pressure of representing an Asian person in Hollywood.“It’s been like, ‘Here’s what an Asian person looks like to a majority white audience,’ " he said in an interview with theIndependentin 2019. “But if you go to Korea, the characters are just humans because they’re not thinking about it like that. That’s something that I was made aware of [withBurning], which was really wonderful for me to know. I didn’t have to represent all Asians. I could just represent myself.”
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Steven Yeun in ‘Burning’
Well Go USA/courtesy Everett Collection
Yeun was chosen to play Ben in Lee Chang-dong’s 2018 psychological thrillerBurning. The adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s 1983 short story allowed the star to shed his Asian American identity as he acted alongside Korean actors Yoo Ah-in and Jeon Jong-seo, and allowed him to take on a different type of lead role without adding that extra pressure of representing an Asian person in Hollywood.
“It’s been like, ‘Here’s what an Asian person looks like to a majority white audience,’ " he said in an interview with theIndependentin 2019. “But if you go to Korea, the characters are just humans because they’re not thinking about it like that. That’s something that I was made aware of [withBurning], which was really wonderful for me to know. I didn’t have to represent all Asians. I could just represent myself.”
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Steven Yeun in ‘Stretch Armstrong’
09of 13Steven Yeun in ‘Tuca & Bertie’NetflixYeun also voiced Speckle in the adult animated sitcomTuca & Bertie. The show follows the friendship between two 30-year-old birds who live in the same building, and stars comediansTiffany Haddishand Ali Wong.
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Steven Yeun in ‘Tuca & Bertie’
Yeun also voiced Speckle in the adult animated sitcomTuca & Bertie. The show follows the friendship between two 30-year-old birds who live in the same building, and stars comediansTiffany Haddishand Ali Wong.
10of 13Steven Yeun in ‘3Below’NetflixYeun also plays Steve in Guillermo del Toro’s animated action series3Below: Tales of Arcadia, which co-stars actors Glenn Close, Nick Offerman and Diego Luna.
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Steven Yeun in ‘3Below’
Yeun also plays Steve in Guillermo del Toro’s animated action series3Below: Tales of Arcadia, which co-stars actors Glenn Close, Nick Offerman and Diego Luna.
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Steven Yeun in ‘Minari’
Alan S. Kim, Steven Yeun, Noel Cho, Yeri Han inMinari.David Bornfriend/A24
The critically acclaimedMinarifollowed the Korean American Yi family, who try to live out the American dream through farming in rural Arkansas in the 1980s. The drama was based on director Lee Isaac Chung’s real-life upbringing and debuted with high remarks at Sundance in 2020, winning both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize.
It wasup for six Oscarsin 2021, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (for Youn Yuh-jung), Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor for Yeun.Yeun was the first Asian American actornominated for Best Actor while Yuh-jung, who won a Screen Actors Guild Award for her work, was the first South Korean actress to be nominated for and win Best Supporting Actress.
The film took home best motion picture in a foreign language at the Golden Globes. Although theGlobes received backlash for placing the film in the foreign language categoryeven though it was an American film, with an American lead and director, Yeun simply directed his attention to the release of the film,posting the movie poster on Instagramand writing the caption, “this one is for everybody.”
“Their existence is valid, and they can just be,” he continued. “In some ways, what that is, is just an exercise in humanity.”
12of 13Steven Yeun in ‘Nope’UniversalIn 2022, Yeun joined the starry cast of Jordan Peele’s latest horror film,Nope,playing former child star Ricky “Jupe” Park.“I think for my part of the film I was just really enamoured with Jordan’s process and the way in which he brought me into it, so I felt quite safe making this film,“Yeun shared with Gizmodo Australia.
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Steven Yeun in ‘Nope’
Universal
In 2022, Yeun joined the starry cast of Jordan Peele’s latest horror film,Nope,playing former child star Ricky “Jupe” Park.
“I think for my part of the film I was just really enamoured with Jordan’s process and the way in which he brought me into it, so I felt quite safe making this film,“Yeun shared with Gizmodo Australia.
13of 13Steven Yeun in ‘Beef’Courtesy of NetflixIn his latest role, Yeun reunites with Ali Wong for the critically acclaimed Netflix dark comedyBeef,about a pair of angry people who meet in a road rage incident and find their lives intertwined.“Playing Danny was, at times, asking me to revisit a part of myself that when I was younger, I didn’t have a full handle over,“Yeun told NPR. “With Danny, it wasn’t that it was cathartic, per se. I got tired being that angry for so long. Every day, you know, I’d show up on set and I’d just be like, ‘Danny’s doing what today?’ And I’m just like, how do I justify this? How do I not hate Danny? How do I love Danny? How do I never bail on Danny? Because Danny is a side of all of us. And how do I never bail so that the audience will never bail?”
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Steven Yeun in ‘Beef’
Courtesy of Netflix
In his latest role, Yeun reunites with Ali Wong for the critically acclaimed Netflix dark comedyBeef,about a pair of angry people who meet in a road rage incident and find their lives intertwined.
“Playing Danny was, at times, asking me to revisit a part of myself that when I was younger, I didn’t have a full handle over,“Yeun told NPR. “With Danny, it wasn’t that it was cathartic, per se. I got tired being that angry for so long. Every day, you know, I’d show up on set and I’d just be like, ‘Danny’s doing what today?’ And I’m just like, how do I justify this? How do I not hate Danny? How do I love Danny? How do I never bail on Danny? Because Danny is a side of all of us. And how do I never bail so that the audience will never bail?”
source: people.com
