Michelle Yeoh to get own Star Trek show on CBS streaming service
- Her profile raised by Crazy Rich Asians’ success, actress reprises her role as Captain Philippa Georgiou in Star Trek: Discovery
- The new show is still in early development
Chinese-Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh is getting her own Star Trek show on CBS All Access, the streaming service announced on Tuesday.
The new show is still in early development. The 56-year-old actress is reprising her role as Captain Philippa Georgiou in Star Trek: Discovery, the second season of which is released this week.
Crazy Rich Asians: contemporary Asian story ‘that needed telling’
A ballet dancer since the age of four, Yeoh took the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant crown in 1983. She moved to Hong Kong, where she was invited to shoot an advertisement with Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-fat, and soon sealed her status as the top martial arts actress in the industry through films such as Yes, Madam (1985) and Police Story 3: Super Cop (1992), where she starred alongside Jackie Chan and performed her own stunts.
Yeoh played a Bond girl in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), but she really got her big break on the global stage with her role in Ang Lee’s international hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).
“I always say I’m so blessed, that I don’t have to do [a job] just to do it. I choose what I want to do, and I see now that at least we are not stereotyped as much and forced to take a job even though we don’t agree with it. The doors are opening,” the actress told the South China Morning Post in a recent interview.
Yeoh is riding the wave of success for Crazy Rich Asians (2018), in which she plays Eleanor Young, a controlling mother. The movie, hailed for its all-Asian cast, won best comedy at the Critics’ Choice Awards on Sunday.
“I’m so excited to continue telling these rich Star Trek stories,” Yeoh said in a statement. “Being a part of this Universe and this character specifically has been such a joy for me to play. I can’t wait to see where it all goes – certainly I believe it will go 'where no woman has ever gone before!'"
Star Trek executive producer Alex Kurtzman said: “Michelle has shattered ceilings, broken boundaries, and astonished us with her grace and gravitas for decades. As a human, I adore her. As an actor, I revere her.”
