Your story may not have such a happy beginning

Michelle Yeoh

Published Mar 13, 2023

Peter Vojnits

Community Executive at the Laidlaw Foundation and Laidlaw Scholar Alumnus, Durham Unviersity

Your story may not have such a happy beginning

Liked by Kelci Jacoby

**Michelle Yeoh:** “Your story may not have such a happy beginning, but that doesn’t make you who you are. It is the rest of your story, who you choose to be.”

To continue our celebration of Women's History Month, our leadership quote this week comes from actress Michelle Yeoh who just became the first Asian and only the second woman of colour to win Best Actress at the Oscars.

Michelle Yeoh (1962-) is a Malaysian actress who is best known for her established film and television career in Hollywood. Yeoh spent her early life in Malaysia, moving to the United Kingdom with her family at 15 to attend an all-girls boarding school. She later enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dance in London, receiving her bachelor's degree in creative arts in 1982. In 1983, Yeoh won the Miss Malaysia contest and represented Malaysia in the Miss World 1984 pageant.

Yeoh's career in film and television spans over three decades and encompasses roles in several genres. She has starred in actions films, such as the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, spin-offs of classic TV shows, such as Star Trek: Discovery, foreign language films, such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and fantasy multiverse franchise films, such as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Recently, Yeoh starred in the sci-fi comedy Everything Everywhere All at Once, with the film and her performance receiving critical acclaim. For her performance, she won the Golden Globe Award and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role.

On Sunday, March 12th, Yeoh won the Best Actress award at the Oscars, becoming the first Asian woman to win the award in the ceremony's 95-year history.

Learn more

⚡️ Viola Davis: “When your passion and drive are bigger than your fears, you just dive.”

⚡️Annie Easley: “Don’t give up on it. Just stick with it. Don’t listen to people who always tell you, ‘It’s hard, and walk away from it.’”

⚡️Michelle Obama: “People who are truly strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful bring others together.”

⚡️Andrea Jenkins: "If you can conceive it, and believe it, you can achieve it. But there must be a plan. We have to set goals. Review them constantly. Shift directions when necessary. But, always stay focused."

Peter Vojnits

Community Executive at the Laidlaw Foundation and Laidlaw Scholar Alumnus, Durham Unviersity

Hello all! I did my Laidlaw Programme at Durham University between 2019-2021. My research project focused on evaluating the immigration and asylum system of the EU through a case study of the 2015 immigration crisis. Following the completion of my undergraduate LLB degree I moved to London to pursue my postgraduate LLM study at Queen Mary University of London. I'm also a Project Assistant at the Laidlaw Foundation on a part-time basis. If you have any cool ideas for the Laidlaw Scholars Network or the Foundation, please hit me up on here or LinkedIn and let's discuss it! :)