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Jean Yoon was born in Champaign, Illinois, on May 4, 1962, and subsequently raised in Toronto.
Yoon began her acting career in the 1980s but soon quit in frustration over the lack of opportunities for Asian Canadians and went on to complete an undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto in 1989.
For a decade, she advocated for more opportunities for actors of colour and would not return to the theatre scene until 1991. Yoon created her own theatre company called Loud Mouth Asian Babes, which committed to the development of new Canadian drama by, for, and about Asian women. She wrote and produced plays characterized by aggressively irreverent humour, with a particular focus on the Korean diaspora. She has written several poems and essays, including The Yoko Ono Project, an award-winning multimedia performance art comedy.
Yoon is best known for originating the role of Umma in the 2011 play Kim's Convenience and in the award-winning CBC Television series adapted from the play, for which she won an ACTRA Award (2017) and a Canadian Screen Award (2022).
In 2022, Yoon was designated an honorary ambassador on the 60th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Canada and South Korea.
She currently resides and works in Toronto.
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Created by Alston So, March 2026.