Jean Yoon

Jean Yoon (born May 4, 1962) is an American-born Canadian actress and writer of Korean descent. Yoon is best known for originating the role of family matriarch 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 and received two Canadian Screen Award nominations. Early life Yoon was born in Champaign, Illinois to parents of Korean descent in 1962 and subsequently raised in Toronto, where she currently resides and works. Career 1980s–1990s: Early career in theatre Yoon started her career in theatre as an actress in the early 1980s, but soon quit in frustration after she struggled to find work and went on to complete her degree at the University of Toronto (BA Innis 1989). A decade later, in 1995, she returned to acting and started her own group called Loud Mouth Asian Babes, through which she has written and produced plays that focus on the Korean diaspora, mostly in Canada.