Sandra Ohbecame interested in acting as a child appearing in school plays, and as an adult, some of her best movies and TV shows are ones still aimed at kids and families. Oh grew up learning to dance ballet, play the flute, and act on stage, but she chose to pursue acting professionally and even attended the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal. Her hard work paid off as she began booking jobs on the stage and the screen almost immediately after her schooling ended.
Oh has proven herself an incredibly versatile performer. She still works on both the stage and the screen and is just as adept in comedies as she is in dramas. Though she has technically spent the most time on television thanks to roles in long-running series likeGrey’s AnatomyandKilling Eve, she has more than 100 acting credits to her name. With such a prolific body of work, it can be difficult to narrow down her best movies and TV shows, but these projects show Oh at her most versatile.
Sandra Oh has had plenty of more critically acclaimed roles than that of a school vice principal inThe Princess Diaries, but few have had as lasting of a pop culture impact.
The Princess Diariesis inspired by the Meg Cabot novel of the same name. While there is an entire series of novels, there are only two movies so far. It is the first movie that features Sandra Oh.
Anne Hathaway made her debut in the movie as a teenager named Mia who lives with her artist mom in an old converted firehouse. She attends a private school where she is often picked on by the popular kids - until they find out, just after she does, that she is actually the princess of a little-known country named Genovia. Julie Andrews plays her grandmother, but Sandra Oh plays her school’s vice principal, who is starstruck by the queen.
Some will argue that Sandra Oh has had plenty of more critically acclaimed roles than that of a school vice principal inThe Princess Diaries, but few have had as lasting of a pop culture impact.Oh has become a meme because of this role and goes viral on social media regularly. She has also recreated scenes from the movie years later at the request of fans. IfThe Princess Diaries 3ever makes it to production, fans are hoping Oh gets to reprise her role.
20 Best Quotes From The Princess Diaries
The Princess Diaries was a critical part of early 2000s pop culture, and many of its best quotes are still powerful today.
She-Ra And The Princesses Of Powerrebooted the 1985 series at a time when Netflix was toying with a lot of 1980s reboots. (It similarly rebooted Voltron, for example.) The series follows the titular heroine as she leads a group of princesses in a rebellion against evil forces. One of her enemies just happens to be her former best friend.
Oh recurred in the animated series as Castaspella, the head sorcerer of a secret floating kingdom. While her role in the show is relatively small, it shows how committed those working on the show were to getting great actors for the parts.It is a visually stunning program with plenty of bright colors to attract the gaze of kids and plenty of mature themes to impress adults looking for a good story.
Though Oh was not recognized individually for her work in the series, the show did earn two Daytime Emmy nominations (winning one) during its run as well as three GLAAD Media Awards (winning one).
Quiz Ladyspeaks to anyone who has a dysfunctional family or a love of game shows or both with its hilarious journey and heartfelt character dynamics.
The movie sees Awkwafina as a young woman who has become mostly isolationist after her older sister left the family behind to pursue stardom, her mother has struggled with gambling, and her father leaves the family. She copes with her stress by watching her favorite quiz show every night with her dog by her side. When her mother escapes her nursing home and racks up a huge gambling debt, her sister returns and convinces her to go on the game show to win the money.
Oh plays the big sister who is much more eccentric, living out of her car, and still chasing her dreams.Despite the eccentricities that Oh plays up well, she has a lot of heart, admitting to taking the blame for things her little sister did as a kid and finding a way to help her feel more comfortable appearing on the game show.
In recent years, Oh has become better known for appearing in dramatic works, and while there is still plenty of drama inQuiz Lady, the movie is definitely a comedy. It gives Oh the chance to stretch those comedic muscles in delightful ways.
Quiz Ladywon an Emmy and a Critics Choice Award.
The series follows the titular sports agent (Robert Wuhl), giving the audience a look behind the scenes of the world of professional sports. Though the stories were fictional and often outlandish, they were inspired by real events. The show addressed such topics as point shaving, steroid use, unwanted pregnancies among athletes, and more topics that were not often part of stories about athletes on the screen.
Oh starred as Rita Wu throughout the show’s run. She is the assistant to the title character.She is often the only woman in a professional atmosphere populated by men, but she is also often played as the smartest and bravest person in the room. This is the show that really put Oh on the map.
The Chairis a dramedy that ran for just a single six-episode season. The series follows Oh’s character after she becomes the chair of the English department at a fictional university. Though the series focuses on Ji-Yoon Kim, it also examines the world of Academia as a whole with storylines relating to how professors are chosen to receive tenure, how much authority a department chair has, and how complicated relationships between faculty members can become.
Because Oh is at the center of the story, she is, more often than not, flexing those dramatic skills TV fans will already be familiar with. She also, however,gets to showcase her comedic timing because she has some hilarious lines and is placed in some ridiculous situations. It marks one of her best forays into a shorter series on television.
Sandra Oh Prefers to Work on All-Women Movie & TV Projects
Sandra Oh points out that her very different March 2022 projects - Turning Red, Umma, and Killing Eve season 4 - all have women-led creative teams.
Raya and the Last Dragonis one of the most recent Disney Princess movies. Though its release in theaters was delayed multiple times, Disney did not make it a straight-to-Disney+ release as it did for other animated projects around the same time, which certainly helped to increase its popularity.
The movie follows a princess in a kingdom where a special gem protects inhabitants from beings called the Druun. When one kingdom plots to steal the gem from the royal family that protects it, the gem is broken and the Druun begin to attack. The princess grows up in what is essentially a wasteland, fighting to survive and searching for the fabled last dragon. She and the dragon make a plan to find all of the pieces of the broken gem and restore protection to the kingdom.
Oh’s role in the movie is not a large one, but her voice work is important.She voices Virana, the leader of the kingdom that plots to steal the gem in the first place. Virana is cold and calculating, getting her own daughter to do her dirty work for her.Oh had to be subtly menacing for the role, since the audience does not initially realize that Virana is the movie’s true villain, and she she does a fantastic job.
Raya And The Last Dragonwas nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
Sideways, inspired by the novel of the same name, follows two men as they take a trip through wine country right before one of them is due to get married. One of them is a struggling writer while the other is an out-of-work actor. While on the trip, they both meet women they connect with, which complicates their friendship and the impending wedding plans.
While Sideways sounds like a wacky comedy, it’s actually a much more subtle movie, not going for too many over-the-top moments of comedy. It’s also very balanced when it comes to the use of both comedic and dramatic tones.
Oh plays one of the women the two men meet on their trip. While she is fantastic in the role, the movie really belongs to Paul Giamatti and Thomas Hayden Church, who play the men on their road trip adventure. For that reason,there are a couple of Oh’s performances that outrankSidewaysdespite the movie often being thought of as her most prestigious work because of the love the film got on the award show circuit.
Sidewayswas nominated for four Oscars, winning one, and for seven Golden Globes, winning two.
Turning Redhad the misfortune of being released as part of Pixar’s straight to streaming plan while movie theaters were closed as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It did not get the wide release or the eyeballs on it that it deserved. Despite that, it is absolutely one of Sandra Oh’s best roles.
The series sees a teenage girl find out that the women in her family all turn into giant red pandas. She has to deal with the transformation while trying to keep it a secret. Her mother, however, wants her to tamp her feelings down to keep the red panda at bay, while she wants to embrace that part of herself.
Sandra Oh provides the voice for the stern and buttoned-up mother. She is perfect for the role, keeping her voice leveled and controlled, even when stern and angry.Oh turns out a masterful performance with just her voice, and the audience can hear the change whenMing finally allows herself to embrace her own emotions.
Turning Redwas nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
Cristina is still a fan-favorite years after she left the series.
Though Sandra Oh had been acting for years beforeGrey’s Anatomy,this is the project that made her a household name.Grey’s Anatomylaunched the stars of its first season into the TV stratosphere as people fell in love with the medical drama.
The series focuses on a group of interns and residents at a fictional hospital in Seattle. While the bulk of the series has focused on Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), the series is a true ensemble show, with all of the main cast rotating the spotlight. Oh started the show as Meredith’s “person” and a fellow intern before working her way up the ranks of the same hospital.
Grey’s Anatomy’s 10 Most Shocking Episodes
Grey’s Anatomy had plenty of shocking episodes, but some were more distressing than others in how they delivered unexpected developments.
Though Oh might not have stayed on the series as long as some of the other actors from that first season (Cristina departed in season 10), she made quite the impact. Cristina is still a fan-favorite years after she left the series. Part of that is Oh’s flawless portrayal of her.Christina is a supremely focused individual, not wanting to let anything get in the way of her career. Oh plays her as a fast-talking and carefully controlled person. Her rare moments of vulnerability stand out.
Oh won a Golden Globe for her role in the series and was nominated five times for an Emmy.
Killing Eveis Sandra Oh’s most critically lauded (and awarded) work.The drama series showed fans of the actor just how breathtaking her acting could be after they had already seen her in other lauded roles likeGrey’s AnatomyandSideways.
The series was nominated for 20 Emmys during its run with Jodie Comer winning one and five Golden Globes during its run with Oh winning one.
Killing Evefollows a British intelligence agent (Oh) as she tracks mysterious assassins. She becomes obsessed with one assassin in particular (Jodie Comer), who in turn, becomes obsessed with her. Their interest in one another slowly begins to overtake their focus on their individual missions. At times, they even work together to take down other killers.
Oh’s work inKilling Eveis near perfection.As Eve, she is focused and determined and ambitious. She is also, however, able to show her vulnerabilities in the role after Eve has multiple near-death experiences in the series.Oh gets to do her best dramatic work inKilling Eve, making it her best TV series of her career.
