Roots Asia-Pacific Sunday Star: The People’s Paper

Yeo On A Roll

Singaporean-born Gwendoline Yeo makes her presence felt on screen from the United States where she is based

Photo of Gwendoline Yeo smiling, shown from waist up. She has shoulder-length brunette hair with a loose part slightly right of center, red lipstick, and a warm grey dappled velour scoop-neck top with long sleeves. She has tucked her fingers in her pockets and is caught tossing her hair. The background is white.
Gwendoline Yeo Sizzles As Guest on “Chuck”

The name Gwendoline Yeo may not immediately ring a bell, but think further, her image as the Chinese maid Xiao Mei in Desperate Housewives (seasons two and three in 2006) will spring to mind.

It was, by her own admission, a breakout role that certainly raises her profile as an Asian star in Hollywood.

A widely known fact about Yeo is her ties with Singapore, where she was born, and her relation to George Yeo, the island republic’s foreign minister (she’s his niece).

Recalling her audition for the role of Xiao Mei on the hit drama series during a phone interview from Los Angeles recently, the 30-year-old said: “I think I was chosen as I had ideas and brought a lot of humour and perspective to the character. It was my breakthrough role and I had a great time working with the team. Most of my scenes were with Eva Longoria (Gabrielle Solis) and Ricardo Antonio Chavira (Carlos Solis). There were fun and Eva was exactly how she comes across — entertaining and warm.”

Yeo made her acting debut in two episodes of the TV comedy series Grounded for Life in 2001. Since then, she has appeared in a string of shows playing a variety of roles, including as the slave/maid-turned-seductress on Desperate Housewives. A versatile actress indeed, she has taken on roles ranging from a doctor, assassin, policewoman and mother to a lesbian!

“Each role presented different challenges and fun. In The Jane Austen Book Club, I played a lesbian doctor. Being a straight person, I was naturally nervous. Bsically, I had to just dive in there and act out the scene (laughs). In General Hospital, I played a doctor and had to memorise various medical terms. If I had played the same role, it’d be quite mundane and boring,” said Yeo, who has also dabbled in the theatre. Her credentials include Murray Mednick’s Mrs.Feuerstein, Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Shishir Kurup’s Antigone.

Gwendoline Yeo in character on the set of Chuck. She stands behind the main character, a white male in his late twenties in an ill-fitting short-sleeved white dress shirt with a gray tie and a pocket protector full of pens. He is holding his hand up to say stop. Gwen's character is standing behind him, holding his other arm behind his back and a nickel-finish semi-automatic pistol to his head. She is wearing a tan ballcap with her hair tucked up and a black polo shirt.
Gwendoline Yeo “Negotiates”

Yeo, the daughter of an endocrinologist and dental asssistant, left Singapore as a teenager to settle down in San Francisco. She holds a diploma in classical piano from the San Francisco Conseravtory of Music and first class honours in Communication Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles.

After bagging a couple of beauty titles — she was crowned Miss Asian America in 1996, and two years later, Miss Chinatown USA — Yeo began to receive offers for TV commercial which lead to an acting career in television and film.

Her portfolio also includes appearences in 24, NYPD Blue, Lou and Lou: Safety Partrol, Hannah Montana, JAG, The O.C. and Judging Amy. In the 2006 Broken Trail about the slave and skin trade in the old West, she starred as one of the Chinese women being sold as prostitutes, alongside main stars Robert Duvall and Thomas Hayden Church. For the role in the TV movie, she was nominated for best drama actress at the US National Association for Multi-enthnicity in Communications Vision Awards.

Last year’s romantic movie The Jane Austen Book Club featured her on the big screen. Currently, Yeo is filming the horror thriller Vacancy 2 in which she plays a bride.

Yeo also did voiceovers for video games including X-Men: Next Dimension, Final Fantasy X-2 and Seven Samurai 20XX.

Killer Role

Soon, local viewers can catch Yeo playing an assassin, Cho Mei Ling, in an episode of the new action-comedy Chuck which premiered on AXN (Astro Channel 701).

Gwendoline Yeo in character on the set of Chuck. She stands behind the main character, a white male in his late twenties in an ill-fitting short-sleeved white dress shirt with a gray tie and a pocket protector full of pens. He is kneeling on the floor of a warehouse, in mid-sentence. Gwen's character is standing behind him, arms at her side. She is wearing a tan ballcap with her hair tucked up, white shorts, track shoes, and a black polo shirt.
Gwendoline Yeo on “Chuck”

To prepare for the physically demanding assassin gig, Yeo went on a rigorous daily workout on the treadmill. And it was just one of the preparatory activities she had to carry out.

“To keep in shape, I also practised karate kicks. For the role, I had to do wire work and somersaults and learn how to work with guns. There were many scenes where I had to run and shoot and this required stamina,” revealed the star who guests in the episode Chuck Versus the Sizzling Shrimp.

When asked if she has plans to concentrate on movies, Yeo said: “Unfortunately, I don’t have that luxury. Whether it is TV or movies, I’m fine doing it. Sometimes, some of the best scripts are for TV series. Movies are also fun as you get to go on location to shoot. At this point, I’m just blessed being in either a drama or movie.”

Oh, and she would be happy accept film offers from the East! Any takers?

— Sheela Chandran