Born and raised in Singapore, immigrating to California as a teenager, this Singaporean-American gal perfected her American accent by watching soap operas like General Hospital. “That’s why I’m so dramatic,” she jokes.
Niece of the foreign minister of Singapore and coming from a family of doctors, Gwendoline Yeo kept pace, graduating summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa as an Alumni Scholar from UCLA. But instead of following the expected intellectual track of her family, this proud Bruin found herself putting her “drama” to good use.
Best known for her TV role as virgin turned Eva’s naughty maid, Gwendoline Yeo steamed up the screen as not-so-innocent Xiao-Mei in seasons 2 and 3 of #1 hit Desperate Housewives. If you peek back at her resume, who knew that she would eventually land a major recurring role, as Dr. Kelly Lee on the same soap opera on which she perfected her American accent: General Hospital.
But most impressive of all was her work with the great Robert Duvall: “I’ve never had the luxury of saying I went to Carnegie Mellon or Yale Drama, but when Bobby D. and Walter Hill handpicked me for this role, I felt like I was finally given my diploma.”
The lead role Gwendoline Yeo is referring to is of Sun Fu “Number 3” in AMC’s hit miniseries Broken Trail. A girl who has certainly earned her way on the road to success, Yeo keeps it all in perspective: “It’s the high I get from making someone’s day better, whether it’s through making them laugh or cry…people want to know that there’s someone out there who understands what they’re going through.”