Yeun Sang-yeop is an American actor and producer born in South Korea. Yeun first gained notoriety for his performances as Glenn Rhee in The Walking Dead (2010–2016) and Ben in the movie Burning (2018).
He received numerous prizes and favorable reviews for the latter. He also played the lead role and served as executive producer in Minari (2020), which received positive reviews and led to him being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, making him the first Asian American actor to do so.
He also became the first Asian-American actor nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role at the Screen Actors Guild.
Steven Yeun’s Early Life
Yeun was born in Seoul on December 21, 1983, to parents Je and Jun Yeun. His father worked as an architect in South Korea before relocating his family to Canada in 1988, where they settled in Regina, Saskatchewan.
He has a Canadian-born younger brother named Brian. The family later relocated to the United States, settling in Taylor, Michigan, and then Troy, Michigan, where Yeun attended Troy High School until he graduated in 2001.
Yeun’s family spoke Korean at home when she was a child. Yeun grew up in a Christian home. He went to Ruth M. Buck Elementary School in Regina. After meeting a doctor with the same name, his parents, who owned beauty supply stores in Detroit, began calling him “Steven.”
In 2005, he graduated from Kalamazoo College with a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a concentration in neuroscience. He befriended comedian Jordan Klepper’s sister in Kalamazoo. She took him to see Klepper’s improv show, which inspired him to take his first acting class and later follow Klepper to Chicago, where they joined The Second City.
Steven Yeun’s Career
Yeun relocated to Chicago in 2005 and joined “Stir Friday Night!,” an Asian American sketch comedy group headquartered in the city.
The Second City, one of the most renowned sketch-comedy troupes in the nation, was where he eventually joined. He decided to go to Los Angeles in October 2009 to advance his acting career.
Soon after, Yeun landed his breakthrough role as Glenn Rhee in AMC‘s television horror drama series “The Walking Dead” in 2010. The show was based on the same-named comic book series.
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It tells the story of a group of people fighting to survive a zombie apocalypse. The show became the highest-rated series in cable television history, and both viewers and critics well received it.
Yeun’s performance, in particular, was lauded, especially given the evolution of his character over the six seasons he was on the show. He decided to leave after the season seven premiere in 2016.
Yeun featured in several episodes of “Law & Order: LA,” “Warehouse 13,” “NTSF: SD: SUV,” and “Drunk History” while working on “The Walking Dead.”
In March 2016, Yeun was given a role in Joe Lynch’s action-horror movie “Mayhem.” The film premiered in November 2017.
He also had a role in “Okja,” an action-adventure movie directed by Bong Joon-ho that was released in 2017 and was a contender for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He gave Bo’s voice for “The Star” that same year.
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Yeun appeared as a co-star in Boots Riley’s dark comedy “Sorry to Bother You,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018.
The film won the Top Ten Independent Films award from the National Board of Review in 2019 and Best Screenplay and First Feature at the 2019 Independent Spirit Awards.
Yeun also appeared in “Burning,” a mystery drama film that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. He won multiple Best Supporting Actor awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Toronto Film Critics Association, and the National Society of Film Critics.
Yeun appeared, and executive produced Lee Isaac Chung’s A24 immigrant drama “Minari” in 2020. The story follows a Korean immigrant family who becomes farmers in the United States.
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The film won two Sundance Film Festival awards, and Yeun was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. In 2021, Yeun was honored when “Time” named him to their annual list of the world’s 100 most influential people, citing his role in acting and producing “Minari.”
Yeun had an appearance in Stephen Karam’s 2021 psychological drama movie “The Humans.” The award-winning one-act play of the same name by Karam serves as the basis for the movie. The Toronto International Film Festival hosted its world debut in 2021.
Yeun has continued to work in television programs and has done some voice acting in addition to her film career. He has voiced roles in a variety of shows, including “The Legend of Korra: The Second Season,” “Trollhunters,” “3Below,” “Voltron: Legendary Defender,” “Final Space,” “Tuca & Bertie,” and “Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters.”
Additionally, he provides the voice of a character in the superhero animated series “Invincible” on Amazon Prime, based on the Robert Kirkman comic book series.
Steven Yeun’s Net Worth
Steven Yeun is a 5 million-dollar net worth South Korean-born American actor and producer. Steven Yeun rose to prominence after appearing in “The Walking Dead” and then “Minari.”
In college, he became interested in theatre and improv. After college, he convinced his parents to allow him to pursue a full-time performance career.
Before going to Los Angeles, he joined Chicago’s Second City Improv. After appearing on “The Big Bang Theory,” he landed “The Walking Dead’s” Glenn, which launched his career.
Steven Yeun’s Personal Life
Yeun married photographer Joana Park in December of 2016. They have two children and live together in Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles, he has invested in his younger brother’s Korean-Mediterranean fusion restaurant, The Bun Shop, in the Koreatown neighborhood.
Yeun is a Detroit Pistons and Detroit Red Wings fan. He has also endorsed Andrew Yang for President of the United States in the 2020 election.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Steven Yeun Speak Korean Well?
Unlike many Asian immigrants his age, Yeun had always responded to his parents in English when they spoke in their native language. He was already fluent, but Lee wanted that dissonance fully realized — the Korean character flowing through a famous American body.
Does Steven Yeun appear in Fast & Furious?
The final installment in the Vin Diesel action series, Fast & Furious 10, is a two-part movie he is directing. Additionally, he is working on the third season of HBO’s Max’s Warrior, based on a Bruce Lee story. Additionally, he is executive producing The Endgame on NBC.