Yeo Yann Yann's award-winning acting roles

Writer: Florey DM

Yeo Yann Yann has won various accolades in her more than 20 years of acting career.

The 48th International Emmy Awards is taking place on 23 November 2020, set to be streamed live on the International Academy's website.

This year, Singapore-based Malaysian actress Yeo Yann Yann is among the nominees under the Best Performance By An Actress category, having been nominated for her role in HBO Asia's "Invisible Stories". Yeo will be going up against Emma Bading ("Play"), Andrea Beltrão ("Hebe"), and Glenda Jackson ("Elizabeth is Missing").

First up, we take a look at Yeo's most recent nomination. Though she hasn't won at the International Emmy Awards yet, it already feels like a win to her fans as she sure makes the nation proud just by getting nominated at the prestigious American award that recognises excellence in the TV industry outside the US. In "Invisible Stories", Yeo plays Lian, a single mother who struggles to take care of her 19-year-old autistic son (Devin Pan).

Just last year, Yeo nabbed a Best Leading Actress award at the 56th Golden Horse Awards for her role in "Wet Season". In the Anthony Chen-directed film, she stars as Ling, a teacher at a secondary school who has been trying to conceive a child for years. She then begins to form a very close and unhealthy relationship with one of her students, Wei Lun (Koh Jia Ler). For this role, Yeo was also nominated for Best Actress at the 14th Asian Film Awards but lost the accolade to "Better Days" star Zhou Dongyu. This movie was selected as Singapore's entry for the 93rd Academy Awards' Best International Feature Film category.

Six years before the abovementioned movie, both Yeo and Koh also starred together in another drama film by Anthony Chen. Titled "Ilo Ilo" in English (the Chinese title translates to "Mom and Dad Are Not Home"), this one paired them up not as lovers, but as mother and son. Yeo plays Hwee Leng, the mother of Koh's 10-year-old delinquent character, Jiale. Yeo's role in the movie earned her several Best Supporting Actress accolades, including one from the 50th Golden Horse Awards, as well as several Best Actress awards, which includes one from the Dubai International Film Festival 2013. With the nominations and wins that the movie had garnered from various film festivals, it's no surprise that this was also selected as Singapore's entry for the Oscars, though it didn't manage to secure a nomination at the 86th Academy Awards' Best Foreign Language Film race.

In this 2011 comedy series by ntv7 and Dreamteam Studios, Yeo plays a shoulder pad-wearing character named Lucky Jie. Why the shoulder pads? Because that's the fashion trend of the '80s and this show follows Adrian Chen Kai Xuan's character, Ke Junxiong, who can travel back in time to that decade. Yeo's role won her the Best Supporting Actress accolade at the 2012 Golden Awards, an awards ceremony by ntv7 that recognises excellence in the Malaysian Chinese TV industry.

Prior to her 2012 win, Yeo also won another Golden Awards accolade. At the 2010 edition of the awards ceremony, she nabbed the Best Actress accolade for her starring role in "The Iron Lady". The series, produced by ntv7 and Double Vision, focuses on how one woman went against the norm in traditional Chinese families, where girls are expected to only be dutiful and not question their position in life. Yeo earned her win playing the character Gao Shi Qin.

(Photo source: Associated Press)