Steven Yeun /ˈjʌn/ (Korean: 연상엽; born Yeun Sang-yeop, December 21, 1983 in Seoul) is a Korean-American actor. He is best known for his role as Glenn Rhee on AMC's horror drama television series The Walking Dead. Yeun has also appeared in many short and feature films, and has done video game and cartoon voiceovers. He is fluent in both English and Korean and starred in the Korean film Burning. In 2021, he became the first Asian-American in history to be nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards, for his lead role in Minari.
He appeared in:
Film - Animation
Film - Live-Action
- Okja as K
- Mayhem as Derek Cho
- Sorry to Bother You as Squeeze
- Burning (2018) as Ben
- Minari as Jacob Yi
- The Humans as Richard
- Nope as Ricky “Jupe” Park
Live-Action TV
- The Big Bang Theory as Sebastian
- Comedy Bang! Bang! as Himself
- Conan as Himself
- Drunk History as Daniel Inouye
- Law & Order: LA as Ken Hasui
- The Twilight Zone (2019) in "A Traveler" as the Traveler.
- The Walking Dead as Glenn Rhee
- Warehouse 13 as Gibson Rice
- Beef as Danny Cho
Video Game
- Crysis as Korean Soldier 2
Western Animation
- American Dad! as Charles
- The Legend of Korra as Avatar Wan
- Robot Chicken as Glenn Rhee/Glenn's Baby
- Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters as Nathan Park/Wingspan
- Tales of Arcadia as Steve Palchuk
- Voltron: Legendary Defender as Keith
- Final Space as Little Cato
- Tuca & Bertie as Speckle
- Invincible (2021) as Mark Grayson/Invincible
Tropes
- Adored by the Network: Several of his post-The Walking Dead works are all from Netflix.
- Promoted Fanboy: He was a fan of The Walking Dead comics way before he was cast in the Live-Action Adaptation.
- Star-Making Role:
- He was part of the cast of the phenomenally popular TV show, The Walking Dead, and was one of its longest running cast members to boot.
- When it comes to voice acting, it's Avatar Wan.
- Stop Being Stereotypical: On a 2019 Wired Auto-Complete interview for Sorry to Bother You, he mentions that getting mistaken for playing most Asian roles on television is a problem for him when his search bar lists his perceived filmography roles, including a question about if he starred in the Indiana Jones films.note
- Tom Hanks Syndrome: Due to the nature of his breakout role, one would probably be surprised to learn that his main training is for comedy. That said, his character had his fair share of funny moments.
