Grey's Anatomy
THURSDAYS 9|8c
Cristina Yang

Cristina Yang

Played by Sandra Oh

POSITION:
Fellow (Cardio)

STRENGTHS:
Competitive; ambitious; intelligent; always speaks her mind.

WEAKNESSES:
Bossy; aggressive; questionable bedside manner; tactless.

Previous Quote

"I'm painting Burke's apartment. So I can stop calling it Burke's apartment. A happy color. Red, like blood." - Cristina Yang

Next Quote
Prev
  • Meredith Grey to Cristina:

    "Just put one foot in front of the other. Just get through the day."

  • Owen Hunt to Cristina:

    "We can do this. Just meet me halfway. All you have to do is say yes."

  • Owen Hunt to Cristina:

    "They're all three words, so I can have something to say to you instead of the three words that are killing me. The three words that you know I feel but I can't say them because it would be cruel to say them because I am no good for you."

  • Owen Hunt to Cristina:

    "You're the only one that sees me."

  • Owen Hunt to Cristina:

    "Forty years from now, I'm going to have to pry that scalpel out of your hand, too."

  • Meredith Grey to Cristina:

    "You can do this. No matter what, you're going down that aisle today."

  • Derek Shepherd about Cristina:

    "Yang is bartending. Do you know how disturbing that is?"

  • to Cristina:

    "You either get in the game or I tell Richard it's time to send you home."

  • Meredith Grey about Cristina:

    "I know Cristina Yang. And she needs to work. Because surgery is who we are."

  • to Cristina:

    "Congratulations, you were a doctor today."

  • Owen Hunt about Cristina and Meredith:

    "I thought they were friends."

  • Meredith Grey about Cristina:

    "She'd turn the music up really loud and make me dance it out with her."

  • Owen Hunt to Cristina:

    "You're comparing the merger to the Holocaust??"

  • to Cristina:

    "I really admire you. In case I don't get the chance to tell you. And you're really pretty."

Next

Character Bio

LIKES:
Assisting on unusual, hardcore surgeries

DISLIKES:
Hugs; being told what to do; and losing (at anything!)

NOTABLE RELATIONSHIPS:
Cristina is the first to admit she doesn't really 'do' relationships—never mind do them well. Nonetheless, Cristina is married to Dr. Owen Hunt. Past relations have included cardio-gods Preston Burke and Colin Marlowe. Recently, her marriage to Owen took a hard turn when Cristina discovered Owen had cheated on her following her decision to abort their child.

FAMILY:
Cristina has a love/hate relationship with her mother who, in Cristina's eyes, is caring but annoying. Her father has passed away. She is the Godmother to Meredith and Derek's baby girl, Zola.

OTHER:
During the shootings, Cristina operated on Dr. Derek Shepherd's heart with Gary Clark's gun pressed to her head. She also witnessed her boyfriend (now husband), Dr. Owen Hunt, take a bullet to his shoulder. However, the harrowing experience fueled her commitment to cardio. Cristina spent her fifth year as a resident studying under Teddy Altman. Her stellar reputation earned her countless fellowship offers from competing hospitals, leaving Cristina unsure of where to continue her professional career. Most recently, Cristina was in a plane crash, stranded with the woods alongside her friends, suffering from a dislocated shoulder—details of which have yet to unfold.

   Give me more»

Actor Bio

Her character on Grey’s Anatomy is competitive as hell, but, based on her glowing resume, we suspect she is just as gung ho in real life.

Yes, it shows…

Born and raised in Ottawa, Canada, Sandra Oh started ballet lessons at the age of four and performed in her first play, The Canada Goose, at the age of ten. She started working professionally at age sixteen in television, theatre and commercials.

After three years at the prestigious National Theatre School of Canada, she beat out more than 1000 other hopefuls and landed the coveted title role in the CBC telefilm, The Diary of Evelyn Lau, based on the true story of a tortured poet who ran away from home and ended up a drug addict and prostitute in Vancouver. Her performance brought her a Gemini (Canada's Emmy) nomination and the 1994 Cannes FIPA d'Or for Best Actress.

Oh won her first Genie (Canada's Oscar) for her leading role in Double Happiness, a bittersweet coming-of-age story about a young Chinese-Canadian woman. She moved to Los Angeles in 1996 to begin the first of six seasons as Rita Wu, the smart and sassy assistant on the HBO comedy series, Arli$$, for which she won a Cable Ace Award for Best Actress in a Comedy. Additional television credits include HBO's Six Feet Under and Showtime's Further Tales of the City. She has been nominated for multiple Emmy Awards and won a Golden Globe Award (Best Actress in a Supporting Role), a Screen Actors Guild Award (Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series) and a Diversity Award (2005 Creative Liberty Award) for her portrayal of Cristina on Grey's Anatomy.

On the big screen Oh can be seen in the films The Night Listener, 3 Needles and For Your Consideration. She starred in Sideways (for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture), Hard Candy and Sorry Haters. Other feature films include Under the Tuscan Sun with Diane Lane, Dancing at the Blue Iguana, Rick, Bean, Guinevere, The Red Violin, Waking the Dead, The Princess Diaries, Pay or Play and Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity. For Last Night, a Canadian film about the end of the world, Oh won her second Genie Award for Best Actress.

In 2006 Oh starred in the play Satellites at New York's Public Theater for playwright Diana Son, and received both Drama Desk and Drama League nominations for her performance. She starred additionally in the world premieres of Son's Stop Kiss, for which she received a Theatre World Award, and Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters at the La Jolla Playhouse. She was also seen in The Vagina Monologues in New York.

Oh resides in Los Angeles.

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