Sook-Yin Lee

Infobox actor
name = Sook-Yin Lee


caption = Sook-Yin Lee with co-star Jay Brannan (left) on the set of the movie "Shortbus"
birthdate =
birthplace = Vancouver, British Columbia

Sook-Yin Lee is a Canadian musician, filmmaker, actress and media personality.

Background

Lee grew up in a Vancouver suburb with first-generation Chinese-Canadian parents. [cite web |last=MacPhee|first=Hayley |date=2003-02-17 |url=http://www.peak.sfu.ca/the-peak/2003-1/issue7/ar-sookyin.html|title= profile: Sook-Yin Lee - Definitely more than a VJ |work=The Fulcrum |accessdate=2008-08-23] In the 1990s, she became the lead singer for Bob's Your Uncle, a Vancouver alternative rock band. Lee often incorporated performance art techniques into the band's melodic rock. When that band broke up, Lee pursued a solo music career, releasing several solo albums and performing as an actor in theatre, film and television projects. She is now a singer for the band Slan. [cite web |last=Sumi |first=Glenn |date=2006-08-31 |url=http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2006-08-31/cover_story.php |title=Sook-Yin Lee (profile) |work=nowtoronto.com |accessdate=2006-08-31] Neko Case covered Lee's song "Knock Loud" on her 2001 EP "Canadian Amp".

MuchMusic and CBC

In 1995, Lee became a VJ for MuchMusic, bringing her theatrical and musical background and her unique creative perspective to the channel. She was best known as the host of MuchMusic's alternative music show, "The Wedge". (Now a weekly show, "The Wedge" was a daily series when Lee hosted.)

Lee has come out as bisexual. In 1995, the day that sexual orientation was added to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by the Supreme Court of Canada, Lee celebrated the decision by kissing a woman on the air. [cite web |last=Sheppard |first=Denise |date=2001-10-30 |url=http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Artists/L/Lee_Sookyin/2001/10/30/746897.html |title=VJ looks back on her MuchMusic days |work=canoe.ca |accessdate=2007-03-11] She later appeared on the cover of "Xtra!" in 1997.

She left MuchMusic in 2001. During her last appearance as a MuchMusic VJ, Lee and her co-host turned their backs to the camera, and mooned the audience on live television. [cite web |url=http://www.vancourier.com/122101/entertainment/122101en4.html |date=2001-12-10 |accessdate=2007-10-22 |first=Fiona |last=Hughes |work=Vancouver Courier |archivedate=2004-01-15 |title=The art of Sook-Yin Lee |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20040115120933/http://www.vancourier.com/122101/entertainment/122101en4.html] The following year, she was named as the new host of CBC Radio One's Saturday afternoon pop culture magazine, "Definitely Not the Opera".

Shortbus controversy

In 2003, she became the centre of controversy when the CBC threatened to fire her for taking a lead role in John Cameron Mitchell's sexually explicit film "Shortbus" (released 2006), in which she performs intercourse and masturbation on screen. When their position proved unpopular with the public, [cite web|url=http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/arts/story.html?id=9b153b3a-46b2-424f-aea1-ab780e7cfd4d|title=Sook-Yin Lee's film debut definitely not CBC fare|last=Stone|first=Jay|date=2006-05-22|publisher=The Ottawa Citizen |accessdate=2006-07-24] and celebrities such as director Francis Ford Coppola, R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, actress Julianne Moore and artist and musician Yoko Ono rallied behind her, the CBC backed down. [cite web|url=http://www.macleans.ca/culture/lifestyle/article.jsp?content=20060605_128191_128191|title=Sook-Yin Lee shocker in Cannes|last=Johnson|first=Brian D.|date=2006-06-02|publisher=Macleans.com|accessdate=2007-04-14] In 2007, Lee was subsequently honored for her work on "Shortbus" with a Best Supporting Actress award from the International Cinephile Society.

In the fall of 2004 she produced and hosted a documentary celebrating Terry Fox, as part of the CBC Television series "The Greatest Canadian". Fox finished second in the voting to Tommy Douglas, whose advocate was another ex-MuchMusic VJ, George Stroumboulopoulos.

References

External links

* [http://www.cbc.ca/dnto/host.html Sook-Yin Lee's profile as host of DNTO at CBC]
* [http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/35483 Article on Sook-Yin Lee] on DigitalJournal.com
* [http://www.peak.sfu.ca/the-peak/2003-1/issue7/ar-sookyin.html Canadian University Press article from 2003 shortly after Sook-Yin Lee began hosting DNTO]
*imdb name|id=0498271|name=Sook-Yin Lee
* [http://www.torontolife.com/insiders-guide-film-festival/features/sook-yin-lee/ Toronto Life] - Interview with Lee about Shortbus
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A17772843 BBC Collective] Shortbus feature including Sook-Yin Lee video interview
* [http://www.tokyowrestling.com/articles_eg/2007/10/shortbus1.html Sook-Yin Lee Interview]

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Filmography
-
style="font-size: 90%;" |"Green Dolphin Beat" (1994) | "Bad Company" (1995) | "Sliders" (1995, TV series) | "Boy Meets Girl" (1998) | "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" (2001) | "The Art of Woo" (2001) | "3 Needles" (2005) | "Shortbus" (2006)

Persondata
NAME = Lee, Sook-Yin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Canadian actress
DATE OF BIRTH = missing
PLACE OF BIRTH = Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
DATE OF DEATH =
PLACE OF DEATH =