Film & TV
Steven Yeun
born 1983 · actor, producer
Seoul-born actor raised in Taylor and Troy, Michigan, a Troy High School graduate who became Glenn in The Walking Dead and an Oscar nominee for Minari.
- Born
Seoul, South Korea
age 42- Birth name
- Yeun Sang-yeop
- Detroit years
- 1980s–2001
- Field
- Film & TV
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Yeun was born in Seoul, and his family emigrated when he was a small child, settling first in Taylor, Michigan, and then in Troy, a Detroit suburb, where he lived until he graduated from Troy High School in 2001. His parents ran beauty-supply stores in Detroit, and he grew up a devoted fan of the Pistons and the Red Wings. He went on to Kalamazoo College, where an improv show pulled him toward comedy, and followed that path to Chicago's Second City. Television fame came as Glenn Rhee, the pizza-delivery boy turned survivor, in The Walking Dead from 2010 to 2016. His film work includes Burning, Okja, Sorry to Bother You and Nope, and Minari (2020) made him the first East Asian American nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. For the Netflix series Beef (2023), which he also produced, he won Emmy Awards as lead actor and producer.
Highlights
- Grew up in Taylor and Troy; graduated from Troy High School in 2001
- Played Glenn Rhee in The Walking Dead (2010–2016)
- First East Asian American nominated for the Best Actor Oscar (Minari, 2020)
- Two Primetime Emmys for Beef (2023), as lead actor and producer
- Named to Time's 100 most influential people in 2021
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1997–2001
Troy High School
The public high school in Troy from which Yeun graduated in 2001.