Steven Yeun's Real Name: Yeun Sang-Yeop

Quick answer: Steven Yeun's documented original name is Yeun Sang-Yeop. Encyclopaedia Britannica records that he was born on December 21, 1983, in Seoul, South Korea, and that he is an actor who rose to fame as Glenn Rhee on The Walking Dead and later earned an Academy Award nomination for Minari (2020) and an Emmy and a Golden Globe for Beef (2023) (Britannica).

Real name and early life

The Library of Congress heading is "Yeun, Steven," with variants including "Yeun, Sang-yeop" and Korean-script forms. Britannica says he was born Yeun Sang-Yeop in Seoul to parents Yeun June and Yeun Je. The family left South Korea in 1988, when he was four, spent a year in Saskatchewan, Canada, then lived in Taylor, Michigan, before settling in Troy, a Detroit suburb. His parents owned a beauty-supply store in downtown Detroit, where he worked as a youth. After graduating from Troy High School in 2001, he attended Kalamazoo College as a psychology major and premed student, hoping to become a physician. A college friend introduced him to the improv team Monkapult; after an unsuccessful first audition and an acting class, he made the team. He graduated in 2005 and moved to Chicago, training at The Second City and later performing with its touring company.

Career highlights

In 2009 he moved to Los Angeles. Britannica says his parents were initially upset that he was forgoing medical school but gave him two years to try acting; within six months he was cast as supply runner Glenn Rhee on The Walking Dead. He performed on the series from 2010 to 2016. Film work followed in Mayhem (2017), Bong Joon Ho's Okja (2017), Sorry to Bother You (2018), and Lee Chang-dong's Burning (2018). In 2020 he starred as Jacob Yi in Lee Isaac Chung's Minari, earning an Academy Award nomination. In 2024 he won an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for best actor in a limited series for Beef (2023), as revenge-driven contractor Danny Cho. Britannica describes his screen work as empathetic, slow-burn performances that often explore shame, rage, and masculine pride, a quality already visible in Minari and sharpened in the dark comedy of Beef.

Name notes for searchers

Yeun Sang-Yeop is the documented original name; he is known professionally as Steven Yeun. Romanization of the Korean name varies slightly across catalogs (Sang-yeop, Sang-yŏp). Searchers looking for Glenn Rhee or the star of Minari and Beef are usually aiming at the same person.