The Walking Dead
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In the 2000s, very few shows have found the type of success on cable television like “The Walking Dead”. The series has used a large range of cast members during its long run, with some of the characters being more popular than the rest. Among the most beloved characters was Glenn Rhee, who was played by Steven Yeun for several years. Now with the series behind him, Yeun has continued his acting career in both film and television.
Yeun comes from South Korea, and was born on December 21, 1983 in the capital city of Seoul. Yeun’s family moved to Canada when he was a few years old, but then made their way to the United States. The Yeuns settled in the Detroit area, where the actor finished his school years. Yeun then remained in the state to continue his education, heading to the west side to attend Kalamazoo College where he earned a psychology bachelor’s degree while also beginning to pursue acting. Yeun moved to Chicago and started improv classes which kicked off his career.
Yeun’s parents had paid for his entire college, which allowed him to pursue acting without taking on a massive debt, especially from a private school like Kalamazoo College. Originally, Yeun’s parents had different plans for his life. “Well, my parents originally wanted me to become a doctor - that’s why I was in school,” he said. “I was pre-med, and I graduated with a degree in psychology and a concentration in neuroscience. Really, the plan was for me to go to med school,” but acting took hold.
Yeun’s first role came in 2009 with a short film called “The Kari Files”, and he also added an independent film called “My Name is Jerry”. The following year, Yeun added two more short films, but the big news from that year was when he landed that role in “The Walking Dead”. Not every actor’s job is going to be guaranteed in a show about zombies where many of the characters have met their demise, though.
Glenn became one of the longest-lasting characters on the series. They had teased his character’s death on multiple occasions, which threw fans for a loop. In 2016, however, it was the end of the line for Glenn. Many who have stopped watching the series point at that moment as when they stopped watching. Overall, Yeun appeared in nearly 70 episodes of the AMC hit.
“I always had a desire to just (go) deeper, bigger, wider,” he said of wrapping up the show. “Just grow. I felt like my time on that show was done, and that was what was so nice about the timing of it all. It wasn’t that I wanted to leave and it wasn’t that they wanted me to leave. We all were just like, ‘It’s done! This is great!’ It was such a nice easy collective decision.”
During the time that Yeun was on “The Walking Dead”, he had made guest appearances in several other shows. This included “Law and Order: LA” and “Warehouse 13”. He also added films with “I Origins” and “Like a French Film”. With “The Walking Dead” role over, Yeun got into voice work, as well. He added voices for the animated shows “Voltron: Legendary Defender”, “Trollhunters” and “Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters”.
There have been several more projects with Yeun lending his voice, suggesting that his career in voice acting will be a long one. Most recently, he’s also added live appearances in shows like “Weird City” and “The Twilight Zone”. He’s had recent films, too, including “Mayhem”, “Okja” and “Burning” and he will star in the upcoming film “Minari”.
Making the transition from “The Walking Dead” and into smaller independent films (including ones made in Korea) has been an interesting one. “I guess it kind of all comes together at a specific time for me,” Yeun said. “I got to do seven years of (‘The Walking Dead’) and I really build more confidence and get the reps in, and after I left I was very fortunate to have each project stretch me just a little bit more and more.”
Yeun knows that there’s been a transformation in his career and he’s become a highly regarded actor. “I reverse-engineered my understanding of acting; it’s become more cerebral over time,” he said. “Earlier on, it was just me just projecting and emoting and doing whatever I could. I didn’t have a grasp on the cerebral - I was chasing images, or ideas of what a person does in various situations.”
“Now that I’ve studied a little bit and understand a little bit more to balance out how I approach acting, i start roles by looking at them very cerebrally at first. But then there’s this great moment where you just build that feeling of faith - to just let go,” Yeun added.
Yeun is a big part of the movement that’s seeing more Asian-American actors being featured as the start of a film. “I don’t have any specific metrics on what is happening. I think the market reacts - money follows money,” he said. “(“Crazy Rich Asians’) opened up a lot of careers for Asian-American who haven’t been seen in America before, which increases the talent pool. It’s just bits and pieces as we go.”
Yeun added that “Sometimes we unfortunately try to conflate multiple different movements together, but for this Asian-American movement, I think we’re headed in the right direction. We just have to take steps to widen the pool of talent. My particular outlook on life and work is just do stuff that means something to me, to try to avoid labels.”
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