Poh Ling Yeow Biography – Poh Ling Yeow Wiki
Poh Ling Yeow is a Malaysian-born Australian cook, artist, actress, author, and television presenter living in Adelaide. After her college studies, she worked as a graphic designer, illustrator, and makeup artist. Her corporate clients as a makeup artist included L’Oréal and Attitude magazine, the Australian String Quartet, and the short film My Last Ten Hours With You. Her personal clients included Megan Gale and Lisa Ho. Freelance work as a makeup artist led to her preparing models for artist David Bromley, increasing her understanding of the art market. She has acknowledged that she posed as a nude model for Bromley. She adopted the Western first name Sharon until age 25 but changed it back to Poh Ling as a part of embracing her cultural heritage. She became a full-time professional artist in 2002.
As an artist, Yeow works mainly with acrylic paint on canvas. Her early works featured heavily textured backgrounds whereas recent works present a smoother, more refined, and highly detailed finish. Elements of her Chinese heritage feature in her work, including the goldfish, a symbol of prosperity and good luck in Chinese culture. A recurring character in her work is one that she calls The Girl, who she refers to in the third person, although the character’s facial features are clearly similar to Yeow’s. She says “I guess [The Girl] was developed as a cathartic act, in terms of embracing everything that I did hate about myself physically: the broad nose, the Asian eyes, the broad face”.
A further theme behind her body of work was Yeow’s split with her partner of 10 years, with titles including “Was That the Last Goodbye?” and “You Haven’t Left and I Miss You Already”. Her Mermaid series, with The Girl’s clothes fashioned from goldfish scales and fins, is about losing your identity and taking on your partner’s.In 2003, Yeow donated artwork to raise funds for breast cancer research at Flinders Medical Centre. She was also a judge for Youthscape 2008.
Since her first solo exhibition in 2002, she has been a regular exhibitor at the Hill Smith Gallery. She has also appeared regularly at Libby Edwards Gallery. Her work has been featured or critically reviewed in publications such as Vogue Australia, House & Garden, The Advertiser, and MX. In 2007, her artwork was used on the cover of the book The Chinese Exotic by Olivia Khoo. In 2009, Yeow appeared in a glamour shoot for the Who magazine. In 2018, she was the subject of a lengthy radio interview with Richard Fidler on Conversations.
She was initially featured on the ABC television program Beat the Chef on April 13, 2005. Her auntie Kim Thoo assisted her in the studio kitchen, where she prepared Ying Yang Prawns. She returned to the program on June 15, 2005, assisted by her friend Felicity Electricity. This time she prepared Basil Thai Fried Rice and Deep-Fried Dory Fillets with Green Mango. She was selected in the top 20 contestants for the first series of MasterChef Australia from over 7000 applicants. Competition and eliminations started in May 2009. Yeow was eliminated on June 18, 2009, when she incorrectly guessed the ingredients in the minestrone. She was one of three eliminated contestants allowed to return to the program on July 1, 2009. She survived further eliminations to compete in the final on July 19, 2009, against Julie Goodwin. Goodwin won the final, with Yeow runner-up. In 2019, Yeow returned to MasterChef Australia as a mentor, sharing the position with season eight runner-up Matt Sinclair and season seven winner Billie McKay. In 2020, she returned to MasterChef Australia as a contestant in Back to Win and placed 6th.
She appeared with Matt Preston in the World Chef Showcase in October 2009. She signed with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for a cooking series (Poh’s Kitchen) and a two-book publishing deal with ABC Books. The production of the series started in November 2009 in her hometown of Adelaide. The series was aired from February 10, 2010. She was nominated for the Logie Awards of 2011 in the category of Most Popular New Female Talent. In 2011, ABC broadcast the second season of Poh’s Kitchen, entitled Poh’s Kitchen on the Road. Yeow traveled to all Australian states, as well as Singapore and Thailand, to film stories on produce and cooking. A third season premiered on September 11, 2012.
In 2015, she launched a new series, Poh & Co., on SBS. It features various styles of cooking, and also the renovation of Yeow’s backyard.
She opened a gourmet food stall, Jamface by Poh, at the Adelaide Showground Farmers’ Market. In 2016 she opened a cafe at Adelaide Central Market, also named Jamface by Poh. It closed on October 15, 2019.
She has appeared in four films: Human Touch (2004), Peaches (2004), Hey, Hey, It’s Esther Blueburger (2008), and the Tropfest short film Jackie’s Spring Palace (2009). She is also credited as the production designer of Jackie’s Spring Palace. Aside from her cooking programs, she had substantial roles in Room 101, Can of Worms, and Reality Check. She appeared in the 2013 ABC comedy series It’s a Date, along with Dave Lawson. Yeow said, “I’ve always just followed what I’ve enjoyed doing … in all areas of creativity.” In late 2021, Yeow appeared as one of the hosts of the Australian version of Snackmasters. From January 3, 2022, Yeow appeared in the eighth season of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!. Yeow attended SMK Convent Bukit Nanas. After attending Seymour College and then the University of South Australia (where she earned a Bachelor of Design degree), she worked as a graphic designer, illustrator, and makeup artist.
Poh Ling Yeow Age
She was born in 1973 in Ampang Jaya, Malaysia.
Poh Ling Yeow Husband
She was married to her former husband, Jonathan Bennett from 2014 until 2021 when the couple divorced. The two met in MasterChef. Prior to that, she had been first married to Matt Phipps but they also divorced.
Poh Ling Yeow Family
Her mother is Christina Yeow. She was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, into a fifth-generation Malaysian Chinese family, and her mother is of Hakka descent. She immigrated to Australia at age 9 with her parents and brother named Casper eventually settling in Adelaide, South Australia.
Poh Ling Yeow Nationality
She is of Malaysian nationality but bears Australian citizenship.
Poh Ling Yeow Instagram
Her Instagram handle is @pohlingyeow.
