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Academy Award-winning actress Michelle Yeoh will serve as Harvard Law School’s 2023 Class Day speaker, the school announced Wednesday.
Harvard Medical School also revealed that its Class Day speaker would be Emmy Award-winning neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta in a March 17 press release. The Medical School’s Class Day events take place on May 25, after Commencement concludes.
The Law School’s Class Day festivities, which will take place on May 24 — one day before Commencement — seek to celebrate the graduating class. The day will feature awards and speeches, including Yeoh’s keynote address.
Yeoh, originally from Malaysia, began her acting career in Hong Kong, taking roles in a number of action and martial arts films. She later moved to the United States, receiving critical acclaim for her work — which includes lead roles in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
She garnered an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” marking the first time the honor went to an Asian actress.
Outside of her acting work, Yeoh has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations since 2016, advocating for causes including ending poverty and promoting environmental sustainability. Yeoh also serves as the vice president of the board of the Suu Foundation, which works to improve the lives of people in Myanmar.
Yeoh found the invitation especially “meaningful” because her father was a lawyer, according to a Law School press release.
“It is a tremendous honour to speak at Harvard Law School’s 2023 Class Day,” Yeoh said in the statement.
Harvard Law School Dean of Students Stephen L. Ball and the Law School’s class marshals announced the news in an email to graduating students.
“We are thrilled to welcome Michelle Yeoh to campus to celebrate our commencement and help us mark this important milestone,” they wrote. “As an acclaimed actress and advocate for so many important causes, she will undoubtedly inspire us, the Class of 2023, as we prepare to make a difference in our world and in peoples’ lives.”
Gupta, who will be the Medical School’s Class Day speaker, is CNN’s chief medical correspondent and an associate of neurosurgery in Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital. He has won multiple Emmy Awards for his work hosting “Sanjay Gupta MD” and reporting on Charity Hospital in New Orleans amid Hurricane Katrina.
Gupta also reported on the first surgical operation on the battlefield during the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and also joined the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division in 2009 while it performed rescue missions in Afghanistan.
In a Medical School press release, Gupta said he was “thrilled and honored” to give the Class Day address for “future leaders in health care.”
“As it has been 30 years since my own medical school graduation, I will humbly offer some of the lessons I have learned over that time,” he said in the press release.
—Staff writer Jo B. Lemann can be reached at jo.lemann@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jo_Lemann.
—Staff writer Neil H. Shah can be reached at neil.shah@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @neilhshah15.
