Jean Yoon is a playwright and actress born in Illinois and raised in Toronto. Jean has lived and worked in Vancouver, Edmonton, Harbin City and Yanji City in North Eastern China and makes her home in Toronto. Jean began her career in Toronto in the early 1980s performing with now long gone companies such as Upstage Theatre, Toronto Free Theatre and Canasian Artists Group. In the 1990s, Jean was active as a cultural equity advocate and new play producer. She was Cross Cultural Coordinator for Theatre Ontario 1991/92, and then Co-Artistic Director of Cahoots Theatre Projects 1992 to early 1994, founding Lift Off! and cementing Cahoots role as a leader in new play development for playwrights of diverse cultures.