In 1993, Sandra Oh, who plays the eponymous MI6 agent in the hit TV show Killing Eve, went to the cinema to see The Joy Luck Club. Wayne Wang’s film about four Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-born daughters had a big impact on the young Canadian-Korean actor. An adaptation of Amy Tan’s 1989 novel, it left her “shuddering, weeping … weeping more than really the film deserved”, Oh has recalled, so emotional was she about finally watching the experience of Asian immigrants on the screen.

Later today, Oh’s place in the entertainment industry is to be recognised twice over, as she co-hosts the Golden Globe awards at a Beverly Hills ceremony in which she is also the first Asian nominee for “best actress in a drama series”.

According to Owen McDonnell, the Irish actor who plays Oh’s husband in Killing Eve, she is the perfect choice as compere. “Sandra is a great champion of actors,” McDonnell said. “She believes we need to be consulted, just like the art department. We need to have a voice and, if we have done our work, that we can really help.”

At 47, Oh already has one Globe, for her longstanding role in the medical show Grey’s Anatomy, but the chance to present the 76th awards alongside comedian Andy Samberg with an estimated audience of 19 million is a significant coup. And if she fails to put a cherry on the cake by winning the acting award – over Elisabeth Moss from The Handmaid’s Tale, The Crown’s Claire Foy and Westworld’s Evan Rachel Wood, Samberg has a plan. “I’m going to make you a crappy little tinfoil fake Globe, just in case you don’t win, and I’m going to bring it out and give it to you and be like, ‘You’re always a winner to me’,” he has said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sandra Oh with co-host Andy Samberg. Photograph: NBC/Getty Images

Broadcaster NBC was looking for an eyecatching duo to launch its new deal to cover the ceremony, so the choice of Oh reflects the continued “surprise factor” that comes with being an Asian star. Oh describes her selection as “crazy-pants in a great way”, and admits she is terrified. She agreed to do it, she told Hollywood Reporter, to point to real change: “I want to focus on that, ’cause people can pooh-pooh Hollywood all they want – and there is a lot to pooh-pooh, sure – but we also make culture. How many gazillions of people have seen Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians? That changes things.”

Oh suspects that, like many others in her Asian-descended community, she has been in denial about a personal burden of “so much grief” that comes from not being portrayed on screen. And in the 25 years since The Joy Luck Club, the shift towards diverse casting has been slow. “There aren’t enough – not anywhere near – Asian-American faces up there to represent our population,” Oh says.

The actor had low expectations when BBC America sent her the screenplay for Killing Eve and didn’t guess she was up for a lead role “[I remember] quickly scrolling through my phone, trying to find my part, and I’m talking to my agent like, ‘I don’t get it. What’s the part?’.”

Born in Nepean, a small town outside Ottawa, Oh is the middle child of strict, high-achieving parents who had come to North America after the Korean war. Her father is an economist and her mother a biochemist, while her older sister is now an attorney and her brother a medical geneticist. She remembers a “typical Korean upbringing” with “lots of church, lots of golf”.

Entering Canadian showbusiness on a low rung, Oh was aided, she now recognises, by a “mandate for diversity”. “I ticked all their boxes,” she has said. “You could always feel that you were the quota … But I benefited a lot and took it with the correct outlook, which is just that I’m going to gain as much experience as I can and I will transform it in the way I want to transform it.”

A lead part in the 1994 film Double Happiness helped establish her in Canada, but it was playing Cristina Yang in ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy for 10 seasons that set her up with a vociferous fan base. When she left Seattle Grace Mercy West hospital for ever in 2014 many viewers groaned with pain.

Her role in Alexander Payne’s 2004 film Sideways had been crucial to its success. As biker Stephanie, she has one notably violent outburst, and was encouraged by Payne, her then husband, to call on all her suppressed Korean anger.

Last year as Eve, an everyday MI6 operative and assassin hunter, Oh became an international celebrity. She initially signed up, she has said, because she liked the idea of playing a woman “who is undone” yet “the undoing gives her life”. Devotees now eagerly await a second series in the spring, this time scripted by actor-writer Emerald Fennell.

The show is based on the novellas of Luke Jennings, the Observer’s recently departed dance critic, and he is delighted with Oh’s performance. “Eve is a difficult role. She has to be completely and relatably ordinary, she has to be funny, and she has to be alluring, all at the same time. Sandra carries this off stylishly and apparently effortlessly because, as an actor, she’s without ego,” he said this weekend. “She’ll be almost invisible, and then she’ll throw a switch and illuminate.”

On set, co-star Fiona Shaw has characterised Oh as “fantastically focused on the craft of the thing”, while McDonnell praises her determination to make each scene work. “She is very collaborative and didn’t come to it with an agenda,” he says. “We thought it out together. There was no blocking of my ideas. We created a couple who are very tight but starting to fail each other slightly because of the different things they are doing.”

Whatever happens tonight, Oh will need fresh ways to cope with the Hollywood hoopla – something she has always quietly avoided. Although she is believed to be dating Russian-born artist Lev Rukhin, she took her parents to the Emmy awards last summer. She is also unlikely to read this: she steers clear of her own press in an effort to stay real. “While rationally you might know it’s ridiculous, it can hurt your feelings. It can knock me off from being my authentic self,” she has said.

1971 Born in Nepean, Ontario, Oh learns to dance before moving into acting

1994 Stars in Canadian film Double Happiness

2004 A role in Sideways showcases her skill

2005 Begins 10 seasons of TV’s Grey’s Anatomy, playing surgeon Cristina Yang

2018

Sharing top billing with Jodie Comer in Killing Eve, Oh becomes the UK’s favourite secret agent

2019

Co-host of the Golden Globes with Andy Samberg