Sook-Yin Lee

Acting

Sook-Yin Lee

Place of birth

Vancouver, Canada

Known for

Acting

Credits

44 titles

Sook-Yin Lee (born 1966) is a Toronto-based filmmaker, musician, actor, and broadcaster. Her feature film writer and directorial debut, Year of the Carnivore, starring Cristin Milioti, premiered at TIFF. In 2014, Lee won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance by a Lead Dramatic Actress in Jack. She wrote and performed Unsafe for Canadian Stage, which examined questions of censorship and artistic freedom. She won Best Director and Best Picture at the 2018 Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival for Octavio Is Dead! She is a music recording artist and film score composer, contributing songs to Infinity Pool and Antiviral. Sook-Yin Lee directs and co-writes the live-action movie adaptation o…

Known for

Sliders poster
7.6

In his basement in San Francisco, boy-genius Quinn Mallory unlocks the doorway to an infinite number of Earths. During a test run, Quinn invites co-worker Wade Welles and his teacher Professor Maximillian Arturo to see his new invention. But an increase in power and an early departure leave all three, plus a washed-up soul singer named Rembrandt "Crying Man" Brown, lost in a parallel world. Now they must "slide" from world to world, not only adapting to their changing surroundings, but also trying to get back to their world. Will they ever make it home?

Sliders

1995

Shortbus poster
6.3

In post-9/11 New York City, an eclectic group of citizens find their lives entangled, personally, romantically, and sexually, at Shortbus, an underground Brooklyn salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.

Shortbus

2006

Close to You poster
5.8

A trans man returns to his hometown for the first time in years. On his journey, he confronts his relationship with his family, reunites with a first love, and discovers a newfound confidence in himself.

Close to You

2024

Hedwig and the Angry Inch poster
7.4

Raised a boy in East Berlin, Hedwig undergoes a personal transformation in order to emigrate to the U.S., where she reinvents herself as an 'internationally ignored' but divinely talented rock diva, inhabiting a 'beautiful gender of one'.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

2001

Bad Company poster
5.0

CIA operative Nelson Crowe is tasked with a deadly assignment: infiltrate a highly secret industrial espionage firm. Once inside, he teams with Margaret Wells, a master spy and seductive manipulator, in a plot to overthrow the organization's sinister president, which leads them into a darkly mysterious web of intrigue -- and shocking murder!

Bad Company

1995

Paying for It poster
6.7

In the late 1990s, when Sonny seeks to redefine his long-term relationship with Chester, the painfully introverted cartoonist begins sleeping with sex workers and discovers an unexpected new form of intimacy.

Paying for It

2025

Film credits

2020s · 8 titles

Close to You poster
5.8

A trans man returns to his hometown for the first time in years. On his journey, he confronts his relationship with his family, reunites with a first love, and discovers a newfound confidence in himself.

Close to You

2024

Endless Cookie poster
6.8

Exploring the complex bond between two half brothers — one Indigenous, one white — traveling from the present in isolated Shamattawa to bustling 1980s Toronto.

Endless Cookie

2025

Darkest Miriam poster
6.3

Miriam Gordon lives in a fog of grief while working in a downtown public library branch. When a burgeoning love affair coincides with her receiving a series of oddly threatening letters, Miriam's sheltered existence is cracked open.

Darkest Miriam

2025

Boys Night poster
NR

Todd and Skinny go to Prince Edward Island for a party. Tommy and Liz stay home.

Boys Night

2026

299 Queen Street West poster
5.0

During the rise of the music video era in the 80s, Canada launched "MuchMusic", a low budget TV network that revolutionized how the world's biggest stars connected with their fans and influenced the culture for the next three decades.

299 Queen Street West

2023

A Fermenting Woman poster
6.5

On the brink of getting fired from her restaurant by new owners, visionary chef and master fermenter Marielle Lau (Sook-Yin Lee) develops an incendiary new dish with a bewitching ingredient she’s convinced will save her career.

A Fermenting Woman

2024

Rest and Relax poster
NR

REST AND RELAX is a film oddity about the anxieties of our time made by and starring artist/musicians Sook-Yin Lee and Dylan Gamble. Four stories explore life in the 21st century while surviving capitalism, sickness, and the internet.

Rest and Relax

2024

Death and Sickness. poster
NR

Sook-Yin and Dylan are currently holed up in a house in Toronto capturing what happens on consumer cameras and mobile phones. Death and Sickness is a work of auto-fiction inspired by real-life events.

Death and Sickness.

2020

2010s · 3 titles

No artwork available
7.0

New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton was bilingual, glib, annoying, full of energy and always in front to the media. Growing up in a political family, Layton was a Toronto city councilor for 17 years and was head of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for a year. He became leader of the federal NDP in 2003 and the party became the Official Opposition for the first time in history. Then his health problems began.

Jack

2013

No artwork available
NR

WHISPERS AND SHOULDERS An experimental short directed by Sook-Yin Lee Conceived by JOOJ (Lee & Adam Litovitz) Made from the raw footage of JOOJ's 'Shoulders and Whispers' music video, directed by Brandon Cronenberg & filmed by Karim Hussain, CSC. WHISPERS AND SHOULDERS appropriates and reworks the raw footage of JOOJ's 'Shoulders and Whispers' music video. The video's images are rendered voiceless, with figures adrift in suspended animation for a twenty-six minute hypno-poetic reconstruction that draws upon unused images from the original music video. The initial video, 'Shoulders and Whispers,' is a black-and-white three-minute pop-song artifact designed to grab attention with each shot a fixed duration with a slow left-to-right pan. No shot is ever repeated. It has a forward momentum, unfolding new dynamics and imagery; conversely, WHISPERS AND SHOULDERS embraces repetitiveness in richly-saturated colour.

Whispers and Shoulders

2015

Five Bucks at the Door: The Story of Crocks N Rolls poster
10.0

A documentary discussing the legacy and impact of the famous Crocks N Rolls bar, a music club in Thunder Bay, Ontario that featured many prominent artists throughout the 1980s. Numerous interviewees are profiled, as is the club's legendary founder and owner Frank Loffredo.

Five Bucks at the Door: The Story of Crocks N Rolls

2019

2000s · 7 titles

Shortbus poster
6.3

In post-9/11 New York City, an eclectic group of citizens find their lives entangled, personally, romantically, and sexually, at Shortbus, an underground Brooklyn salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.

Shortbus

2006

Hedwig and the Angry Inch poster
7.4

Raised a boy in East Berlin, Hedwig undergoes a personal transformation in order to emigrate to the U.S., where she reinvents herself as an 'internationally ignored' but divinely talented rock diva, inhabiting a 'beautiful gender of one'.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

2001

Pansy Division: Life in a Gay Rock Band poster
3.8

Undeniably one of the most important and influential gay music acts in the last twenty years, Pansy Division pioneered the "queercore" genre long before other gay musicians had the confidence to come out of the closet, and without major record label support or mainstream radio airplay. Using original and archive footage and covering over fifteen years as a group, Pansy Division: Life in a Gay Rock Band is a fast-paced, intimate and humorous account of one of rock's most fearless acts. From their first days in San Francisco's underground music scene to a full-fledged stadium tour with Green Day and beyond, founding members Jon Ginoli and Chris Freeman overcome increasingly difficult line-up changes, prejudice and near-poverty to keep the band together and create music that has truly made a difference.

Pansy Division: Life in a Gay Rock Band

2008

3 Needles poster
5.9

A three-paneled look at the worldwide AIDS crisis: in Montreal, a porn actor schemes to pass his mandatory blood test; a young nun makes a personal sacrifice for the benefit of a South African village; in rural China, a black market operative posing as a government-sanctioned blood drawer jeopardizes an entire village's safety

3 Needles

2005

Gifted and Challenged: The Making of 'Shortbus' poster
6.5

A look at the unusual process used in the making of the film Shortbus (2006) featuring interviews, behind the scenes footage and clips from the feature film. Director John Cameron Mitchell starts with the concept of using real sex in a film with a positive message. The cast of unknowns is selected from homemade audition tapes and then a callback audition workshop. More acting workshops are used to develop the characters and script. The project overcomes a number of obstacles and the rest of the film's development is followed up until its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

Gifted and Challenged: The Making of 'Shortbus'

2007

Toronto Stories poster
3.5

Various lives intersect over the course of 48 hours in Canada's largest and most culturally diverse city.

Toronto Stories

2008

No artwork available
3.7

Alessa Woo (Lee) is an ambitious art dealer who meets her match in gifted painter Ben Crowchild (Beach) in this romantic comedy.

The Art of Woo

2001

1990s · 5 titles

Bad Company poster
5.0

CIA operative Nelson Crowe is tasked with a deadly assignment: infiltrate a highly secret industrial espionage firm. Once inside, he teams with Margaret Wells, a master spy and seductive manipulator, in a plot to overthrow the organization's sinister president, which leads them into a darkly mysterious web of intrigue -- and shocking murder!

Bad Company

1995

Boy Meets Girl poster
8.0

Angelina is a shy and whimsical Italian waitress who has moved from Italy to Canada to fulfill a family vow by marrying a man she's not in love with. Angelina settles into a neighborhood in Toronto's Little Italy longing for true love. Mike is a jaded and cynical copywriter for romance novels but has lost his faith in romantic love. In the days leading up to Valentine's Day, an enigmatic and amorous couple named Il Magnifico and Mrs. Jones set the whole neighborhood ablaze with romantic passion. While everyone seems to be falling under the spell of Cupid's arrows, Angelina and Mike meet and just might find the true love that they've been searching for.

Boy Meets Girl

1998

Mood Indigo poster
9.0

Suspense tale -- a pilot to a prospective series -- involving a criminal psychologist, struggling to rebuild his life after his wife is brutally murdered by a patient, and a lady lawyer who enlists his help in solving a baffling crime.

Mood Indigo

1993

Green Dolphin Beat poster
10.0

Two cops try to solve the murder of a former prostitute while fighting for their jobs in a crime-ridden precinct of a Northwestern city.

Green Dolphin Beat

1994

Escapades of the One Particular Mr. Noodle poster
NR

A comedy of obsession and assimilation that charts the true account of a first generation Chinese-Canadian's attempt to fit into a white suburb. After an alienated childhood, she lands a job at an unpopular pasta bar, walking the streets as a 10-foot egg noodle. A transformation occurs when her new persona, Mr. Noodle, supersedes her own identity - only to confront a similar alienation as a noodle-human.

Escapades of the One Particular Mr. Noodle

1990

Undated · 1 titles

Series credits

Behind the camera

Paying for It poster
6.7

In the late 1990s, when Sonny seeks to redefine his long-term relationship with Chester, the painfully introverted cartoonist begins sleeping with sex workers and discovers an unexpected new form of intimacy.

Paying for It

2025

Paying for It poster
6.7

In the late 1990s, when Sonny seeks to redefine his long-term relationship with Chester, the painfully introverted cartoonist begins sleeping with sex workers and discovers an unexpected new form of intimacy.

Paying for It

2025

Octavio Is Dead! poster
4.1

The daughter of an overbearing mother enters the rich and strange world of her deceased father — a man she never knew.

Octavio Is Dead!

2018

Octavio Is Dead! poster
4.1

The daughter of an overbearing mother enters the rich and strange world of her deceased father — a man she never knew.

Octavio Is Dead!

2018

Year of the Carnivore poster
4.8

A girl has a crush on a boy who thinks she's bad in bed so she goes out to get more experience.

Year of the Carnivore

2009

Year of the Carnivore poster
4.8

A girl has a crush on a boy who thinks she's bad in bed so she goes out to get more experience.

Year of the Carnivore

2009

No artwork available
NR

WHISPERS AND SHOULDERS An experimental short directed by Sook-Yin Lee Conceived by JOOJ (Lee & Adam Litovitz) Made from the raw footage of JOOJ's 'Shoulders and Whispers' music video, directed by Brandon Cronenberg & filmed by Karim Hussain, CSC. WHISPERS AND SHOULDERS appropriates and reworks the raw footage of JOOJ's 'Shoulders and Whispers' music video. The video's images are rendered voiceless, with figures adrift in suspended animation for a twenty-six minute hypno-poetic reconstruction that draws upon unused images from the original music video. The initial video, 'Shoulders and Whispers,' is a black-and-white three-minute pop-song artifact designed to grab attention with each shot a fixed duration with a slow left-to-right pan. No shot is ever repeated. It has a forward momentum, unfolding new dynamics and imagery; conversely, WHISPERS AND SHOULDERS embraces repetitiveness in richly-saturated colour.

Whispers and Shoulders

2015

Toronto Stories poster
3.5

Various lives intersect over the course of 48 hours in Canada's largest and most culturally diverse city.

Toronto Stories

2008

Toronto Stories poster
3.5

Various lives intersect over the course of 48 hours in Canada's largest and most culturally diverse city.

Toronto Stories

2008

Escapades of the One Particular Mr. Noodle poster
NR

A comedy of obsession and assimilation that charts the true account of a first generation Chinese-Canadian's attempt to fit into a white suburb. After an alienated childhood, she lands a job at an unpopular pasta bar, walking the streets as a 10-foot egg noodle. A transformation occurs when her new persona, Mr. Noodle, supersedes her own identity - only to confront a similar alienation as a noodle-human.

Escapades of the One Particular Mr. Noodle

1990

Escapades of the One Particular Mr. Noodle poster
NR

A comedy of obsession and assimilation that charts the true account of a first generation Chinese-Canadian's attempt to fit into a white suburb. After an alienated childhood, she lands a job at an unpopular pasta bar, walking the streets as a 10-foot egg noodle. A transformation occurs when her new persona, Mr. Noodle, supersedes her own identity - only to confront a similar alienation as a noodle-human.

Escapades of the One Particular Mr. Noodle

1990

Unlocked poster
4.0

Lydia and her boyfriend, who works in a local café, broke up two months ago. The break up was a turbulent one. But he still has many of his possessions in her house, which are reminders of him to her. The one that she is most disturbed about his his bicycle, which is padlocked to her house. She does whatever she can to break the padlock and thus break any ties she has to him.

Unlocked

2005

Unlocked poster
4.0

Lydia and her boyfriend, who works in a local café, broke up two months ago. The break up was a turbulent one. But he still has many of his possessions in her house, which are reminders of him to her. The one that she is most disturbed about his his bicycle, which is padlocked to her house. She does whatever she can to break the padlock and thus break any ties she has to him.

Unlocked

2005

Rest and Relax poster
NR

REST AND RELAX is a film oddity about the anxieties of our time made by and starring artist/musicians Sook-Yin Lee and Dylan Gamble. Four stories explore life in the 21st century while surviving capitalism, sickness, and the internet.

Rest and Relax

2024

Rest and Relax poster
NR

REST AND RELAX is a film oddity about the anxieties of our time made by and starring artist/musicians Sook-Yin Lee and Dylan Gamble. Four stories explore life in the 21st century while surviving capitalism, sickness, and the internet.

Rest and Relax

2024

Rest and Relax poster
NR

REST AND RELAX is a film oddity about the anxieties of our time made by and starring artist/musicians Sook-Yin Lee and Dylan Gamble. Four stories explore life in the 21st century while surviving capitalism, sickness, and the internet.

Rest and Relax

2024

No artwork available
3.7

A lonely couple meet in a Laundromat, where their clumsy attempt at a sexual liaison leads to revelations, embarrassments, and a little bit of compassion.

Girl Cleans Sink

2004

No artwork available
3.7

A lonely couple meet in a Laundromat, where their clumsy attempt at a sexual liaison leads to revelations, embarrassments, and a little bit of compassion.

Girl Cleans Sink

2004

Death and Sickness. poster
NR

Sook-Yin and Dylan are currently holed up in a house in Toronto capturing what happens on consumer cameras and mobile phones. Death and Sickness is a work of auto-fiction inspired by real-life events.

Death and Sickness.

2020