Chinese Name: 嚴藝文
Born: November 10, 1976
Place of Birth: Keelung City (Northern Taiwan)
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Yen Yi-wen is a Taiwanese actress, director, and screenwriter. In recent years, she has also participated in the reality show “Hey Girls, Adventure!” as one of the hosts, exploring local stories and issues, documenting Taiwan's beautiful scenery and people.
Yen Yi-wen was born in Keelung, and both her parents were civil servants. As the eldest daughter, her parents hoped that she would also become a civil servant and marry a good husband, living a stable and happy life. However, Yen wanted to pursue a career in performing arts. She secretly applied to an art school without her parents' knowledge and only confessed to them on the eve of the audition. Her parents did not support her decision, causing a ruckus in the family. Yen Yi-wen said they were worried that acting wouldn’t be a stable job to support herself.
After graduating from the Theater Studies Department at Taipei National University of the Arts, Yen Yi-wen became active in the Taiwanese theater scene and subsequently participated in various commercials and dramas. Her parents began to understand when she took on a role in a drama called "Lonely River (在河左岸)" on Hakka TV, where she played the female lead and had to speak Hakka. Although her father is Hakka, she couldn’t speak a word of the language. Despite the immense pressure, she wanted to perform in her "father tongue," mustering up the courage to learn Hakka from scratch. At that time, she would spend two hours every day talking to her father, reciting lines for him to listen to. He had high expectations for her and not only served as her language guide but also as her acting coach.
Based on the novel of the same name by adaptation writer Chung Wen-yin (鍾文音), "Lonely River" tells the story of a couple from Chiayi trying to make a living in the big city of Taipei. Yen played the female lead burdened with financial difficulties and facing her husband's infidelity. In 2014, Yen Yi-wen was nominated for Best Actress at the 49th Golden Bell Awards for her role in "Lonely River."
In 2015, Yen Yi-wen won the award for Best Actress in the category of the Mini-Series/TV Movie at the 50th Golden Bell Awards for her performance in "Angel's Radio (天使的收音機)" on Public Television. In the drama, she portrayed a deaf mother and put in a lot of effort to learn sign language. Her dedication and acting skills earned her recognition at the Golden Bell Awards.
However, the pressure after winning the award plunged her into a two-year low period. Constantly trying to meet others’ expectations left her physically and mentally exhausted. She felt like she had worked hard to win an award, only to have to work even harder to prove her worth. At the same time, Yen Yi-wen faced the challenge of being typecast, as most of the acting offers she received were for “motherly” roles. While she didn’t mind playing a mother, Yen thought there might be other possibilities in her acting career.
In her contemplation, Yen Yi-wen, who already enjoyed writing, began to write scripts. Using the familiar entertainment industry as a backdrop, she created a story about an actress who loses her acting ability after receiving the title of Best Actress. This script was then nominated for the Ministry of Culture's TV Program Script Creation Award. Although she didn’t win in the end, it was enough to ignite Yen’s confidence in transitioning to behind-the-scenes work.
In 2019, Yen Yi-wen made her directorial debut with the comedy "The Making of an Ordinary Woman (俗女養成記)," which aired on CTV and achieved the highest ratings. In 2021, she followed up with "The Making of an Ordinary Woman 2," scoring the channel’s highest ratings in a decade.
As a first-time director taking on a comedy, Yen Yi-wen said that Taiwan doesn’t have mature comedies, and it’s difficult to make a good one. She has mentioned being a loyal viewer of American sit-coms "Friends" and "Modern Family" and being able to watch them repeatedly without getting tired, and so she hoped to make a comedy herself.
Adapted from the prose work of the same name by author Chiang Goose (江鵝), "The Making of an Ordinary Woman" revolves around the story of a forty-year-old woman. It uses ironic humor to present the play and brings up thought-provoking issues, hoping to let the audience accept themselves as they are, regardless of age, gender, or sexual orientation. The second season directly focuses on the concept of "breaking definitions" and discusses Taiwan’s social framework. The director hopes that through this drama, the audience can embrace different existences with love and resolve conflicts with a sense of humor.