In ‘The Chair,’ Sanda Oh and Amanda Peet Explore the Pressures Facing Women in Power

Sandra Oh has played a lot of memorable characters over her more than two decades in show business. But playing Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim in the upcoming Netflix comedy series The Chair still marked a unique experience for the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award winner. “I feel like Ji-Yoon is the closest character to myself that I’ve ever played,” Oh says with a nod to showrunner, executive producer and writer Amanda Peet. “There’s something in the way Amanda wrote her. It was like Amanda was writing my own voice.”

The series, which debuts Aug. 20, follows Oh’s Ji-Yoon as she becomes the first woman of color to become chair of the English department at a fictional New England university. In her new position, she tries to meet the dizzying demands and high expectations of a failing English department. To learn more about the show’s origins, Oh and Peet’s unique collaboration process and the pressures of playing a woman in charge, watch the featurette.

Series Launch Date: August 20th

Starring: Sandra Oh as Professor Ji-Yoon Kim; Jay Duplass as Professor Bill Dobson; Holland Taylor as Professor Joan Hambling; Bob Balaban as Professor Elliot Rentz; Nana Mensah as Professor Yaz McKay; David Morse as Dean Paul Larson; Everly Carganilla as Ju-Hee “Ju Ju” Kim; among others.

Amanda Peet is writer, showrunner and executive producer. Joining Peet as executive producers are Sandra Oh, David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Bernie Caulfield and Daniel Gray Longino. Writers are Peet, along with Annie Julia Wyman, Richard E. Robbins, Jennifer Kim and Andrea Troyer. The Director of all episodes is Daniel Gray Longino.

More information: www.netflix.com/TheChair