Born into a South Korean family and raised in Japan, she developed an early interest in visual art, studying still-life and portrait painting before deciding to pursue filmmaking. She moved to the United Kingdom in her early twenties and studied practical filmmaking at MetFilm School, graduating with a BA awarded by the University of West London.
Yang began her professional career working on short films, music videos and commercial productions. Her early short-film work included Lost Youth, which received several cinematography awards at independent film festivals. She developed a distinctive portfolio of music videos and advertising campaigns, collaborating with artists and directors across the UK, Europe, Japan and the United States. Her commercial clients have included Nike, Apple, Under Armour, Netflix, Lexus and Shiseido.
Her music-video cinematography includes projects for Kendrick Lamar, FKA twigs, Dua Lipa, Charli XCX, Björk and Taylor Swift. Yang photographed Taylor Swift’s All Too Well: The Short Film (2021), shot on 35mm film, and the music video for Anti-Hero (2022). Her work on Anti-Hero won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography in 2023.
Yang’s narrative career has included cinematography on the BBC drama Sitting in Limbo (2020), directed by Stella Corradi, which won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Single Drama. She also photographed the third season of Netflix’s crime drama Top Boy (2023) and the sixth episode of the second season of HBO’s Euphoria (2022), directed by Sam Levinson. Her work on Euphoria demonstrated her ability to adapt her visual approach to the series’ emotionally intense performances and varied settings.
Her feature-film credits include Nanny (2022), written and directed by Nikyatu Jusu, which won the Grand Jury Prize for Drama at the Sundance Film Festival; The Fire Inside (2024), directed by Rachel Morrison; O’Dessa (2025), directed by Geremy Jasper; and Mother Mary (2026), directed by David Lowery. These projects have expanded her work across independent cinema, studio filmmaking and visually stylised drama.
Yang has received significant industry recognition for her contributions to cinematography. She was selected for BAFTA Breakthrough in 2020 and became the first Asian woman to join the British Society of Cinematographers. She was also nominated for a BAFTA Cymru award for photography and lighting in fiction for Through the Gates (2019). In commercial filmmaking, she has received recognition from the British Arrows.