Ali Wong’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Alexandra “Ali” Wong (born April 19, 1982) is an American actress, stand-up comic, and writer. She is noted for her Netflix stand-up special Baby Cobra, as well as her television appearances in American Housewife, Are You There, Chelsea?, Inside Amy Schumer, and Black Box. She is also a writer for the sitcom Fresh Off the Boat.

Early life

Wong was born in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Her father, Adolphus Wong, is an American-born Chinese anesthesiologist. Her mother, Tam “Tammy” Wong, emigrated in 1960 to the United States from Huế, Vietnam. She is the youngest of four children.

In 2000, Wong graduated from San Francisco University High School, where she was student body class president. She graduated summa cum laude from the UCLA, where she majored in Asian American studies.

At UCLA, Wong discovered her love of performing as a member of the university’s LCC Theatre (Lapu, the Coyote that Cares Theatre Company), the longest running Asian-American theater company in the United States. During college, for her junior year, she spent time in Hanoi, Vietnam. After graduating from UCLA, Wong received a scholarship to study further in Vietnam.

Career

Following graduation from college, in 2005 when she was 23 years old, Wong tried stand-up for the first time at Brainwash Cafe, then moved to New York City soon after to further pursue comedy. In New York, she would perform up to nine times a night. She became one of the few select female comedians to be “passed” at the Comedy Cellar.

In 2011, Variety named her one of the “10 Comics to Watch”. Soon after, she appeared on The Tonight Show, John Oliver’s New York Stand Up Show and Dave Atell’s Comedy Underground Show. She was also cast as series regular in the NBC comedy series, Are You There, Chelsea?, and appeared on Chelsea Lately. Following that, she was in VH1’s Best Week Ever, and MTV’s Hey Girl in 2013. Additionally, she starred in Oliver Stone’s Savages opposite Benicio Del Toro and Salma Hayek, and as Kate in the film Dealin’ with Idiots.

In 2014, Wong played Dr. Lina Lark in the ABC medical drama series, Black Box, opposite Kelly Reilly and Vanessa Redgrave. Since then she has guest starred in several episodes of Inside Amy Schumer. Wong has been a writer on Fresh Off the Boat since 2014.

On Mother’s Day 2016, Netflix released a stand-up special called Baby Cobra which was filmed in September 2015 when she was 7 months pregnant at the Neptune Theater in Seattle.

According to the New York Magazine, “The special’s arrival on Netflix is the sort of star-making moment that unites the tastes of the unlikeliest fans.” Elle applauded it as a “comic genius gem” while Vogue called it “The special that everyone is talking about.” Emily Nussbaum hailed it as “funny and refreshingly rude.” The day before its premiere, Wong’s interview with Marc Maron on his podcast WTF was released. He called the special “the most honest, rawest, funniest special I’ve seen in years.”

In an episode of his Monday Morning Podcast, Bill Burr said “It was so fuckin’ great…she went out there and she was fuckin’ original, all of her stuff. It was just a great set, it was worthy, it really was a stand up special. Everybody is making a big fuckin’ deal that she was pregnant and did it, and I understand why they did that because no one has ever done that. But there should be more questions about how great the material was…The jokes are fucking killer. The subject matter, all of it. God knows, there’s a zillion specials out there, but…that was one of the best ones I’ve seen in awhile.”

On September 11, 2016, Wong spoke and walked the runway during New York Fashion Week for Opening Ceremony’s show. As of October 2016, Wong is a series regular on the ABC sitcom American Housewife.

In May 2017, Chris Rock was interviewed on two New York radio hip hop morning shows, where he cited Ali Wong as being one of his “newest friends” and biggest competition out there.

Personal life

Wong lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Justin Hakuta, the son of Ken Hakuta aka “Dr. Fad”, an inventor and TV personality. They married in 2014 and had a daughter named Mari in November 2015, inspired by author Marie Kondo, who wrote The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Her husband is half-Filipino and half-Japanese.

Filmography