General
Ali Wong is an American comedian, actress, and writer. She is best known for writing and playing a leading role in the 2019 film Always Be My Maybe and the book/film Baby Cobra (received a 100% on rotten tomato).
The first time I ever heard of Ali Wong was from the Northeastern Homecoming poster. While I did not go to Homecoming, I wish I did because she is a very interesting person from the research that I did.
Early Life
Ali Wong was born on April 19, 1982 in San Francisco, California. She is the daughter of an American-born Chinese father and Vietnamese mother who immigrated to the U.S. Growing up, she was primarily taught Chinese culture as her mother was taught to forget about her Vietnamese culture when she moved to the US in order to survive in America. She attended UCLA to major in Asian-American Studies and studied abroad in Hanoi, Vietnam in order to learn more about Vietnamese culture. It was at UCLA when she discovered her love for performing as a member of Lapu.. After graduating in 2005, she moved to New York to pursue her stand-up comedy career. At the age of 23 was when she did her first stand-up.
Achievement
- Appeared in many TV shows and films: The Tonight Show (2011), Breaking In (2011), Chelsea Lately (2012), Hey Girl (2013), Best Week Ever (2013), The Angry Birds Movie (voice, 2016), American Housewife (2016), and Baby Cobra, etc.
- Fun fact: Ali Wong was 7 months pregnant when she performed at the stand-up special
- Has her own website https://www.aliwong.com/
- Writer on Fresh Off the Boat since 2014, author of Dear Girls and Baby Cobra
- On Time’s The 100 Most Influential People of 2020
- Awards:
- Winner of 2019 Goodreads Choice Awards Best Humor
- Nominee for Outstanding Achievement for Voice Acting in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production, 2020
- Nominated for an Annie Award in 2020
- Nominated for a Gotham Independent Film Award in 2019
- Etc.
- Too much to list them all
Contribution to the APIDA Community
- Represents the APIDA community shared cultural heritage but also defies every stereotype associated with the community
- Supporter of the CAAM (Center For Asian American Media)
- Helped hosted the Getting Real with Ali Wong event on Jan. 19, 2020 to help raise fund for CAAM’s work in building community, supporting filmmakers and artists, and changing the way audiences see the world through the lens of Asian America
- Performed at the Coyote that Cares Theatre Company (LCC) – the longest running Asian-American theater company in the United States to “Promote a voice for Asian American creative expression”
- Proves people wrong that said that women can’t be funny
- Battled racial and gender stereotypes in the comedy world
As Walter Bagehot once said, “The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”
