Ali Wong

Alexandra "Ali" Wong (born April 19, 1982) is an American actress, stand-up comedian, and writer. She is noted for her Netflix stand-up specials Baby Cobra and Hard Knock Wife, as well as her television appearances in American Housewife, Are You There, Chelsea?, Inside Amy Schumer, and Black Box. She also wrote for the first three seasons of the sitcom Fresh Off the Boat. In 2019, she had her first leading film role in Always Be My Maybe.

Early life
Wong was born in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Her father, Adolphus Wong, was an American-born citizen and physician that worked for Kaiser Permanente for 30 years, whose forebears were from China. Her mother, Tam "Tammy" Wong, emigrated in 1960 to the United States from Huế, Central 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. In 2004, she graduated with a BA from UCLA, where she majored in Asian American Studies. During her time in college, she spent a summer working at The Lair of the Golden Bear, a UC Berkeley alumni summer family camp. At UCLA, Wong discovered her love of performing as a member of the university's LCC Theatre Company, the largest and longest running Asian-American theater company in the United States. During her junior year, she spent time in Hanoi, Vietnam. .

Career
Following graduation from college, 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.

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 Attell'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 Wong was 7 months pregnant with her first child 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." On September 11, 2016, Wong spoke and walked the runway during New York Fashion Week for Opening Ceremony's show. In October 2016, Wong began starring in the main cast of the ABC sitcom American Housewife. On May 13, 2018, Wong's second Netflix special, called Hard Knock Wife, was released. It was filmed in late September 2017 at the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto when she was 7 months pregnant with her second child.

Wong starred with Randall Park in the 2019 Netflix film Always Be My Maybe, a film directed by Nahnatchka Khan, and written by Wong, Park,and Michael Golamco. Wong voiced the titular character Bertie in the Netflix animated show "Tuca & Bertie".

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. Hakuta is half Filipino and half Japanese. They met at a wedding of mutual friends in 2010. Following his father's steps, Justin completed an MBA from Harvard Business School and is now an established entrepreneur in the health-related business. They married in 2014 and had a daughter in November 2015. Wong gave birth to their second daughter in December 2017.