Ken Jeong

Kendrick Kang-Joh Jeong (born July 13, 1969) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and former physician. He is best known for playing Ben Chang on the sitcom Community and the drug lord Leslie Chow in The Hangover film series. He was the lead in the ABC sitcom Dr. Ken, in which he was also the creator, writer, and executive producer. Jeong is a licensed physician, but has stopped practicing in favor of his acting career. He currently appears as a panelist on the singing competition show The Masked Singer.

Early life and education
Jeong was born in Detroit to South Korean immigrants. Jeong was raised in Greensboro, North Carolina as well as being raised in South Korea, and attended Walter Hines Page High School, where he took part in the Quiz Bowl team, played violin in the orchestra, and was elected to student council. He also played football in the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades where his team won the state 4a championship. He graduated at 16 and his achievements earned him Greensboro's Youth of the Month award. Jeong graduated from Duke University in 1990 and obtained his M.D. at the UNC School of Medicine in 1995.

Medicine
Jeong completed his residency in internal medicine at the Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. While he is a licensed physician in California he no longer practices medicine, having given it up in favor of his acting career.

Acting
Jeong won the Big Easy Laff-Off in 1995, of which NBC president Brandon Tartikoff and The Improv founder Budd Friedman were judges, and they both urged Jeong to move to Los Angeles. He began performing regularly at The Improv and Laugh Factory comedy clubs. After moving to Los Angeles, he initially practiced medicine for several years as a physician at a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Woodland Hills.

Jeong's background in theater and improv started while he was still a medical student in North Carolina. He was a regular at open mic nights in the Raleigh-Durham circuit, performing at Charlie Goodnights in Raleigh and Tootie's Durham Comedy Club. He also emceed The Comedy Spot programming series on Duke University campus 1992 and 1993 (produced by his friend by coincidentally same-first named Korean-American, Kendrick Jahng) opening for Margaret Cho, Jeff Dunham and others. His stand up work has led to several television appearances, including NBC's The Office, HBO's Entourage and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

He made his film debut in Judd Apatow's Knocked Up as Dr. Kuni, which proved to be his breakout performance. From that point forward he was able to transition from medicine into a full-time career in the entertainment industry. Subsequently, he has appeared in Pineapple Express; Role Models as King Argotron; All About Steve; The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard; Couples Retreat; and as Mr. Chow in The Hangover, The Hangover Part II, and The Hangover Part III. He co-starred in Zookeeper and Transformers: Dark of the Moon, released in summer 2011.

Jeong played Señor Chang on the NBC sitcom Community and was nominated for the show's "Male Breakout Star" at the 2010 Teen Choice Awards. He was nominated for two 2010 MTV Movie Awards, winning the award for Best WTF Moment and for MTV Movie Award for Best Villain for The Hangover. In fall 2010, Adidas basketball began a wide-ranging marketing campaign in which he starred as "Slim Chin", alongside NBA stars Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose. On May 22, 2011, he hosted the 2011 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas on ABC and was featured in a Hands Only CPR PSA campaign from the American Heart Association on June 15, 2011.

Jeong won a Streamy Award for "Best Guest Appearance" for Burning Love.

In 2013, he appeared in Michael Bay's Pain & Gain (2013), as Johnny Wu, a motivational speaker, and returned, in a significantly expanded role, as Mr. Chow in The Hangover Part III.

In an unusual, if informal, partnership, Jamie Foxx and Jeong have each agreed to star in movies written and produced by the other. Foxx has agreed to take a lead role in a new movie Jeong will produce called After Prom. Jeong will star in All-Star Weekend, a comedy Foxx is developing at his production company about two friends who find themselves fans of opposing NBA stars.

In 2015, Jeong starred, wrote, and executive produced the pilot of his new ABC medical comedy, Dr. Ken, as a frustrated HMO doctor juggling his career, marriage and parenting, but succeeding at none of them. On May 7, 2015, the series was ordered by ABC to debut in the 2015–16 TV season starring Jeong, Suzy Nakamura, Dave Foley, Tisha Campbell-Martin and Jonathan Slavin. Jeong's first comedy special, You Complete Me, Ho, was released in 2019 on Netflix.

Jeong was awarded the Visionary Award by East West Players, the oldest Asian Pacific American theatre company in the United States, for helping to raise "the visibility of the Asian Pacific American (APA) community through [his] craft." In an interview during the celebration, Jeong mentioned that he had met fellow Korean American actor Randall Park at East West Players.

Personal life
Jeong's wife, Tran Ho, is Vietnamese American, a family physician and a breast cancer survivor.

Jeong became engaged to Tran Ho around 2003 or 2004. They have twin daughters named Zooey and Alexa (born 2007).