The 27-year-old got her bachelor’s degree in Asian American Studies from the
The 27-year-old got her bachelor’s degree in Asian American Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles with an aim to become a professor. But, her comic wit would lead her down a different path.
Ali Wong, who is of Vietnamese and Chinese descent, passed up an offer to pursue a master’s degree at UCLA and decided to help reinvent “what it means to be Asian American in America.” To do that she took to the stage cracking jokes over four years ago in San Francisco. She soon found more opportunities in New York.
Wong has just filmed the MTV show “Nick Cannon Presents Hatin’ on ’09,” which first aired Jan 1. She hopes 2010 will continue to bring more adventures.
The youngest of four children, Wong grew up in San Francisco. Her mother is Vietnamese and her father Chinese. Sexually explicit stories shared by Wong on stage do not deter her parents from supporting her dreams, she said.
“My parents have always been really open about that stuff, so that doesn’t really bother them at all,” Wong said.
Viral videos like “American Apparel,” showing Wong dancing with her friend Chris Garcia in leotards and sweatbands have garnered thousands of hits. But on stage Wong has had her share of ups and downs.
“I didn’t get booed until I went to Atlanta. That was my first booing experience and that was horrendous,” Wong explained. “Getting booed off is like knowing people really don’t like you and people as a collective have decided that they don’t like you.”