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*.

## Early life

Wong was born in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Her father, Adolphus Wong, is an American-born citizen whose forebears are from China. 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 from 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 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 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.

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 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 latest special, called *Hard Knock Wife,* was released on Netflix. It was filmed in late September 2017 at the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto when she was 7 months pregnant with her second child.

For Disney, she voiced Felony in *Ralph Breaks the Internet*.

## 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. Following his father's steps, Justin completed a MBA from Harvard Business School and is now an established entrepreneur in the health-related business. They married in 2014 and had a daughter named Mari in November 2015, named for the author Marie Kondo, who wrote *The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.* Wong gave birth to their second child, a daughter, in December 2017. Her husband is half Filipino and half Japanese.