On this day in comedy on July 13, 1969 Comedian, Actor, Dr. Kendrick Kang-Joh “Ken” Jeong was born in Detroit, Michigan.
Dr. Ken Jeong is a show-off. First thing – the man is a real doctor. He graduated high school at age 16, completed his undergraduate studies at Duke (1990) and then obtained his M. D. degree in 1995; the same year he won the Big Easy Laugh Off. He’d been working on his stand-up act the whole time and as luck or fate would have it, Improv founder, Budd Friedman and NBC CEO Brandon Tartikoff were judges and told Dr. Ken to move to L. A. immediately. He did and performed regularly at the Improv and Laugh Factory at night. For his day job, Dr. Ken simply became a licensed doctor in California and set up his practice at Kaiser Permanente in Woodland Hills.
Dr. Ken made the rounds on television. He guest-starred on The Office, Girls Behaving Badly (he was a regular), Entourage, MADtv, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. However, it was the part of Dr. Kuni in the Judd Apatow filmed comedy, Knocked Up that changed the trajectory. He was now in demand, but personally scared to make that leap of faith. Being a doctor sure does pay the bills and it’s not like they just handed him a degree. It was hard work. Plus, acting’s so flakey. Hot today, the next day people are looking at you in disgust. It was his wife who convinced him to go for it. Medicine wasn’t going anywhere. Besides, she’s a licensed physician.
So he went for it. Dr. Ken has appeared in Pineapple Express, Step Brothers, Role Models, All About Steve, Zookeeper, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Pain & Gain, Big Momma’s: Like father Like Son, Rapture-Palooza (he played God), The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, How to Make Love to A Woman, Ride Along 2, Couples Retreat and the Hangover trilogy. He received critical acclaimed for his part of Ben Chang on NBC’s Community and the fans loved him too. For that role he was nominated for the 2010 Teen Choice Award for “Male Breakout Star”.
Dr. Ken has done commercials (Adidas), hosted award shows (2011 Billboard Music Awards) and showed people how to stay alive (American Heart Association 2011 Hands Only CPR PSA campaign). He’s done animated voices for Despicable Me (both), Birds of Paradise, Penguins of Madagascar, Norm of the North, American Dad, Robot Chicken and Turbo. Then he got a chance to show off again by creating, writing and being the executive producer of his own show for ABC, Dr. Ken.
Jeong has won the Streamy Award for “Best Guest Appearance” (Burning Love).
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
Check out this clip:
