Overview (3)
| Date of Birth | 13 July 1969, Detroit, Michigan, USA |
| Birth Name | Kendrick Kang-Joh Jeong |
| Height | 5' 5" (1.65 m) |
Mini Bio (1)
Ken Jeong is a Korean-American actor, comedian, and physician. He is best known for his roles as Ben Chang on the critically acclaimed NBC/Yahoo! sitcom Community (2009) and gangster Leslie Chow in The Hangover (2009) Trilogy.
He appeared in Michael Bay's Pain & Gain (2013), as Johnny Wu, a motivational speaker.
Jeong completed his internal medicine residency at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans while developing his stand-up comedy. He is a licensed physician in California.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Pedro Borges
Spouse (1)
| Dr. Tran Ho | (September 2004 - present) (2 children) |
Trivia (5)
Has twin daughters, Alexa and Zooey.
Wife Tran is also a doctor.
Grew up in Greensboro, NC and graduated from Walter Hines Page High School in 1986.
As of 4-11-13, the Medical Board of California lists his medical license (#A 65869) as "Renewed & Current" (meaning he meets requirements for the practice of medicine in California) until July 31, 2014. He is licensed to practice medicine under his birth name, Kendrick Kang-Joh Jeong.
As of March 30, 2015, the Medical Board of California lists his medical license (65869) as "Renewed & Current" (meaning he meets requirements for the practice of medicine in California) until July 31, 2016. He is licensed to practice medicine under his birth name, Kendrick Kang-Joh Jeong. This means that despite his successful career as an actor in film and television, Jeong so far continues to maintain his ability to return to his first career as a medical doctor.
Personal Quotes (9)
(2011, on landing his role in Transformers 3) Transformers 3 was really a recommendation from Todd Phillips, actually, to Michael Bay. Michael Bay had a role for me in mind and I met with him last spring. I play a co-worker of Shia LaBeouf and it was one of the greatest moments of my career because I saw how the big boys do it. This is sci-fi, this is action, this is fantasy, this is Steven Spielberg producing, and all my scenes were with Shia. And to work with CGI is the hardest form of acting ever, for me personally...I have to create that energy myself and then react off that energy. It's so much harder to do, so much harder mentally. That's why I have the highest respect for Shia, because he does that all the time. Three movies. Michael is a genius at finessing those reactions out and finessing that vision.
(2011) I remember I heard an interview on NPR where Terry Gross had asked Denzel Washington, "Do you look for roles that are role models for the community?" And he said, and this is Denzel Washington talking, the icon, "No! If I'm following what other people want me to do, I wouldn't be doing my job as an artist, as an actor. That would be so boring." I'm very inspired by that. I think about that a lot.
(2011, On the Hangover cast) I've known Zach (Galifianakis) for a decade, from doing stand-up. And I did a movie with Bradley (Cooper) prior to the first Hangover and a movie with Ed (Helms) prior to the first Hangover. So we're friends and we know each other, and on the second movie we got to be even better friends. Me and Ed went to Cambodia with his friends to go on a bicycle tour of Angkor Wat and the Buddhist temples there. I think people are always surprised to hear how mellow and close-knit we are. It's not like we're in character setting garbage fires in Bangkok in our off time! We're not crazy.
(2011, on getting involved in The Hangover Part II) I got an e-mail from Todd saying, "We'll be requiring your services," and then he gave me the script and I was crying laughing. The script, actually, was better than the first one because in the first movie, the script had actually existed before all of us, including Todd, had been attached. So this is the first script that utilizes our voices uniquely. Basically, you're building on the characters the audience has loved and also the characters we kind of formed in the first movie, so it was actually creatively easier for me as an actor this time around. All the hard work had been done in establishing these characters.
(2011, on director Todd Phillips) Todd gave me a career, and he's my favorite guy. He's family to me. We're bonded by our love of comedy and mayhem...I just trust everything about Todd Phillips, because all of my fame and success have been due to the first Hangover.
[on working as an MD during the day and doing improv at night]: I was the funniest doctor in America who was an Asian, under five-foot-nine and living in Los Angeles.
[on his entrance in The Hangover (2009)] In the script, Chow had clothes on jumping out of the trunk, and I was thinking to myself the scene is screaming for Mr. Chow to jump out naked. I actually ran it by my wife, and she said, that's great, it'll be the feel-good movie of the summer because every dude will go home feeling good about themselves.
My favorite line in all three ['Hangover'] movies is 'Ha, ha, fat guy fall down. Funny!'
[2016] A U.C.L.A. acting professor gave me good marks in my performance and [said]: "You're a good actor, which is why I'm telling you, stay the hell out of L.A. There's not much of a future for you. Go to Asia." I got an A. He was saying that out of respect. [in a February 2016 New York Times interview, commenting on the limited opportunities for Asian actors in the United States.]
Salary (1)
| The Hangover Part III (2013) | $5,000,000 |