This weekend was the opening of the much advertised The Hangover. If you’re a guy and you saw the movie, you know you were laughing a little to hard because you could relate to the movie. Well, in the middle of the movie, an Asian guy jumps out (literally) and you know you’ve seen him before. There are few people in Hollywood who find themselves finding reoccurring work because the director liked them so much.  They may not be big names but they’re familiar faces who pop up in movies.  Ken Jeong is the Asian-American guy who fits the bill and the guy who jumps out in The Hangover.  He is the leading comedic Asian-American actor out there with key roles in Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, Role Models and other laugh on the floor comedies.  We could mention his TV appearances but he’s making his living in the world of Apatow, Phillips and Will Ferrell.   What you probably didn’t know but it’s rather interesting is that Ken Jeong went to medical school and pursued comedy while finishing his medical residency (according to Wikipedia).  He did apply some of those medical skills when he portrayed an OB-GYN in Knocked Up.

Ken followed his passion and worked on being a stand-up comic while being a medical resident.  He then went off to Hollywood and pounded the pavement by running the comedy circuit from the Improv to the Laugh Factory.  Today he’s making a good living and he’s got three more movies lined up for later this year: starring with the likes of Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell.  So why do directors and casting agents like him so much?

According to “Hangover” director Phillips, Jeong’s defining characteristic is his “fearlessness” — something put on prominent display in the bawdy R-rated comedy that follows friends (Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms) trying to piece together what happened during a Vegas bachelor party gone horribly awry. Portraying Mr. Chow, an Asian crime lord who has been inexplicably locked in the trunk of their vintage Mercedes, Jeong literally bursts on screen; naked, swearing a blue streak and clanging a tire-iron upside the leads’ heads like Barry Bonds. The idea to do full frontal was Jeong’s.

“He just comes in and crushes those little parts in films,” Phillips said. “That’s what you look for: a guy who can come in and just destroy it. He’s crazy!”

The LA Times profiles Ken Jeong this week and we find out a few more gems about him.  Check it out at the LATimes.com>

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