Access Hollywood named Ken Jeong as their latest Rising Star, and they made note that he’s technically their oldest Rising Star. So why is his stock rising? He made a huge splash by jumping out onto the big screen with his birthday suit in The Hangover and he’s been in two other movies since that naked moment, The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard and All About Steve. But his year isn’t over yet because he’s in NBC’s big Thursday night comedy show, Community. This guy is truly one of the busiest dudes in Hollywood.
“I’m just so grateful getting work, that’s all I want to do, just keep working,” Ken told AccessHollywood.com. “The last two years have been such a trippy, surreal life. I’m just so happy doing one of these things, so I just can’t believe my fortune.”
While many celebs start their path toward fame in their teens or even earlier, Ken spent his formative years studying medicine. In fact, at age 40, Ken is AccessHollywood.com’s oldest ever Rising Star.
“I did theater in college and couldn’t really pursue it as much as I wanted to because I was pre-med,” he explained, adding that he began his comedy career doing stand-up on the side while attending medical school in North Carolina.
While conducting his residency in New Orleans, he won the Big Easy Laff-Off, a stand-up contest judged by NBC president Brandon Tartikoff and Budd Friedman of LA comedy institution the Improv. Ken moved to LA, practicing medicine for seven years and continuing with stand-up until earning the notice of Judd Apatow – and the rest is history.
“Judd Apatow gave me my big break in ‘Knocked Up’ and [my career is] really because of those guys,” Ken said. “I’ve been very grateful to Judd, he really just plucked me out of the blue.”
And while he’s done a number of films since, Ken still remembers his first day on the set of the Apatow-directed film.
“I was so intimidated, I was so scared of everyone,” he said. “I still remember my first day vividly, it was with Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl and I was just amazed — they just allowed me to be nuts, they just allowed me to go crazy. I still get goose bumps to this day.”
The summer of Ken Jeong keeps going with his latest movie, All About Steve. We’re going to guess he’s in a prominent or featured role because this is the first time he’s in the actual movie poster. He’s once again in the same movie with Bradley Cooper, but this time he’s not enemies and pounding Bradley Cooper with a tire iron. It looks like he plays Cooper’s sidekick in a news crew. This is the summer of Ken Jeong because he was in this summer’s smash comedy The Hangover as well as The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard. Not many actors in Hollywood can say they were in 3 movies in one summer. It doesn’t stop there for Ken because he also has a heavy fall lineup. This week, Ken was named a Rising Star on Access Hollywood, though he is technically their oldest rising star.
Synopsis from IMDB: Crossword puzzle constructor Mary Horowitz (Bullock) is smart, pretty – and a natural disaster that shakes news cameraman Steve (Cooper) to the core. Set up on a blind date with Steve, Mary thinks the chemistry is undeniable and just knows she’s found her soulmate. She decides to do anything and go anywhere to be with him. Mary’s escalating infatuation is encouraged by the self-serving actions of news reporter Hartman Hughes (Church) who enjoys torturing his insolent cameraman at every opportunity. As the news team crisscrosses the country covering breaking news stories, Steve becomes increasingly unhinged as Mary trails them. But when the overzealous Mary becomes embroiled in the news story of the year, Steve and Hartman begin to see her differently. Hartman is plagued by guilt knowing his game of one-upmanship with Steve has placed her squarely in harms way while Steve is feeling his own pangs of remorse at his callous behavior. Despite the media storm surrounding her, Mary with her upbeat unaffected manner not only brings everyone together but finds her own oddball friends and discovers her true place in the world.
A brilliant crossword-puzzle designer travels across the country in hopes of convincing a CNN cameraman that the pair is meant to be together, only to find her quest taking an unexpected turn in this romantic comedy starring Thomas Haden Church and Sandra Bullock. Despite the fact that she has only gone on one short date with the man, a love-struck puzzle creator becomes enamored with a successful cameraman and follows him to a series of media events in hopes that the feeling is mutual. While she is saddened to discover that it is not, she soon becomes involved with a group of misfits who selflessly accept her at face value. First-time feature filmmaker Phil Traill directs a screenplay penned by License to Wed scribe Kim Barker.
Ken Jeong made a guest appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon late last week. He’s having a great summer with appearances on The Hangover, WWE Raw, and next week’s The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard. He starts off about how his full frontal nudity in The Hangover embarrassed his dad – and probably the rest of Koreans.
Jeremy Pivens was the expected guest of WWE Raw on Monday night at Mohegan Sun, and for the entire week he kept hinting that he would be bringing a friend – someone who had a day job and was in the movie “The Hangover.” He introduced “Dr. Ken” as the Asian gentleman from the #1 comedy of all-time (The Hangover). Ken Jeong emerged from a trunk of a TransAm just like he did in The Hangover, but this time he was a lot slower coming out of it. That’s because he was dressed up in a cheetah fur coat, a pimp outfit with a dollar bill sign as a belt buckle, and dollar bills falling from his belt. It was an odd pairing on the WWE Raw show, but it was funny because Jeong played the part of the annoying sidekick to Jeremy Pivens against the wrestlers. Usually when Pivens has an Asian guy at his side – Lloyd on Entourage – he’s verbally abusing him. This time around with Ken Jeong, he had a pretty good banter with him. It did get a little weird when Ken inserted a pimp-like pacifier into his mouth and started roaming around the ring like a cheetah. It was typical WWE theatrics with testosterone flying everywhere and everyone challenging each other’s manhood. So what was this all about? Of course to promote Piven’s upcoming movie, The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard, which co-stars Ken Jeong.
The 2-hour show concluded with Pivens and Ken Jeong betraying John Cena the wrestler. After John Cena kicks everybody’s butt, the show ends with Ken Jeong groveling at Cena’s feet, but Cena body slams Ken Jeong over the ropes of the wrestling rink. His fall was broken by two wrestlers who were stationed below, but you could see Ken’s head actually hit the ground pretty hard.
As a side note, during commercial breaks, it was kind of cool seeing two movie previews with a Korean in both of them. Obviously Ken Jeong is in The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, but also Lee Byung-Hun is making his Hollywood debut in G.I. Joe. Believe in the Korean wave!
To see Dr. Ken play the submissive and scared Asian:
Ken Jeong is probably the most successful Korean-American actor that you really don’t know. In fact, he’s probably the most successful Korean-American actor the last couple of years when you really think about it. You’re probably thinking who? Ken who? He doesn’t have the chiseled look of Daniel Henney nor the long resume of John Cho, but what he does have is probably the most number of movie appearances the last couple of years because he’s a Judd Apatow favorite: Ken is cast in almost all his movies. Judd Apatow is the hottest comedy director in Hollywood who has brought 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Pineapple Express and many other comedic films to the big screen. So let us refresh your memory of Ken Jeong – have you seen Knocked Up, Role Models, Pineapple Express or the Hangover? That’s just a few of the many movies Ken Jeong has been in. You may have seen him this past weekend in Funny People with Adam Sandler. And it doesn’t stop there for Ken because he’s on a roll with several movies lined up for the near future: The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard, All About Steve, How To Make Love To A Woman, Despicable Me (Animation), Off Duty, Couples Retreat, Furry Vengeance, and The Zookeeper.
If you saw Hangover this summer, you definitely saw all of Ken because he went full frontal in the movie. I wonder if he’s the first full frontal by an Asian guy in a Hollywood movie? Remember Ken as the cantankerous OB/GYN to Katheryn Heigl and Seth Rogan in Knocked Up?
What you may not know is that Ken is actually a trained physician. That’s right, he has a degree in medicine but gave it up to pursue his passion for comedy. While doing his residency down in New Orleans, he tried out stand-up comedy on the side. And during his comedy circuit stint down there, it was because of a single chance meeting with someone that persuaded him to go west to Hollywood. As they say, the rest is history! The good doctor is now in! Here are a few of our favorite clips of Ken Jeong. Enjoy!
