Actor Justin Chon, who most recently played ‘Eric Yorkie’ in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part I, has signed on to star in a new comedy feature film, 21 and Over, to be written and directed by Joe Lucas and Scott Moore—the screenwriters for The Hangover.
Trouble is bound to ensue in this all-night comedy when three college friends go out to celebrate their pal’s twenty-first birthday the night before his big exam. Hitflix reports that filming will begin this month, and the movie is scheduled for release sometime in 2012.
Ken Jeong became “that” guy this year. Y’know, the guy you keep seeing in a bunch of movies but you don’t know his real name. Ken Jeong made a huge splash in the surprise summer hit, The Hangover, when he jumped out of a car’s trunk in his birthday suit. He kept on rolling with roles in The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, All About Steve, Couples Retreat and a co-starring role as the cantankerous Senor Chang in NBC’s new show Community. He already has a full slate of work in 2010 and the future keeps looking brighter. This is pretty incredible for a guy who gave up medicine to pursue a career in comedy and acting. Ken was a doctor in residency down in New Orleans, but he decided to give it up to go to Hollywood. How many Korean parents would’ve rolled their eyes if their sons or daughters said that they were going to Hollywood after having gone through medical school and residency? Ken defied a parent’s logic and believed in his comedic abilities. Now he’s “that” guy that cracks people up in the hilarious character roles he plays. What Ken Jeong showed us was that even in Hollywood, you can still make it even without looking like Brad Pitt. As long as you have dedication and talent, the dream is possible. There are many kids out there who are doing what they’re parents want them to do because it’s the most conservative route. Ken just showed us that you can follow your passions and beat the odds, and that’s why he’s #5 on our list of top ten most influential Korean-Americans in 2009.
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.
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!
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>
Actor Justin Chon, who most recently played ‘Eric Yorkie’ in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part I, has signed on to star in a new comedy feature film, 21 and Over, to be written and directed by Joe Lucas and Scott Moore—the screenwriters for The Hangover.
Ken Jeong became “that” guy this year. Y’know, the guy you keep seeing in a bunch of movies but you don’t know his real name. Ken Jeong made a huge splash in the surprise summer hit, The Hangover, when he jumped out of a car’s trunk in his birthday suit. He kept on rolling with roles in The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, All About Steve, Couples Retreat and a co-starring role as the cantankerous Senor Chang in NBC’s new show Community. He already has a full slate of work in 2010 and the future keeps looking brighter. This is pretty incredible for a guy who gave up medicine to pursue a career in comedy and acting. Ken was a doctor in residency down in New Orleans, but he decided to give it up to go to Hollywood. How many Korean parents would’ve rolled their eyes if their sons or daughters said that they were going to Hollywood after having gone through medical school and residency? Ken defied a parent’s logic and believed in his comedic abilities. Now he’s “that” guy that cracks people up in the hilarious character roles he plays. What Ken Jeong showed us was that even in Hollywood, you can still make it even without looking like Brad Pitt. As long as you have dedication and talent, the dream is possible. There are many kids out there who are doing what they’re parents want them to do because it’s the most conservative route. Ken just showed us that you can follow your passions and beat the odds, and that’s why he’s #5 on our list of top ten most influential Korean-Americans in 2009.
