Alexandra Wong is a Vietnamese-Chinese-American stand-up comedian, actress, and writer. She is noted for her Netflix stand-up specials Baby Cobra and Hard Knock Wife, both of which received critical acclaim. She is also known for her leading film role in the 2019 film Always Be My Maybe, which she produced and wrote with her co-star Randall Park. She is currently a main cast member on the ABC television show American Housewife. Previously, she appeared on Are You There, Chelsea?, Inside Amy Schumer, and Black Box. She also wrote for the first three seasons of the sitcom Fresh Off the Boat. Wong voiced title character Roberta "Bertie" Songthrush, a polite songbird and aspiring baker on the critically acclaimed animated series Tuca & Bertie and new student "Ali" on the hit series Big Mouth.
Early life
Wong was born in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California, the youngest of four children. Her father, Adolphus Wong, was a Chinese-American anasthesiologist who worked for Kaiser Permanente for 30 years. Her mother, Tam "Tammy" Wong, immigrated in 1960 to the United States from Huế, South Vietnam and was a social worker. In 2000, Wong graduated from San Francisco University High School, where she was student body class president. She enrolled at UCLA, where she majored in Asian American Studies and discovered her love of performing as a member of the university's LCC Theatre Company, the country's largest and oldest Asian-American collegiate theater company. She spent a summer working at The Lair of the Golden Bear, a UC Berkeley alumni summer family camp and, during her junior year, spent time in Hanoi, Vietnam. She graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Asian American studies in 2005. After college, she studied in Vietnam as a Fulbright scholar.
Career
2011–2013: Career beginnings
After graduating from college, 23-year-old Wong tried stand-up comedy at Brainwash Cafe. She soon moved to New York City to pursue comedy, and began to perform up to nine times a night. In 2011, Variety named her one of the "10 Comics to Watch". Soon after, she appeared on The Tonight Show, John Oliver's New YorkStand Up Show and Dave Attell's Comedy Underground Show. She was also cast as series regular in the NBC comedy series Are You There, Chelsea? and appeared on Chelsea Lately. After that, she was in VH1's Best Week Ever and MTV's Hey Girl in 2013. Additionally, she starred in Oliver Stone's Savages, opposite Benicio Del Toro and Salma Hayek, and as Kate in the film Dealin' with Idiots.
2014–present: ''Fresh off the Boat'' and Netflix
In 2014, Wong played Dr. Lina Lark in the ABC medical drama seriesBlack Box, opposite Kelly Reilly and Vanessa Redgrave. Since then, she has guest-starred in several episodes of Inside Amy Schumer. Wong has been a writer on Fresh Off the Boat since 2014. Randall Park, who is on the main cast, had suggested Wong for the writing role. On Mother's Day 2016, Netflix released a stand-up special called Baby Cobra; the special was filmed in September 2015, when Wong was seven months pregnant with her first child at the Neptune Theater in Seattle. According to New York Magazine, "The special's arrival on Netflix is the sort of star-making moment that unites the tastes of the unlikeliest fans." On September 11, 2016, Wong spoke at, and walked the runway during New York Fashion Week for Opening Ceremony's show. In October 2016, Wong began starring in the main cast of the ABC sitcom American Housewife. On May 13, 2018, Wong's second Netflix special, Hard Knock Wife, was released. It was filmed in late September 2017 at the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto when she was 7 months pregnant with her second child. Wong starred with Randall Park in the 2019 Netflix film Always Be My Maybe, a film directed by Nahnatchka Khan, and written by Wong, Park, and Michael Golamco. Wong voiced the titular character Bertie in the Netflix animated showTuca & Bertie. On October 15, 2019, Wong came out with a book entitled . She dubs it as a life guide for her two daughters to read when they're adults.
Personal life
Wong lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Justin Hakuta, the son of inventor and TV personality Ken Hakuta. Justin Hakuta is half Filipino and half Japanese. They met at a wedding of mutual friends in 2010. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and was the vice president of product at healthcare startup GoodRx. They married in 2014 and have two daughters. Wong has been open in her standup comedy and to the media about miscarrying twins prior to getting pregnant with her first daughter Mari. She said that joking about her miscarriage helped her cope. Wong was mentored by comedian Chris Rock.
