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Jimmy O. Yang

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In this Chinese name, the family name is Au-yeung.
Jimmy O. Yang
歐陽萬成
Yang in 2024
Born
Au-yeung Man-sing

(1987-06-11) June 11, 1987 (age 37)
British Hong Kong
NationalityAmerican
Other namesJimmy Ouyang
Jimmy O'Yang
Alma materUniversity of California, San Diego (BA)
Occupation(s)Actor, stand-up comedian
Years active2008–present
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese歐陽萬成
Simplified Chinese欧阳万成
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinŌuyáng Wànchéng
IPA[óʊ.jǎŋ wân.ʈʂʰə̌ŋ]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationĀu-yèuhng Maahn-sìhng
JyutpingAu1-joeng4 Maan6-sing4
IPA[ɐw˥.jœŋ˩ man˨.sɪŋ˩]
Websitejimmycomedy.com

Jimmy O. Yang (Chinese: 歐陽萬成; born June 11, 1987[1]) is a Hong Kong-American actor and stand-up comedian. As an actor, he is best known for starring as Jian-Yang in the HBO comedy series Silicon Valley,[2][3] as Dr. Chan Kaifang in the Netflix comedy series Space Force, and as Josh Lin in the Netflix romantic comedy film Love Hard (2021).

Early life and education

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Yang's parents were both from Shanghai and later moved to Hong Kong where he was born.[4] In 2000, when Yang was 13, his family emigrated to the United States and settled in Los Angeles, California.[5][6][7][8] His aunt and grandmother were already living in the US; his parents joined them primarily to allow Yang and his brother, Roy, access to better schools.[6] Yang enrolled at John Burroughs Middle School for eighth grade,[8] then later attended Beverly Hills High School.[7]

Yang graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a degree in economics in 2009.[6] The commencement speaker at his college graduation was his future Silicon Valley showrunner and fellow UCSD alumnus Mike Judge.[8]

Career

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Yang did his first stand-up set at 21 years old as "Lowball Jim" at the Ha Ha Comedy Club in North Hollywood, Los Angeles.[8]

After graduation, he interned at the financial consulting firm Smith Barney in Beverly Hills, California, but found it unfulfilling and turned down its return offer.[7][8] Instead, he returned to San Diego to finish his graduation requirements. He stayed in the city afterward, where he sold used cars, DJed at a strip club, and seated customers at a comedy club to support himself while doing stand-up sets for free at The Comedy Palace.[8] There he met his mentor, Sean Kelly, a stand-up comedian who ran the venue and later created the reality show Storage Hunters.[9][8]

When Yang moved back to Los Angeles, he signed up with Central Casting, due to their low barrier of entry, and with various casting websites. He was spurred to consider acting when a friend told him there was money to be made in residual checks from commercials. In the interim, he did stand-up sets around Southern California and signed up for acting classes. He eventually found acting representation through the Vesta Talent Agency.[8]

Yang in 2018.

Yang made his television debut on the CBS series 2 Broke Girls in 2012, and his first late-night stand-up appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show in 2014.[8] He played Tang-See in season 9 of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and appeared in an episode of Criminal Minds as Nathan Chow, a high-school student who suffered a psychotic break. He was a writer/consultant for the Harlem Globetrotters,[10] and voiced roles in the video game Infamous Second Son.[11]

He initially appeared on Silicon Valley in a guest role, making scale, then $900 per episode. He appeared in three episodes and spent the money on a Prius so he could drive for Uber to earn money between the show's first and second seasons. For season 2, he was promoted to series regular.[12] Prior to the announcement, he had landed a series-regular role on the Yahoo! Screen original television show Sin City Saints. He turned down the offer because it would have required him to quit Silicon Valley,[8] which ran from 2014 to 2019.

Yang's first dramatic role was as Dun "Danny" Meng, a Chinese immigrant who is carjacked by the Tsarnaev brothers, in the 2016 action drama Patriots Day.[13]

In 2018, he played Bernard Tai in the romantic comedy film Crazy Rich Asians, directed by Jon M. Chu.[14]

On September 26, 2019, it was announced that Yang was cast as Dr. Chan Kaifang in the Netflix comedy series Space Force.[15]

In 2020, he starred opposite Ryan Hansen in two films, Like a Boss and Fantasy Island, released a month apart. In the first film, their characters were business partners; and in the second, they were step-siblings who were strongly fond of each other.

Yang's comedy special Good Deal was released on Amazon Prime Video on May 8, 2020.[16] In 2021, he starred opposite Nina Dobrev in Netflix's Love Hard, his first romantic film.[17] His second comedy special, Guess How Much? was released on Prime Video on May 2, 2023.[18]

Yang starred as the voice of the Monkey King in Netflix's animated movie, The Monkey King, which debuted August 18, 2023.[19]

Author

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Yang is also the author of How to American: An Immigrant's Guide to Disappointing Your Parents, a book where "he shares his story of growing up as a Chinese immigrant who pursued a Hollywood career against the wishes of his parents."[20] Mike Judge wrote the foreword.[21]

Yang has also continued doing stand-up comedy; in 2018, he appeared on a tour titled after the book.[22]

Personal life

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Along with English, Yang speaks Shanghainese, Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese.[8] Yang's father, Richard Ouyang,[23] later signed with the same talent agency and has appeared in several films, including playing the father of his son's character in Patriots Day.[7]

Yang became an American citizen in 2015.[8] He has a YouTube channel with a focus on cooking.[24]

As of June 2023, Yang is in a relationship with Brianne Kimmel, an American venture capitalist.[25]

Filmography

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Television

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Year Title Role Notes
2012 2 Broke Girls Person in Line Episode: "And the Secret Ingredient"
2013 Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Chinese Teenager #1 Episode: "Girl in the Flower Dress"
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Tang-See Episode: "Flowers for Charlie"
2014 Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight Phil Recurring
New Girl Steve Episode: "Dice"
Criminal Minds Nathan Chow Episode: "Burn"
2014–2019 Silicon Valley Jian-Yang Recurring role (season 1); main role (seasons 2–6)
2015 Battle Creek Chang Episode: "Mama's Boy"
2016 Those Who Can't James Chen Guest, 3 episodes
Broken Donny Guest, 3 episodes
2016–2017 American Dad! Hisashi / Frat Guy (voice) 2 episodes
2018 Another Period Eng Bunker Episode: "Lucky Chang's"
The Simpsons Sun Tzu (voice) Episode: "No Good Read Goes Unpunished"
Drunk History Genghis Khan Episode: "The Middle Ages"
2018–2019 Fresh Off the Boat Horace 3 episodes
2020 Good Deal Himself Standup comedy special
We Bare Bears: The Movie Joey Raccoon (voice) TV movie
2020–2022 Space Force Dr. Chan Kaifang Recurring role (season 1); main role (season 2)
2022 Beavis and Butt-Head Doctor #2 (voice) Episode: "The Kidney/The Good Deed"
2023 American Born Chinese Ao Guang Episode: "Make a Splash"
Guess How Much? Himself Standup comedy special
2024 Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld (voice) In production
Interior Chinatown Willis Wu
Gremlins: The Wild Batch TBA Voice[26]

Film

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Year Title Role Notes
2013 The Internship Wa Zao Uncredited
2016 Patriots Day Dun Meng
2017 El Camino Christmas Mike the Cameraman
2018 Juliet, Naked Elliot Uncredited
Life of the Party Tyler
Crazy Rich Asians Bernard Tai [27]
The Happytime Murders Officer Delancey
2019 The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part[28] Zebe (voice)
2020 Like a Boss Ron
Fantasy Island Brax "Tattoo" Weaver
The Opening Act Will Chu
2021 Wish Dragon Short Goon (voice)
Love Hard Josh Lin
2022 Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe Flight Specialist Jung / Jeff (voice)
Minions: The Rise of Gru Henchman #1 (voice)
Easter Sunday Marvin
Me Time Stan Berman
2023 80 for Brady Tony
Rally Road Racers Zhi (voice) Lead role
The Monkey King The Monkey King (voice) Lead role
TBA Rock Springs TBA post-production[29]

Video games

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Year Title Role Notes
2014 Infamous Second Son Male Pedestrian #5 Voice

References

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  1. ^ "Famous birthdays for June 11: Jimmy O. Yang, Hugh Laurie - UPI.com". UPI. 2023-06-11. Archived from the original on 2023-06-11. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  2. ^ "'Silicon Valley' Promotes Jimmy O. Yang to Series Regular (Exclusive) - Hollywood Reporter". hollywoodreporter.com. 23 October 2014. Archived from the original on 2019-03-27. Retrieved 2014-10-23.
  3. ^ "Talking With Jian Yang, The Greatest Prank Caller In 'Silicon Valley'". UPROXX. 17 June 2016. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  4. ^ Friedrich, Adam (24 April 2018). "From Hong Kong To LA — Jimmy O. Yang's Journey To The American Dream". Wisconsin Public Radio. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  5. ^ Jimmy O. Yang (Comedian, HBO Silicon Valley) - Fun With Dumb - Ep. 1. DUMBFOUNDEAD. 25 July 2018. Archived from the original on 29 January 2021. Retrieved 14 November 2021 – via YouTube.
  6. ^ a b c "Jimmy O. Yang". Texas Travesty. Archived from the original on 17 April 2019. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
  7. ^ a b c d Sanders, Sam (May 8, 2018). "Jimmy O. Yang on 'Silicon Valley' and 'How To American'". NPR. Archived from the original on 30 July 2018. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Yang, Jimmy O. (2018-03-13). How to American: An Immigrant's Guide to Disappointing Your Parents. Hachette Books. ISBN 978-0-306-90350-2. Archived from the original on 2023-09-02. Retrieved 2020-10-26.
  9. ^ "Jimmy O. Yang Drove for Uber to Survive During 'Silicon Valley' Season 1". NextShark. 2018-08-15. Archived from the original on 2020-01-13. Retrieved 2020-01-13.
  10. ^ "Jimmy Ouyang | San Francisco Comedy Competition". Archived from the original on 2012-04-20. Retrieved 2014-07-28.
  11. ^ Sucker Punch Productions. Infamous: Second Son. Sony Computer Entertainment. Scene: Credits, 3:43 in, Additional Voice Talent.
  12. ^ "'Silicon Valley' Promotes Jimmy O. Yang to Series Regular (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 2019-03-27. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  13. ^ "Silicon Valley's Jimmy O. Yang is Abraham Lincoln's wingman". The A.V. Club. 15 December 2016. Archived from the original on 18 December 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  14. ^ Yamato, Jen (August 10, 2018). "'Crazy Rich Asians': Jimmy O. Yang moves beyond 'Silicon Valley'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2020-05-07. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  15. ^ Porter, Rick (September 26, 2019). "John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz Join Steve Carell in Netflix's 'Space Force'". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on September 27, 2019. Retrieved September 26, 2019.
  16. ^ Clifford, Katey (May 8, 2020). "'Jimmy O Yang: Good Deal' | Catch the 'Silicon Valley' star's stand-up comedy special on Amazon Prime Video". The Patriot-News. Archived from the original on 2021-07-28. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  17. ^ "'Love Hard': Nina Dobrev, Jimmy O. Yang, Charles Melton Star in Netflix's Dating App Romantic-Comedy". /Film. 2020-08-14. Archived from the original on 2020-10-14. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  18. ^ Maas, Jennifer (23 March 2023). "Jimmy O. Yang Sets Second Amazon Standup Comedy Special, 'Guess How Much?'". Variety. Archived from the original on 27 March 2023. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  19. ^ "'The Monkey King': Everything You Need to Know About the Animated Movie". Netflix Tudum. Archived from the original on 2023-07-17. Retrieved 2023-07-17.
  20. ^ "How to American". www.goodreads.com. Archived from the original on 2018-05-28. Retrieved 2018-05-27.
  21. ^ "Jimmy O. Yang talks Silicon Valley, Mike Judge and his book". CNET. 2018-04-05. Archived from the original on 2018-06-12. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  22. ^ "Jimmy O. Yang brings 'How to American' to S.F." SFGate. Archived from the original on 2018-06-08. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  23. ^ Rana, Sambridhi. "How Jimmy O. Yang's Dad Got On 'Patriots Day'". hollywoodmask. Archived from the original on 2021-11-29. Retrieved 2021-11-29.
  24. ^ "Jimmy O Yang - YouTube". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2023-04-18. Retrieved 2023-04-18.
  25. ^ Ang, Raymond (7 June 2023). "Jimmy O. Yang's Funny Fantasy". GQ. Retrieved 18 February 2024.
  26. ^ Taylor, Drew (July 26, 2024). "'Gremlins: The Wild Batch' Adds Simu Liu as Series Regular, Sets Season 2 Premiere Date". TheWrap. Archived from the original on July 26, 2024. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
  27. ^ "Crazy Rich Asian (2018)". IMDb. Archived from the original on January 5, 2019. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  28. ^ https://twitter.com/FunnyAsianDude/status/1086428704689946624[dead link‍]
  29. ^ Hipes, Patrick. "Kelly Marie Tran, Benedict Wong, Jimmy O. Yang To Star In Horror Feature 'Rock Springs' From 'Two Sentence Horror Stories' Creator Vera Miao". Deadline. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
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