Who is Ali Wong? MailOnline takes a look back at her career and love life
Netflix has another hit on its hands, as the streamer’s new show Beef has earned a perfect 100 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Beef is a ten-episode comedy series, which debuted on the streaming platform last Thursday.
The show tells the story of two strangers, played by Ali Wong and Steven Yeun, who get involved in a road accident and its aftermath.
Ali Wong is not only the star of the show, but also one of the executive producers of the series.
MailOnline takes a look back at the actress’ comedic career and her rise to fame.
Success: Ali Wong’s new comedy show Beef is critically acclaimed and gets a perfect score of 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes
Plot: The show tells the story of two strangers, played by Ali and Steven Yeun, who get involved in a road accident and its aftermath
Born and raised in San Francisco, Ali, 42, discovered her love of performing as a student at UCLA.
She joined the college’s LCC theater company and began performing stand-up comedy when she moved to New York City after graduation.
Ali began to establish himself in the city’s comedy scene, sometimes performing as many as nine times in one night.
She began making guest appearances on late night talk shows and in 2012 won a recurring role on the sitcom Are You There, Chelsea? starring Chelsea Handler.
The actress made her film debut the following year in Dealin’ With Idiots and also appeared in shows like Inside Amy Schumer and American Housewife.
Ali’s career reached new heights in 2016 when Netflix released her stand-up comedy special Baby Cobra, filmed when she was seven months pregnant with her first child.
Continuing her work with the streamer, she had a starring role in the 2019 comedy film You’ll Always Be My Maybe, which she also co-wrote.
More recently, she released her third stand-up special Don Wong last year and appeared in the sci-fi series Paper Girls.
Beginning: Ali, 42, was born and raised in San Francisco and discovered her love of performing as a student at UCLA
Comedy: She joined the college’s LCC theater company and began performing stand-up comedy when she moved to New York City after graduating
Limelight: One of Ali’s first significant roles was on the ABC show American Houseiwfe
Success: She had a starring role in the 2019 comedy film You’ll Always Be My Maybe, which she also co-wrote
In 2014, Ali married Justin Hakuta, whom she met four years earlier at a wedding of their mutual friends.
The couple are parents to daughters Mari, seven, and Nikki. They announced in April 2022 that they were getting a divorce.
Speaking of the split, Ali shared The Hollywood Reporter: ‘I didn’t expect the announcement to be so widespread, but by far the hardest part about getting divorced was my mother’s reaction
The comedian stated that “she looked me in the eye and asked, ‘Can you just wait for me to die?’ She literally asked me not to live a life for myself. But she’s 82, what do I expect?’
Ali went on to comment that “it was still damn hard to deal with all her fear of the embarrassment it would bring her.”
Relationship: Ali divorced her husband Justin Hakuta in 2022; the former couple are the parents of two daughters (pictured together in 2019)
The actress also stated that after news of her split spread through Chinese and Vietnamese newspapers, her mother was contacted by various sources for comment and was able to resolve her issues.
The artist recalled that, “She died a million deaths in one day and woke up the next day and said, ‘I survived.'”
Ali said her mother was very close to her former son-in-law and said that “she still sees Justin a lot.”
The actress then commented that she and Hakuta remained on good terms after their split and were in constant contact.