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Mabel Lui

Back in 2014, between the first and second seasons of the HBO comedy series Silicon Valley in which he had a supporting role, Jimmy O. Yang spent his days moonlighting as an Uber driver.
The Hong Kong-born Hollywood hopeful used a pay cheque for his role in the series as Jian-Yang – he received the Screen Actors Guild minimum of US$900 a day – to buy a used Toyota Prius hybrid, which he would drive around Los Angeles to earn the money to pay his rent.
“You never know, especially as an actor, where your next pay cheque comes from,” he tells the Post. Only when he was promoted to a series regular did he finally feel he had the safety net he had long desired. “At least now all my rent will be paid for,” he recalls thinking.
Fast forward a decade and O. Yang has achieved the rarefied success that eludes many Asian actors in Hollywood. It was a long time coming.

Towards the end of Silicon Valley’s run, he appeared as the scene-stealing Bernard Tai in Crazy Rich Asians (2018). Three years later, he starred as the main love interest in Love Hard, and finally became number one on the call sheet for the action comedy series Interior Chinatown, which premiered last year on Hulu and Disney+ to rave reviews.
At the same time, his stand-up comedy tours – clips from O. Yang’s Amazon Prime specials Good Deal (2020) and Guess How Much? (2023) have gone viral – catapulted O. Yang into the social media spotlight.

Through it all, the actor-comedian never forgot his roots, which is why he has returned to his birthplace, Hong Kong, to perform five sold-out comedy shows at the Hong Kong Coliseum from June 13-15.
“This is my first time doing shows in Asia, let alone Hong Kong,” he says. “I told my team my first show in Asia has to be in Hong Kong, and it has to be in the Hong Kong Coliseum because that’s such a classic, legendary venue.”
For the past four decades the Coliseum, in Hung Hom, Kowloon, has been the place where Cantopop’s biggest stars, and leading international acts, have performed in the city.
The first beach I ever went to was in Hong Kong, the first tram I ever took was in Hong Kong. So all my firsts [were] in Hong Kong.
Jimmy O. Yang
Given the Chinese name Au Yeung Man-sing when he was born – O. Yang is an anglicised form of his family name – the entertainer spent much of his childhood in Hong Kong with his Shanghainese parents until the family relocated to the United States when he was 13.
“For a long time I feel like my brain got divided in half,” he says. “When I was starting to live in America, I forgot about a lot of Hong Kong memories.”
It was only when he began returning to the city that his buried memories returned, among them visits to relatives’ homes to receive lucky red packets at Lunar New Year and visiting Hong Kong landmarks such as The Peak as a young child.
“All those are really core memories. The first beach I ever went to was in Hong Kong, the first tram I ever took was in Hong Kong. So all my firsts [were] in Hong Kong.”
“I think a lot of memories are connected to your senses,” he adds. “When you get [out of] the airport, you smell the damp humidity in the air, and then you smell the sweetness from the char siu, and then the sound and everything – that brings back a lot of memory. I think, still, this place feels like home, and there’s a comfort to it that’s very nice.”

O. Yang certainly views his five upcoming shows as a homecoming tour, but it has not been easy to achieve success in Hollywood to the point where he is able to dictate what he does. For instance, his choice of major at the University of California, San Diego – economics – was made to please his family.
“There is an expectation, especially if you grow up in a Chinese family, to go to college. And there’s only a few majors that are considered legitimate majors, like doctor, lawyer, economics, finance,” he says. “At first I was an engineering major, but then I didn’t love it, and I just tried to find something easier that’ll also make my dad happy. So I chose economics.”
When his father helped him get a prestigious finance internship with Wall Street firm Smith Barney, a company that later merged with investment bank Morgan Stanley, it seemed his path was set.
“It was like a golden ticket, man. Everybody wants to work for Smith Barney, Morgan Stanley, right?” But O. Yang never enjoyed it. Intrinsically creative – “when I was a kid, I would build little forts with my chopstick wrappers,” he says – he took odd jobs and tried to make money from his hobbies instead, working as a DJ and selling his music.
When he got up on stage to perform stand-up comedy, it stuck. “I didn’t have any stage fright, although my jokes weren’t very good in the beginning,” he says.
I think Hong Kong people have a great sense of humour, so I learned a lot from that growing up. And of course, my dad – he’s a very funny, charismatic Shanghainese man.
Jimmy O. Yang on his comedy
“I feel like you can really create something out of thin air without any tools. It’s just your brain and then a microphone. That’s all you need, and an audience. ... I just fell in love with it.”
That said, it still took years for O. Yang to hone his comedic timing and find his voice. Today his comedy is informed by the Hong Kong comedies he grew up watching – particularly those starring Stephen Chow Sing-chi.
“Later on, of course, that stuff crossed over worldwide with Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer, and I was so proud, because [Chow is] my childhood idol and hero. Still is,” O. Yang says.
“I think Hong Kong people have a great sense of humour, so I learned a lot from that growing up. And of course, my dad – he’s a very funny, charismatic Shanghainese man.”
Indeed, it is the clips where O. Yang jokes about his upbringing in a Chinese family that have garnered the most attention online. His first Amazon Prime special, Good Deal, made the rounds on short-video platform TikTok; the second, Guess How Much? gained traction on Chinese social media platform RedNote.
One notable sketch involves O. Yang explaining how Asian parents love bragging about saving money, with his mum’s catchphrase being: “Jimmy ah, guess how much?”
“One thing that really helped me find my voice is [to] start telling my own truth,” O. Yang says. “Especially in America, not everybody grew up with immigrant parents, not everybody grew up Chinese, but me getting more and more specific about my truth and letting people into seeing a piece of my life, that’s when people started relating to me.
“That’s when I was able to sell a lot more tickets, because now people are not just coming to watch me for the jokes. They’re coming to watch me because they feel like they know me.”

One might think, then, that being Asian was an advantage for O. Yang, but when the comedian was trying to break into Hollywood 10 years ago, Asian faces were far and few between. Crazy Rich Asians was the first project O. Yang was part of where he wasn’t the only Asian person on set.
“That felt really freeing,” he says. “Which is weird to say, right? Because in Hong Kong, you watch a TV show, everyone’s Asian, so there’s plenty of representation. But in America, representation, especially [of] Asian and all ... minorities and under-represented people, it’s still a fight that we still try to push.”
In Interior Chinatown, O. Yang plays Willis Wu, a background character in a fictional police procedural who gains more prominence as the series progresses – a path that mirrors his own trajectory as an actor.

“I put a lot of myself and my own life into that character to help me inform what he does in his decisions,” he says.
“In the beginning, Willis is a background actor in a Chinatown show. For me, one of my first jobs was Chinese teenager number two on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. You know who was the star? Chloe Bennet, who plays my co-star in Interior Chinatown. And it comes full circle.”
“It’s humbling. It’s nice to be able to learn throughout the years what it means and what it takes,” he adds. “It wasn’t overnight, or one show that blew me up or anything. Everything was a slow build. I think that was good for my sanity. I saw every step of the journey.”
… It makes me just want to come back to Hong Kong more, that there’s just so many people that really support me. It’s very touching.
Jimmy O. Yang on how quickly his Hong Kong shows sold out
His focus right now is on his Hong Kong shows, all of which sold out within minutes. Demand was so strong that, after releasing tickets for four shows, the comedian opened up access to presale tickets for a fifth show through his own website, which again sold out quickly.
“I really tried everything to get my tickets to the fans,” he says. “Comedy is supposed to be for the people, and if it’s up to me, I would do 50 shows if there’s availability and if my schedule allows.”
“Whenever I post something of me speaking Cantonese, I get a lot of love. But man, this is just next level,” he adds. “[With] the fanfare and how fast the tickets are selling out, I feel like Blackpink right now. It’s crazy, right? It’s wild.
“… It makes me just want to come back to Hong Kong more, that there’s just so many people that really support me. It’s very touching.”
Fans who did score tickets can expect some Cantonese slang and mentions of Hong Kong celebrities, but that’s all he is willing to share on the day of our interview.
“I can’t share too much, because I’m still writing. I don’t even know what I’m going to say.”


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Entertainment

Actor and comedian Jimmy O. Yang on making it in Hollywood, his Hong Kong childhood and amazement at how fast his shows in the city sold out


Actor and comedian Jimmy O. Yang on making it in Hollywood, his Hong Kong childhood and amazement at how fast his shows in the city sold out.


Why for Jimmy O. Yang Hong Kong feels like home, and comedy king’s rise from Uber driver

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Actor and comedian Jimmy O. Yang on making it in Hollywood, his Hong Kong childhood and amazement at how fast his shows in the city sold out

Actor and comedian Jimmy O. Yang on making it in Hollywood, his Hong Kong childhood and amazement at how fast his shows in the city sold out