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From Bedside to Box Office: The Many Roles of Ken Jeong, MD

— The doctor-turned-actor plays a doctor in his own TV show

Last Updated October 29, 2015
MedpageToday
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Unlike the soap opera actor who in the 1980s, Ken Jeong, MD, is a real doctor, and he plays one on TV and in the movies.

Jeong's new comedy, airing Friday nights on ABC, just received a full season order from the network. His bio lists more than two dozen film credits, including "Knocked Up," "Couples Retreat," and "The Hangover" series, and numerous TV appearances.

But he also maintains his license to practice medicine in California. Before he was making house calls to viewers on their television and movie screens, he was a primary care physician.

"I wanted a career in academics, and medicine was like the holy grail," said Jeong." I never had any aspirations to be an actor or go into comedy."

A self-described "happy nerd" in high school, Jeong got his first taste of performing when he was a contestant in a mock male beauty pageant. The experience led him to become interested in exploring acting further.

"Organically, it led me to be curious to take an acting class and I got bit by the acting bug in college. I was pre-med at Duke and I wasn't sure if I was ever going to perform," said Jeong.

He then graduated from the University of North Carolina medical school and did his residency in internal medicine at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, where he was recently named

, medical director of cardiac rehabilitation and prevention at the John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute in New Orleans said that while it was admittedly a long time ago, he remembered Jeong as being a very good resident.

"I recall his being really funny with great sense of humor and fun to have on rounds and with the patients, who really liked him and appreciated his sense of humor even dealing with serious medical problems," Lavie said.

Jeong started doing stand-up comedy, but still had no real plans to leave medicine for acting.

"I did stand-up as a hobby -- I thought I would just do medicine by day and stand-up by night," Jeong said. Then his agent submitted him for an audition for the role of the doctor in 2007's "Knocked Up."

It was a nationwide casting search. Jeong put an audition on tape and was then invited for a second audition. He said that when he didn't hear anything more for months, he assumed he didn't get the part.

Jeong's success as Dr. Kuni in "Knocked Up" led to his role as Mr. Chow in "The Hangover" and its two sequels, as well as a host of other . He's appeared in some three dozen television programs, including a regular role in the long-running "Community" series in which he played Señor Ben Chang.

Now he is starring in "Dr. Ken," a comedy series about a brilliant doctor with no bedside manner, who is trying to be a good doctor and a good dad to his two kids, with his therapist wife Alison (Suzy Nakamura) keeping him sane. Jeong described it as a show based on his "life and roots."

In fact, he credited his real-life wife Tran Ho, also an MD, for supporting him when he wanted to become a full-time actor. He described himself as being surrounded by "so much support and love."

Despite all his success, Jeong said that even though he is first and foremost an actor, he will always be a physician. But he does not miss many aspects of his first career.

"I don't miss the hours, working weekends, holidays, working every weekend," said Jeong. "But I do miss my patients."

In fact, a group of Jeong's former patients recently came to a taping of "Dr. Ken." Jeong said he keeps in touch with them via email and Facebook.

Jeong called the experience of being an actor and a doctor "very surreal." For other doctors thinking of a career change, he says it's not impossible, but that they should be ready to start all over again.

"Medicine is the most stable profession in the world," Jeong said. "If you want to expand into the creative arts, make sure you're really passionate about what you're doing and ready to go back to square one."