Hi everyone I'm Scott Feinberg and thank you for tuning into the 269th episode of Awards Chatter,

the Hollywood Reporters Awards Podcast, which is brought to you this week by HBO's Barry.

Catch new episodes of Barry, starring Emmy winners Bill Hader and Henry Winkler, Sundays at 10 PM only on HBO.

My guest today is an actor and stand-up comedian who is best known for playing outlandish characters

on screens Big and small.

The wild gangster Mr. Chow in the Hangover trilogy comprised the films released in 2009,

2011, and 2013.

The insane Spanish teacher, Senior Chang, on NBC's community, which ran from 2009

through 2015, and the Nouveau Riche Prankser, Mr. Go, in the 2018 film Crazy Rich Asians, the first Hollywood film in 25 years

with an all- Asian cast. This year he has appeared as a regular panelist on the

first season of Fox's The Mast singer and starred in his first televised stand-up special,

Netflix's You Complete Me Ho, a deeply personal, funny and emotional look back at his unlikely journey to

stardom. I'm talking of course

about the hilarious Dr Ken Jong. Over the course of our conversation at the

offices of the Hollywood reporter, the 49-year-old and I discuss how he spent years

of his life preparing to become a doctor,

even though he yearned to be a performer. Why, after becoming a doctor, he decided to walk away from his job

and pursue a career in performing full-time,

how a crisis at home almost kept him from accepting an offer to play Mr. Chow in the hangover,

the part that catapulted him to start him,

and what sort of backlash he received after the film came out, what the

the important lessons were that he learned from his time on community,

...