Dressed in all black other than the blue flowers on his bomber jacket, Ken Jeong walked onto the stage Thursday night to a crowd of about 2,000 UF students ready to hear how a doctor became one of Hollywood’s most recognizable comedians.
It didn’t take long for Jeong to tell them.
When moderator Ted Spiker asked how the actor — known for his loud, uninhibited characters — could’ve possibly been a shy kid growing up, Jeong answered without hesitation.
“Well, I’m drunk now,” he joked.
The laugh was an introduction to a night that bounced between Jeong’s quick-witted humor and a more reflective story about the uncertainty behind his unconventional career.
Jeong joined Spiker, the associate dean of undergraduate affairs at UF’s College of Journalism and Communications, at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center for the Accent Speakers Bureau event that kicked off the Fall semester.
During the moderated conversation and student Q&A, the 57-year-old actor, comedian and former physician traced his path from a college student struggling to choose between medicine and drama to an actor known for his roles in “The Hangover,” “Community,” “Crazy Rich Asians” and “KPop Demon Hunters.”
Before his career in Hollywood, Jeong described himself as a “popular nerd” from North Carolina who entered college with little idea of what he wanted his future to look like.
That all changed when he took an acting class during his sophomore Spring.
“I was hooked,” Jeong said. “It just lit a fire in me that I just did not know how to manage.”
But simultaneously pursuing acting and medicine proved difficult. His organic chemistry grade fell from an A to a C-minus, and although he was accepted into drama school, Jeong ultimately stepped away to continue the pre-med track.
He began performing stand-up comedy during medical school and continued through his residency. Jeong credited his residency director for encouraging him to embrace comedy instead of seeing it as incompatible with a medical career.
“That honestly saved my life,” he said. “[There was] finally someone who gets me in such a profession where no one got me.”
After seven years as a full-time physician, Jeong eventually left medicine to pursue acting full-time with encouragement from his wife, Tran Ho, who is also a physician. Soon afterward, Ho was diagnosed with breast cancer while the couple had two young daughters.
Around the same time, Jeong landed the role of Leslie Chow in “The Hangover.”
He considered turning down the role to remain home with his family, he said, but his wife and mother-in-law encouraged him to take it. During the filming process, he channeled what he was experiencing at home into the character, even slipping Vietnamese phrases into scenes to make his wife laugh.
“Even if ‘The Hangover’ wasn’t the biggest thing I’ve ever done, it was for me the most important thing ever because it actually got me through literally the worst time of my life,” he said.
The film transformed Jeong’s career, turning what he expected to be a cult comedy into a breakout role he said became bigger than any of its individual actors. Rather than distancing himself from Leslie Chow as his career expanded, Jeong said he’s embraced being associated with the character.
Chow represented something Jeong wasn’t in his own life, he said: a character who was “psychotic and free,” acting on impulses Jeong normally wouldn’t.
Despite the character’s chaos, Jeong said one part of himself shown through in the performance: his love of life.
The role’s staying power ultimately changed how Jeong measured success. Seeing “The Hangover” connect with audiences taught him a performance’s impact could matter more than proving his range as an actor.
Beyond reflecting on his film and television career, Jeong repeatedly turned his experiences into advice for the students in the audience. Much of it centered on persistence and accepting college doesn’t always come with a clear path.
When Spiker asked how students can know when to persist or change direction, Jeong said there is no definitive answer. Instead, he encouraged students to learn through trial and error and explore their interests despite the uncertainty of college.
His advice became more specific during the student Q&A. When asked what he would tell struggling pre-med students, Jeong returned to the same theme: “Persist, persist.”
He told students not to become overconfident after successes or overly discouraged by setbacks, joking that their main goal should be to “survive orgo.”
For Gabby Marquez, a 19-year-old UF architecture sophomore, the event was both a chance to see a familiar face from the screen and reconnect with friends after summer break.
A fan of Jeong’s roles in “Crazy Rich Asians” and “The Masked Singer,” Marquez found out about the event through a UF Student Engagement post on Instagram. It was her first Accent event.
“It’s nice to have an event where you can meet up with your friends again after having not seen them the whole summer,” she said.
For Madelyn Bland, a 19-year-old UF marine science sophomore, her first Accent event began in the pouring rain. She waited outside before meeting a friend farther in line, but said the wait went by quickly once she was under cover.
Bland, who watches “The Masked Singer” with her family, said bringing speakers like Jeong to campus gives students a chance to come together. The opportunity can be particularly important for freshmen at the beginning of the semester, she said.
“It’s just fun to have something to do like this, and it gets more people invested in UF,” Bland said.
The rain that greeted students before the event made a final appearance in Jeong’s remarks as the night came to a close. After over an hour shifting between serious reflections on his career and the humor that built it, he thanked UF students for attending despite the weather.
Then, in a goodbye more characteristic of the comedian students had come to see, Jeong left the crowd with two words: “Toodaloo, motherf---ers.”
Contact Aaliyah Evertz at aevertz@alligator.org. Follow her on X @aaliyahevertz1.
Aaliyah Evertz is a UF journalism junior and the Summer 2026 Opinions Editor. This is her third semester at The Alligator, having previously served as The Avenue's entertainment and general assignment reporter. In her free time, she likes to read, bake and listen to true crime podcasts.
