Margaret Cho

American comedian and actress (born 1968)

Margaret Moran Cho (born December 5, 1968) is an American stand up comedian and actress. She is known for her stand up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially regarding race and sexuality. She rose to prominence after starring in the ABC sitcom All American Girl (1994–95), and became an established stand up comic in the subsequent years. As an actress, she has acted in such roles as Charlene Lee in It's My Party and John Travolta's FBI colleague in the action film Face/Off. Cho was part of the cast of the TV series Drop Dead Diva on Lifetime Television, in which she appeared as Teri Lee, a paralegal assistant. For her portrayal of Kim Jong il on 30 Rock, she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2012. In 2022, Cho co starred in the film Fire Island, a portrayal of the LGBT Asian American experience in the eponymous gay village off the South Shore of Long Island. She has also had endeavors in fashion and music, and has her own clothing line. Cho has also frequently supported LGBT rights and has won awards for her humanitarian efforts on behalf of women, Asian Americans, and the LGBT community.

Cho was born in 1968 to a family of Korean origin in San Francisco, California. During the Korean War, Myung sook ran an orphanage in Seoul. According to Margaret herself, she "grew up in the church." which she described as a community of "old hippies, ex druggies, burn outs from the 1960s, drag queens, Chinese people, and Koreans. To say it was a melting pot – that's the least of it. It was a really confusing, enlightening, wonderful time." Cho's parents, Young Hie and Seung Hoon Cho, ran Paperback Traffic, a bookstore on Polk Street at California Street in San Francisco. Her father writes joke books and a newspaper column in Seoul, South Korea. At school, Cho was bullied, saying that "I was hurt because I was different, and so sharing my experience of being beaten and hated and called fat and queer and foreign and perverse and gluttonous and lazy and filthy and dishonest and yet all the while remaining invisible heals me, and heals others when they hear it – those who are suffering right now." Between the ages of five and twelve, Cho was "sexually molested by a family friend". On the Loveline May 21, 1997 show with Adam Carolla and Drew Pinsky, she talks about being raped by her uncle, while during the same time period he was raping his three year old daughter. She often skipped class and got bad grades in ninth and tenth grades, resulting in her expulsion from Lowell High School. alongside actors Sam Rockwell and Aisha Tyler. At age 15, she worked as a phone sex operator, and she later worked as a dominatrix. After graduating from high school, Cho attended San Francisco State University, studying drama; she did not graduate.

Though her career and personal life were challenging after the show's cancellation, Cho eventually sobered up, refocused her energy, and developed new material. She hosted the New Year's Rockin' Eve 95 show with Steve Harvey. In 1997, she had a supporting role in the thriller film Face/Off starring Nicolas Cage and John Travolta, playing Wanda, one of the fellow FBI agents of Travolta's primary character. In 1999, she wrote about her struggles with All American Girl in her first one woman show, I'm the One That I Want. That year, I'm the One That I Want won New York magazine's Performance of the Year award and was named one of the Great Performances of the year by Entertainment Weekly. At the same time, Cho wrote and published an autobiographical book with the same title, and the show itself was filmed and released as a concert film in 2000. Her material dealt with her difficulties breaking into show business because of her ethnicity and weight and her resulting struggle with and triumph over body image issues and drug and alcohol addiction. Cho also appeared in an episode of the HBO comedy Sex and the City's fourth season. The episode, titled "The Real Me," first aired on June 3, 2001, and also guest starred Heidi Klum. In 2004, the show Notorious C. H. O. (the title was derived from slain rapper The Notorious B. I. G.) referred to the comedian having been reared in 1970s San Francisco and her bisexuality. After completing Notorious C. H. O., she made another stand up film, Revolution, released in 2004, and subsequently work on her first self written film in which she starred. Bam Bam and Celeste, a low budget comedy about a "fag hag" and her gay best friend, co starred Cho's friend and co touring act Bruce Daniels. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2005. On Valentine's Day of 2004, Cho spoke at the Marriage Equality Rally at the California State Capitol. Her speech can be seen in the documentary Freedom to Marry.

In 2005, Cho released her second book, I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight, a compilation of essays and prose about global politics, human rights, and other topical issues. Cho launched a national book tour in support of the collection. An audio reading of the book was also released. A DVD of a live taping of her Assassin tour was released in conjunction with the book. The same year, Cho started promoting and touring with her new show, Assassin. The show became her fourth live concert film and premiered on the gay and lesbian premium cable network Here! TV in September 2005. In this DVD, she notably includes herself when talking about gay people, saying "we" and "our community." Posters for Assassin featured Cho in paratrooper gear and holding a microphone in the style of an automatic rifle, a reference to the infamous 1974 photo of heiress Patty Hearst. Cho launched "The Sensuous Woman," a burlesque style variety show tour, in Los Angeles on August 10, 2007, with tour dates scheduled through November 3, as of October 10. Scheduled tour stops meant to follow Los Angeles were Chicago, Illinois and New York City. Also in 2007, Cho appeared in The Dresden Dolls' video of their song "Shores of California," which was MCed by Amanda Palmer and in The Cliks's video for "Eyes in the Back of My Head," in which she appeared as Lucas Silveira's lover. She also provided the character voice for a character named Condie Ling on the Logo animated series Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World. Her episodes began airing in 2007. The premiere performance of Cho's "Beautiful" tour was on February 28, 2008, in Sydney, Australia as part of the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival. Cho was also the Chief of Parade for the festival's annual parade along Oxford Street on March 1. During her stay in Sydney, Cho was filmed shopping for parade outfits in a drag store with Kathy Griffin and Cyndi Lauper for Griffin's Bravo series My Life on the D List. The episode featuring Cho aired on June 26, 2008. Cho and her family and friends appeared in an episode of NBC's series Celebrity Family Feud, which premiered on June 24, 2008. Later that summer, she appeared in her own semi scripted reality sitcom for VH1, The Cho Show, which premiered on August 21, 2008 and lasted one season. She next appeared in the supporting cast of the series Drop Dead Diva, which debuted in July 2009.

Cho is also well known for discussing her relationship with her mother, particularly in imitating her mother's heavily accented speech. Her depictions of "Mommy" have become a popular part of her routine. Cho's comedy routines are often explicit. She has covered substance abuse, eating disorders, her bisexuality and obsession with gay men, and Asian American stereotypes, among other subjects, in her stand up routines. A substantial segment of her material and advocacy addresses LGBT issues. In addition to her shows, Cho also developed an additional outlet for her advocacy with the advent of her website and her daily blog. When San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom directed that San Francisco's city hall issue marriage licenses to same sex couples in San Francisco in 2004 (until reversed by the state supreme court), Cho started Love is Love is Love, a website promoting the legalization of gay marriage in the United States. Cho's material often features commentary on politics and contemporary American culture. She has also been outspoken about her dislike of former President George W. Bush. She began to draw intense fire from conservatives over her fiercely anti Bush commentary; a live performance in Houston, Texas, was threatened with picketing. Although protesters never showed up, she held a counter protest outside the club until security told her she had to go inside. In 2004, Cho was performing at a corporate event in a hotel when, after ten minutes, her microphone was cut off and a band was instructed to begin playing. Cho claims that this was because the manager of the hotel was offended by anti Bush administration comments. Cho's payment, which was issued by way of check directly to a non profit organization, a defense fund for the West Memphis Three, initially bounced but was eventually honored. In July 2004, during the Democratic National Convention, Cho was disinvited to speak at a Human Rights Campaign/National Stonewall Democrats fundraiser out of fear that her comments might cause controversy. In November 2005, she campaigned to pardon Stanley Tookie Williams, an early Crips gang leader, for his death sentence for four murders, but this campaign failed; on December 13, 2005, after exhausting all forms of appeal, Williams was executed by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison, California. In 2007, Cho hosted the multi artist True Colors Tour, which traveled through 15 cities in the United States and Canada. The tour, sponsored by the Logo channel, began on June 8, 2007. Headlined by Cyndi Lauper, the tour also included Debbie Harry, Erasure, The Gossip, Rufus Wainwright, The Dresden Dolls, The MisShapes, Rosie O'Donnell, Indigo Girls, The Cliks, and other special guests. Profits from the tour helped to benefit the Human Rights Campaign as well as PFLAG and The Matthew Shepard Foundation. On January 25, 2008, Cho officially gave her support to Barack Obama for the nomination on the Democratic ticket for the 2008 U. S. presidential election. After Republican Presidential candidate John McCain announced his running mate, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, Cho said of her, "I think [Palin] is the worst thing to happen to America since 9/11." After same sex marriage became legal in California in May 2008, Cho was deputized by the City of San Francisco to perform marriages there.

In 2003, Cho founded a clothing line with friend and fashion designer Ava Stander called High Class Cho. The company eventually went defunct. In 2004, Cho took up bellydancing and in 2006 started her own line of bellydancing belts and accessories called Hip Wear; these she sold through her website. She also had extensive tattooing done to cover the majority of her back. In November 2006, Cho joined the board of Good Vibrations, a sex toy retailer. With fellow comedian Diana Yanez, she co wrote "My Puss", a rap song which they recorded as the duo of "Maureen and Angela." Cho appeared in and directed the music video for the song. In December 2006, Cho appeared on the Sci Fi Channel's miniseries The Lost Room as Suzie Kang. On an episode of The Hour with host George Stroumboulopoulos, Cho mentioned that she loved Broken Social Scene and wishes to be a part of the band (offering to play the rainstick or the triangle). On air, Stroumboulopoulos called band member Kevin Drew from his cell phone, and Cho made her request to join the band via his voicemail. In April 2009, Cho was photographed by photographer Austin Young and appeared in a Bettie Page–inspired "Heaven Bound" art show.

In September 2008, Cho released her single, "I Cho Am a Woman," on iTunes. The song, produced by Desmond Child, was featured on her VH1 series. Throughout 2010, she worked on a full length album, going through the titles "Guitarded" and "Banjovi" before finally settling on Cho Dependent. Released on August 24, 2010, the album was supported by music videos for "I'm Sorry," "Eat Shit and Die," and "My Lil' Wayne;" Liam Kyle Sullivan directed the first two. It was nominated for a 2010 Grammy award for Best Comedy Album. In 2011 Showtime released a stand up comedy special, titled Margaret Cho: Cho Dependent, which featured musical performances from the album. In May 2010, Cho directed and appeared in, the music video for "I Wanna Be a Bear," a song by "Pixie Herculon," a pseudonym of Jill Sobule. In 2011, Cho sang the Bob Mould song "Your Favorite Thing" at the tribute concert See A Little Light with Grant Lee Phillips. In July 2014, she appeared in "Weird Al" Yankovic's music video for "Tacky." In April 2016, Cho released her second album, American Myth. In May 2016, she rapped on and made an appearance in the music video for "Green Tea", a song by rapper Awkwafina. Both play with stereotypes of people of East Asian descent in hopes that "women of color embrace their quirkiness, their sexuality, their inner child and their creativity with passion." Also in 2016, Cho was featured on the track "Ride or Die" on the album Sweet T by American drag queen and singer/artist Ginger Minj.

In July 2019, Cho started a podcast called The Margaret Cho. It features guests who primarily work in show business and features original music by Garrison Starr.

Cho married Al Ridenour, an artist involved in The Cacophony Society and the Art of Bleeding, in 2003. Cho was featured in an Art of Bleeding performance in March 2006. She described her marriage as "very conventional and conservative, I think. I mean we're such weird people that people just can't imagine that we would have a conventional marriage. But, yeah, we are very conventional." They were separated in September 2014 and Cho confirmed their separation in December. Cho referred to herself as "divorced" in an April 2015 profile in The New York Times, but actually filed for divorce in August 2015. In April 2019 it was reported that the divorce was finalized. In the early 1990s, Cho dated director Quentin Tarantino. as of 2008, in a profanity laced blog post, Cho self identified as a Christian, although she does not agree with nor align ideologically with mainstream Christianity. as of 2009, Cho was living in Peachtree City, Georgia, as Drop Dead Diva was filmed in the Atlanta area. Cho is openly bisexual, and has stated that she has had "a lot of experience in the area of polyamory and alternative sexuality in general." When discussing her sexuality in a 2018 Huffington Post interview, Cho said, "I don't know using 'bisexual' is right because that indicates that there's only two genders, and I don't believe that. I've been with people all across the spectrum of gender and who have all kinds of different expressions of gender, so it's so hard to say. Maybe 'pansexual' is technically the more correct term but I like 'bisexual' because it's kind of '70s." Cho states that she "loves" Fire Island and spends summers there. She first learned about sexuality in the 1960s from her parents, who bought a gay bookstore. In the 1980s, she identified as a lesbian, saying the title at that time had the stereotype of "wearing jean shorts, Doc Martens, a bike chain, a messenger bag and a portable CD player spinning Ani DiFranco". Cho was a guest on comedian Bobby Lee's Tigerbelly Podcast Episode 71, which was uploaded on December 16, 2016. In that episode, she recounted an incident between her and actress Tilda Swinton. According to Cho, Swinton contacted her via email to discuss the Asian American community's reaction to the news that Swinton had been cast to play the Ancient One, who in comic books is Tibetan, in the film Doctor Strange. Cho found the inquiry odd, since she did not know Swinton and had never talked to her before, nor did she have anything to do with the film or casting. According to Swinton, she had contacted Cho to better understand why Asian Americans were upset about the casting. In response to the release, Cho stated that she stands by her words both on TigerBelly and in the email exchange. Cho revealed in a panel discussion that after doing genealogy testing, she discovered that she had some Chinese ancestry.

Date GuestsJuly 15, 2019 Jonathan Van Ness and Katie MaliaJuly 22, 2019Kat Von D and Drew DroegeJuly 29, 2019Michael Yo and Lucas PetersonAugust 5, 2019Robin TranAugust 12, 2019 Fortune Feimster and Jodi LongAugust 19, 2019 Diablo Cody, Durk Dehner, and S. R. SharpAugust 26, 2019 Cherie Currie and Helen HongSeptember 2, 2019 Daniel WebbSeptember 9, 2019 Jo Koy and Ian HarvieSeptember 16, 2019Trixie MattelSeptember 23, 2019 Amy LandeckerOctober 1, 2019 Jackie Beat and Mary H. K. Choi

YearTitleLabelFormats 1996 Drunk with Power Uproar Entertainment Cassette / CD / Download 1998 Live in Houston Soundball International CD 2001 Live in Concert – I'm the One That I Want Cho Taussig Productions / Nettwerk America 2xCD / Download 2002 Notorious C. H. O. – Live at Carnegie Hall Nettwerk America 2xCD / Download 2003 Revolution Nettwerk America CD / Download 2005 Assassin Nettwerk CD / Download 2009 Live and Uncut – Beautiful Image Entertainment Download 2011 Cho Dependent – Live at the Tabernacle Clownery Records Download 2015 PsyCHO Clownery Productions Download

YearTitleTracksLabelFormats 2001 Paul McCartney & Friends: The PeTA Concert For Party Animals "Margaret Cho" Image Entertainment VHS / DVD 2006 Wed Rock: A Benefit For Freedom To Marry "Read the Administration" / "Origin of Love" Centaur Entertainment CD / Download 2010 Drop Dead Diva (Music from the Original Television Series) "Would I Lie To You" / "Restraining Order" Madison Gate Records CD / Download New Music Seminar – New York City – 7/21/10 (5th Movement – The Breaks) Moderator New Music Seminar, LLC Download 2013 An Evening With Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer "Margaret Cho Introduces The Show" 8 ft. Records LP / CD / Download See a Little Light: A Celebration of the Music and Legacy of Bob Mould "Your Favorite Thing" Granary Music DVD / Download 2014 2776: A Levinson Bros & Rob Kutner Presentation "Mt. Rushmore" Levinson Bros & Rob Kutner CD / Download 2015 Mitre: Mitre "Bulletproof" Mitre Records, Inc. Download 2016 Ginger Minj: Sweet T "Ride or Die" Producer Entertainment Group CD / Download 2018 Just for Laughs – Premium, Vol. 26 "Fresh off the Boat" (Jfl 2015) Just for Laughs CD / Download

YearTitleOther ArtistsDirectorAlbum 2006 My Puss Diana Yanez, Kurt Hall, Maureen & Angela Margaret Cho Cho Dependent 2009 Eat Shit and Die (Live at Largo) Grant Lee Phillips & Alexander Burke 25 Random Things (Live at Largo) Alexander Burke Non album track 2010 My Lil' Wayne Ben Lee, Nic Johns; camera Ione Skye Al Ridenour I'm Sorry Andrew Bird Liam Sullivan Cho Dependent Eat Shit and Die Grant Lee Phillips Lice Ben Lee Intervention Tegan and Sara 2011 Captain Cameltoe Ani DiFranco Roberutsu Hey Big Dog Fiona Apple; co writer Patty Griffin Al Ridenour Asian Adjacent Grant Lee Phillips Tani Ikeda Baby I'm with the Band Brendan Benson Liam Sullivan 2013 Doesn't It Remind You of Something Ken Stringfellow (Feat. Margaret Cho) Casey Curry Danzig In the Moonlight 2015 How Close Is Glenn Close John Roberts Ned Stressen Rueter & Katherine Kendall Non album track Fat Pussy John Asher American Myth Ron's Got a DUI Garrison Starr; starring Leslie Jordan Bryan Mir I Wanna Kill My Rapist Andy Moraga & Roger Rocha Bryan Mir & Ben Eisner M**********n' Emojis! Princess Superstar Francis Legge Non album track DICKtator Andy Moraga 2016 Anna Nicole Garrison Starr Bryan Mir American Myth Come With Me Anna Nicole (Live Acoustic) Green Tea Awkwafina Tony Kim In Fina We Trust EP