Margaret Cho's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Dancing With the Stars Margaret Cho The Lost Room Suzie Kang Drop Dead Diva Teri Lee Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World (CA) Condi Ling All-American Girl Margaret Kim The Cho Show Margaret Cho

Main Movie Roles 2010 - I Am Comic 2009 - 17 Again 2008 - One Missed Call 2000 - I'm the One That I Want 1998 - The Rugrats Movie 1997 - Face/Off 1996 - It's My Party 1995 - The Doom Generation 1994 - Red Shoe Diaries 9: Hotline

BIOGRAPHY:

Margaret Cho (born December 5, 1968) is an American comedian, fashion designer, actress, author, and recording artist. Cho is best known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially those pertaining to race, sexuality, and sex. She has also directed and appeared in music videos and has her own clothing line. She has frequently supported LGBT rights and has won awards for her humanitarian efforts on behalf of women, the transgender community, Asians, and the LGBT community.

As an actress she has played more serious parts, such as that of John Travolta's long-suffering FBI colleague in the action movie Face/Off. She is part of the hit TV series Drop Dead Diva on Lifetime Television, playing the role of Terri, a paralegal assistant.

Early life
Cho was born into a Korean family in San Francisco, California. She grew up in a racially diverse neighborhood in the 1970s and 1980s, which she described as a community of "old hippies, ex-druggies, burnouts from the '60s, 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 as well as a newspaper column in Seoul, South Korea. After Cho expressed an interest in performance, she auditioned and was accepted into the San Francisco School of the Arts, a performing-arts high school. While at the school, she became involved with the school's improvisational comedy group alongside actor Sam Rockwell.

Early career
After doing several shows in a club adjacent to her parents' bookstore, Cho launched a stand-up career and spent several years developing her material in clubs. Cho's career began to build after appearances on television and university campuses. In 1992, she appeared on the unsuccessful Golden Girls spin-off The Golden Palace in a small role. In 2010, on The View, she discussed her nervousness about doing The Golden Palace and thanked the late Rue McClanahan for her help practicing the part following the announcement of McClanahan's death. Also in the early years of her career, she secured a coveted spot as opening act for Jerry Seinfeld and was featured on a Bob Hope special. She was also a frequent visitor to The Arsenio Hall Show. In 1994, Cho won the American Comedy Award for Best Female Comedian.


TRIVIA:

• Chosen by Goldsea Asian American Daily as one of the "100 Most Inspiring Asian Americans of All Time".
• At age 16 started doing stand up comedy. Traveled widely with 'Janeane Garofalo' (qv) on the comedy club circuit. They blamed each other for their bad smoking habits.
• Her parents moved to San Francisco from Seoul, Korea in 1964.
• Favorite band is Canadian group Broken Social Scene.
• Dated 'Chris Isaak' (qv).
• Was the star of the first sitcom to feature an all Asian-American cast (which was based on her own life and stand-up comedy act.)
• Kicked out of Lowell High School because she had a 0.60 GPA, but was later accepted to McAteer High School for the Performing Arts.
• Is a fan of adult film actor 'Jeff Stryker' (qv). She has spoken admiringly of him in some of her stand up monologues.