Bobby Lee
Robert Young Lee Jr. is an American actor, comedian and podcaster, best known for being a cast member on MADtv from 2001 to 2009 and for his roles in the films Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Pineapple Express, and The Dictator. Between 2018 and 2019, Lee co-starred in the ABC single-camera sitcom series Splitting Up Together alongside Jenna Fischer and Oliver Hudson.
In 2016, Lee started a weekly podcast titled TigerBelly, which currently has over 447,000 subscribers and over 80 million views on YouTube.
Early life and education
Lee was born Robert Young Lee, Jr. in San Diego County, California to parents Jeanie and Robert Lee. He and his younger brother grew up in Poway, California. Lee attended Painted Rock Elementary School, Twin Peaks Middle School, and Poway High School. In high school, he was part of a breakdancing team. At 18, Lee moved out of his parents' home and took jobs in restaurants and coffee shops in the San Diego area while attending Palomar College. He later dropped out.Lee's Korean American parents owned clothing stores in both Escondido and Encinitas, California. His mother currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Lee's younger brother, Steve Lee, is a musician and host of The Steebee Weebee podcast. Steve has also made guest appearances alongside Bobby on MAD Tv, especially in sketches featuring Kim Jong Il and Tank.
Career
Lee worked various jobs at cafes and restaurants before pursuing a career in comedy. In 1994, the coffee shop he was working at abruptly closed. “I just went next door to get a job,” he said, “which was The Comedy Store in San Diego”. After a few months of working odd jobs at the club, he decided to try stand-up during one of their amateur nights. Within a year of doing regular comedy sets, he received offers to open for both Pauly Shore and Carlos Mencia. Lee went on to work regularly at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles, a comedy club owned by Pauly Shore's mother Mitzi.Lee has admitted in several interviews that his parents had hoped he would continue on with the family business and were less than supportive of his comedic pursuits at first. During a podcast interview conducted by fellow actor and comedian Joe Rogan on February 1, 2011, Lee stated that during the first few years he did stand-up his parents barely spoke to him, however after his appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno his father called him and asked how much he had to pay to be on the show and then apologized for not supporting his comedy career.
Lee is known to include his family in some of his work; his younger brother has appeared in several non-speaking roles on MADtv and his entire family has appeared in a sketch on the show. Lee also pitched a sitcom to Comedy Central in 2007 about a Korean family which was to star his very own family.
Lee hosted the 9th MusiCares MAP Fund Benefit Concert in 2013.
In 2020, Lee began co-hosting the Bad Friends podcast with Andrew Santino.
''MADtv''
In 2001, Lee joined the cast of MADtv, making him the show's first and only Asian cast member. He has publicly expressed hating playing the characters Bae Sung and Connie Chung. Lee remained with the cast until the series' cancellation in 2009 and returned briefly when MADtv was revived in 2016 on The CW. Some of Lee's recurring characters included:| Character name | Description |
| Kim Jong-il | Host of the imaginary Kim Jong-il Show |
| Connie Chung | Journalist |
| Bae Sung | The hapless interpreter |
| Tank | Asian-American "Street Tuner" character in the style of the film |
| Xing Lao "Johnny" Gan | Host of Many Shows! With Johnny Gan and Pongo |
| "The Blind Kung-fu Master" | Title character |
| Dr. Poon Ji-Sum | Character on the Korean soap opera parody Taedo-Attitudes and Feelings, Both Desirable and Sometimes Secretive |
| Hideki "The Average Asian" | Asian man whose friends think he adheres to the stereotypes associated with East Asian people |
| John McCain | United States Senator from Arizona |
| Stewie Griffin | Infant super-villain in a live-action re-creation of a scene from the Family Guy episode "Fast Times at Buddy Cianci High" |
| Yamanashi | Student in gym class of Coach Hines, who always gets yelled at and harassed by Coach Hines. |
''TigerBelly'' Podcast
TigerBelly is a video podcast hosted by Lee and his girlfriend, Khalyla Kuhn, which currently has over 401,000 subscribers and 69 million views on YouTube. Also on camera is actor and comedian Gilbert Galon, and behind the scenes producer and frequent on-screen personality, George Kimmel. Kuhn became interested in doing podcasts of her own after she was a guest on the DVDASA podcast. The show's intro song "Shadow Gook" was written and produced by Lee and performed by Lee and Kuhn. The hosts discuss events from their lives and news topics from popular culture, often revolving around Asian American issues related to the entertainment industry, adolescence, sexuality, ethnicity, racism, and politics. Towards the end of the show, host Galon reads listener questions, which are addressed in a segment jokingly referred to as "Unhelpful Advice". Periodically, the end of the show features a segment called "MMA minute" in which the hosts discuss mixed martial arts and the UFC.Lee and Erik Griffin initially pitched a podcast to All Things Comedy and they were immediately signed but the two could never make the time to meet. Around this time Lee and Kuhn were visiting family in the Philippines, when Kuhn came down with serious heart trouble. She spent weeks in hospitals and couldn't return to her nursing job. She needed something to do to keep busy and so started her own podcast. Lee came on her show and the chemistry was so good that Lee decided to drop Griffin and instead focus on podcasts with Kuhn.
As TigerBelly grew, Lee and Kuhn needed an engineer to watch over the computer and consult on technical issues, so they asked Gilbert to handle the technical side of the podcast; Lee had met Gilbert at a viewing of a Manny Pacquiao fight. Lee met future TigerBelly producer, George Kimmel, when he was working on The Station comedy channel for Maker Studios, where Kimmel was working as a producer.
In 2016, the podcast was reported in multiple media outlets after guest Margaret Cho in Episode 71 recalled an email exchange between her and actress Tilda Swinton over the controversial Ancient One casting in Doctor Strange.
Personal life
Addiction and sobriety
Lee began taking methamphetamine and marijuana around 12 and went through three drug-rehabilitation attempts, ending his meth abuse around 17. During his period of drug abuse, Lee claims that he not only competed in a wrestling tournament but won under the influence of methamphetamine and LSD. When he started MADtv, a producer told him that "he wasn't funny and that they wouldn't use him in the show very often." Unable to handle the pressure, Lee relapsed on Vicodin and ended 12 years of sobriety. He got sober after MADtv producer Lauren Dombrowski fought for him after he was fired from the show a second time. Dombrowski died of cancer on October 8, 2008 in Los Angeles at the age of 51. Lee said that one of the only times he has ever cried was at Dombrowski's funeral. On TigerBelly Episode 224, Lee admitted to guest Theo Von that he had relapsed after his father's death in August 2019. At the time of recording, he was 11 days sober and had recently left rehab.Lee has stated that he is a recovering alcoholic.
Selected filmography
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2001-2009, 2016 | MADtv | Various | - |
| 2002 | The Tonight Show with Jay Leno | Self | Aired April 26 |
| 2005 | Curb Your Enthusiasm | "The Korean Bookie" | |
| 2005 – 2006 | Mind of Mencia | An Asian CSI agent, gay pirate | Episodes: "#1.6" and "Stereotype Olympics" |
| 2007 | American Dad! | Danny | |
| 2007 | Sales Guys | Earl Wayne Thurman | |
| 2009 – 2011 | Family Guy | Various | |
| 2009 | State of Romance | Andrew | |
| 2010 | Cubed | Bob Yamamoto | |
| 2010 | Ktown Cowboys | Bobby Lee | |
| 2011 – 2014 | Chelsea Lately | Round Table Regular | |
| 2011 | Big Time Rush | T.J. | |
| 2012 | Samurai! Daycare | Park | |
| 2012 | RVC: The Lone Shopping Network | Hiri | |
| 2012 | Animal Practice | Dr. Yamamoto | |
| 2013 | Arrested Development | Mrs. Oh | Episode: "Queen B." |
| 2013 | Sean Saves the World | ||
| 2014 | The League | Lee Wei Lee | Episodes: "The Usual Bet" and "Epi Sexy" |
| 2013 – 2015 | The Awesomes | Voice of Tim/Sumo | Animated series on Hulu |
| 2015 | ' | Rio Syamsundin | Episode "Blame it on Rio" |
| 2017 | What Would Diplo Do? | Brian | |
| 2016 – 2018 | Love | Truman | On Netflix, with Gillian Jacobs |
| 2018 | ' | Rio Syamsundin | |
| 2018 – 2019 | Splitting Up Together | Arthur | On ABC - series regular |
| 2019 – 2020 | Magnum P.I. | Jin | Episodes: "Honor Among Thieves", "Make It 'Til Dawn", "A Game of Cat and Mouse", and "A World of Trouble" |
| 2020 | Game On! | CBS |
Music
| Year | Title | Artist | Role | Notes |
| 2009 | "We Made You" | Eminem | Sulu from , and an Inuit | |
| 2010 | "2 Different Tears" | Wonder Girls | ||
| 2010 | "Hangover" | Taio Cruz | Captain |