BD Wong | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Born | Bradley Darryl Wong October 24, 1960 San Francisco, California, U.S. | ||||||
Other names | Bradd Wong | ||||||
Occupation(s) | Actor, director | ||||||
Years active | 1983–present | ||||||
Spouse | Richert Schnorr (m. 2018) | ||||||
Partner | Richie Jackson (1988–2004) | ||||||
Children | 2 | ||||||
Chinese name | |||||||
Traditional Chinese | 黃榮亮 | ||||||
Simplified Chinese | 黄荣亮 | ||||||
|
Bradley Darryl Wong (born October 24, 1960) is an American actor. Wong won a Tony Award for his performance as Song Liling in M. Butterfly , becoming the only actor in Broadway history to receive the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Clarence Derwent Award, and Theatre World Award for the same role. For his role as Whiterose in the television series Mr. Robot , he was nominated for both a Critic's Choice Television Award and an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.
Wong is known for such roles as Howard Weinstein in the film Father of the Bride , Dr. George Huang on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit , Father Ray Mukada on Oz , Dr. John Lee on Awake , Dr. Henry Wu in the Jurassic Park franchise, Hugo Strange in Gotham , and Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme in the film Seven Years in Tibet . Wong is the host of the HLN medical documentary series Something's Killing Me with BD Wong. He has also done extensive voiceover work and stage acting. Wong voiced Captain Li Shang in the Disney animated film Mulan as well as its 2004 direct-to-video sequel, Mulan II , and the 2005 video game Kingdom Hearts II .
Bradley Darryl Wong [1] was born on October 24, 1960, [2] and raised in San Francisco, California, to Roberta Christine Wong (née Leong), a telephone-company supervisor, and William D. Wong, a postal worker. He has one older brother and one younger brother. [3] He is of Chinese descent, with family from Hong Kong. [4]
Wong attended Lincoln High School, where he discovered his love of acting and starred as the lead in numerous school plays. [3] He went on to attend San Francisco State University in the 1970s, where he was the only Asian American in the theater department, and there were no roles for him. [5]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(August 2024) |
Wong gained wide attention as a result of his Broadway debut in M. Butterfly opposite John Lithgow. The play won multiple awards, including several for Wong, who at that time ceased using his full name in favor of his initials. He has since ceased the use of punctuation in his initials. He is notable as the only actor to be honored with the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, [6] Outer Critics Circle Award, Clarence Derwent Award, and Theatre World Award for the same role. [7] In addition to his stint on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as FBI psychiatrist Dr. George Huang, he has had recurring roles in All-American Girl and played Father Ray Mukada on all six seasons of Oz , with guest appearances on The X-Files and Sesame Street .
On the big screen, he has appeared in The Freshman (1990), the 1991 remake of Father of the Bride and its 1995 sequel, Father of the Bride Part II , Jurassic Park (1993), Executive Decision (1996), and Slappy and the Stinkers (1997). He also provided the voice of Captain Li Shang in Disney's Mulan (1998), its direct-to-video sequel, and the video game Kingdom Hearts II . He returned to Broadway as Linus in a revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown , alongside Anthony Rapp, Roger Bart, and Kristin Chenoweth, and the 2004 revival of Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures .
Wong narrated a public television documentary, "Maxine Hong Kingston: Talking Story" (1990) about the life and work of the ground-breaking Chinese American novelist. [8] In 1990, Wong objected to Actor's Equity that the plan to use Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce in the role of The Engineer in the Broadway run of Miss Saigon , which Pryce had played since the beginning of the show's 10-year extended run in London, would take jobs away from actors of Asian descent. Although the union barred Pryce from acting the role in response to Wong's complaint, vociferous opposition from Charlton Heston and a threat by the musical's creator and producer, Cameron Mackintosh, to cancel the American production entirely, induced the union to reverse course.[ citation needed ] Pryce went on to win a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for the role.
In 2008, Wong starred in the one-man show Herringbone, in which he portrayed 12 roles, at McCarter Theatre at Princeton University. He brought the show to the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego the following year. In 2012, Wong starred in Herringbone to benefit Dixon Place in New York for two performances. The production, recorded live for a 2014 CD release, was his first appearance in New York of the material, timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the original New York production. In 2014, Wong starred in the U.S. premiere of James Fenton's acclaimed adaptation of The Orphan of Zhao , a classic Chinese legend that has its roots in the fourth century BC, directed by Carey Perloff at American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.). The Orphan of Zhao is an epic story of self-sacrifice and revenge. In the aftermath of a political coup, a country doctor is forced to sacrifice his son to save the last heir of a noble and massacred clan. The Orphan of Zhao was a co-production with La Jolla Playhouse.
Wong announced his departure from the cast of Law & Order: SVU in July 2011, to join another NBC police drama, Awake , in which he portrayed Dr. Johnathan Lee, a confrontational therapist of an LAPD detective (portrayed by Jason Isaacs) who lived in two realities. [9] Wong guest-starred in a thirteenth season episode of Law & Order: SVU titled "Father Dearest" (which aired May 2, 2012). [10] In 2015, he was named Artist-in-Residence at La Jolla Playhouse. Wong guest-starred on NCIS: New Orleans Episode 1.13 titled "The Walking Dead" (which aired February 3, 2015), where he portrayed Navy Lieutenant Commander Dr. Gabriel Lin.
Wong also played the enigmatic Whiterose, head of the hacker collective Dark Army, who lives a double life as Zhang, the Chinese Minister of State Security, on USA Network's Mr. Robot . He was credited as a recurring role for the show's second season and promoted to main cast for the third season, which debuted October 11, 2017. On August 13, 2017, Wong began hosting the new HLN series Something's Killing Me with BD Wong. The documentary explores strange and unexplainable, real medical ailments and attacks that may be gradual or descend rapidly. But in either case, if a cause and cure are not found immediately, these real-life patients will die. [11] In 2022, Wong was featured in the book 50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre, with a profile written by theatre scholar Esther Kim Lee. [12]
Wong donates his time and resources to a number of LGBT and arts-related charities, such as the Ali Forney Center, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Materials for the Arts, [13] and Rosie's Theater Kids, of which he is also a board member. [14]
Wong was in a long-term relationship with talent agent Richie Jackson from 1988 to 2004. [15] In 2000, the couple had twin sons, Boaz Dov and Jackson Foo Wong through a surrogate mother using Wong's sperm and an egg donated by Jackson's sister. Boaz Dov died 90 minutes after birth. In 2003, Wong wrote a memoir about his experiences with surrogacy titled Following Foo: The Electronic Adventures of the Chestnut Man ( ISBN 9780060529536). In 2004, Wong and Jackson ended their relationship. [15] Wong co-parents his son with his ex-partner Jackson and Jackson's husband, Jordan Roth. [16] His son Jackson Foo is also gay, having come out at age 15. [17] On October 7, 2018, Wong married Richert John Frederickson Schnorr, his partner of 8 years, in Brooklyn, New York. [18]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1986 | The Karate Kid Part II | Boy on Street | Credited as Bradd Wong |
1989 | Family Business | Jimmy Chiu, Adam's MIT Prof | |
1990 | The Freshman | Edward | |
1991 | Mystery Date | James Lew | |
Father of the Bride | Howard Weinstein | ||
1992 | The Lounge People | Billy | |
1993 | Jurassic Park | Dr. Henry Wu | |
And the Band Played On | Kiko Govantes | ||
1994 | The Ref | Dr. William Wong, Marriage Counselor | Aka Hostile Hostages (uncredited) [19] [20] |
Men of War | Po | ||
1995 | Kalamazoo | Justin | |
Father of the Bride Part II | Howard Weinstein | ||
1996 | Executive Decision | Sergeant Louie Jung | |
Joe's Apartment | Cockroach | Voice | |
1997 | Seven Years in Tibet | Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme | |
1998 | Slappy and the Stinkers | Morgan Brinway | |
Mulan | Captain Li Shang | Voice | |
The Substitute 2: School's Out | Warren Drummond | Straight-to-video | |
2002 | The Salton Sea | Bubba | |
2004 | Mulan II | Shang | Direct-to-video Voice |
2005 | Stay | Dr. Edmund Ren | |
2006 | Ira & Abby | Party Guest | |
2012 | White Frog | Oliver Young | |
2015 | Focus | Liyuan Tse | |
Jurassic World | Dr. Henry Wu [21] | ||
2017 | The Space Between Us | Tom Chen | |
2018 | Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom | Dr. Henry Wu [21] | |
Bird Box | Greg | ||
2022 | Jurassic World Dominion | Dr. Henry Wu | |
Blue's Big City Adventure | Director | ||
2023 | Heart of Stone | King of Clubs | |
The Monkey King | Buddha | Voice |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1983 | No Big Deal | Miss Karnisian's Class | TV film; as Bradd Wong |
1986 | Simon & Simon | Counterboy – Photo Shop Clerk | Episode: "Mobile Home of the Brave" |
1987 | Double Switch | Waiter | TV film |
1988 | Crash Course aka Driving Academy | Kichi | TV film; as Bradd Wong |
1990 | Goodnight Sweet Wife: A Murder in Boston aka The Charles Stuart Story | Kim Tan | TV film |
1991 | Alive from Off Center | Actor | Episode: "Dances in Exile" |
1993 | Sesame Street | Dr. Sing | 3 episodes |
And the Band Played On | Kico Govantes | HBO TV film | |
1994–1995 | All-American Girl | Dr. Stuart Kim | 18 episodes |
1994 | ABC Afterschool Specials | Johnny Angel | Episode: "Magical Make-Over" |
1995 | Dazzle | Teng | TV film |
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child | The Wolf Aladdin/The Genie | Episodes: "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Aladdin" | |
Bless This House | Johnny Chen | Episode: "Neither a Borrower Nor a Landlord Be" | |
1996 | The X-Files | Det. Glen Chao | Episode: "Hell Money" |
1997–2003 | Oz | Father Ray Mukada | 47 episodes |
1998 | Reflections on Ice: Michelle Kwan Skates to the Music of Disney's 'Mulan' | Captain Li Shang | TV film; voice |
1999 | Chicago Hope | Dr. Kai Chang | Episode: "Upstairs, Downstairs" |
2000 | Welcome to New York | Dennis | Episode: "Jim Gets a Wig" |
2002 | Kim Possible | Agent Will Du | Voice; Episode: "Number One" |
2001–2015 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Dr. George Huang | 143 episodes, recurring cast Seasons 2–3, Series regular, Seasons 4–12, Guest star Seasons 13-15, & 17 |
2004 | Century City | U.S. Attorney Matthew Chin | Episode: "Pilot" |
2007 | Marco Polo | Pedro | TV film |
2012 | Awake | Dr. John Lee | Series regular, 11 episodes |
2014 | The Normal Heart | Buzzy | HBO film |
2015 | NCIS: New Orleans | Navy Lieutenant Commander Dr. Gabriel Lin | Episode: "The Walking Dead" |
2015–2018 | Madam Secretary | Brent Rosen | Episodes: "The Kill List", "Refuge" |
2015 | Nurse Jackie | Doctor Wu | Episode: "Are You with Me, Doctor Wu?" |
2015–2019 | Mr. Robot | Whiterose/Minister Zhi Zhang | 22 episodes Recurring cast Seasons 1–2; series regular Seasons 3-4 Nominated—Critics' Choice Award for Best Guest Actor/Actress in a Drama Series Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series |
2016–2019 | Gotham | Professor Hugo Strange [22] | 16 episodes |
2016 | Last Week Tonight with John Oliver | Scientist | Episode: "Scientific Studies" |
2017–2019 | Something's Killing Me with BD Wong | Host/Presenter | 18 episodes |
2017 | DuckTales | Toad Liu Hai | Voice; Episode: "The House of the Lucky Gander!" |
2018 | American Horror Story: Apocalypse | Baldwin Pennypacker | 3 episodes |
2019–2020 | The Flash | Godspeed | Voice 2 episodes |
2020–present | Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens | Wally | Recurring role; 21 episodes |
2023 | Gremlins | Hon Wing | Voice; 10 episodes [23] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2005 | Kingdom Hearts II | Captain Li Shang | English version |
2007 | Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ | ||
2015 | Lego Jurassic World | Henry Wu | |
2018 | Jurassic World Evolution | ||
2021 | Jurassic World Evolution 2 | ||
2023 | Disney Speedstorm | Captain Li Shang |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2021–2022 | Around the Sun | Dr. Lee | Voice 2 episodes |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1988–1990 | M. Butterfly | Song Liling | Broadway debut Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Male Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Debut Performance Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play Theatre World Award Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play |
1993 | Face Value | Randall Lee | |
1999 | You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown | Linus | |
2004–05 | Pacific Overtures | Reciter | |
2012 | Herringbone | Various characters | One-man show [24] |
2019 | The Great Leap | Wen Chang |
Year | Name | Role | Theme Park | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2019 | Jurassic World: The Ride | Dr. Henry Wu | Universal Studios Hollywood | |
2021 | VelociCoaster | Universal's Islands of Adventure | ||
TBA | DuckTales World Showcase Adventure [25] | Toad Liu Hai | EPCOT | Released December 16, 2022 |
Year | Title | Author | Publisher |
---|---|---|---|
1991 | Shadow of a Broken Man | George C. Chesbro | Random House Audio |
1991 | The Fear in Yesterday's Rings | George C. Chesbro | Random House Audio |
1997 | Ticktock | Dean Koontz | Random House Audio |
2002 | Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress | Dai Sijie | Random House Audio |
2019 | The Red Scrolls of Magic | Cassandra Clare, Wesley Chu | Simon & Schuster Audio |
2020 | The Lost Book of the White | Cassandra Clare, Wesley Chu | Simon & Schuster Audio |
2022 | To Paradise | Hanya Yanagihara | Random House Audio |
Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1988 | Tony Award | Best Featured Actor in a Play | M. Butterfly | Won |
Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Won | ||
Outer Critics Circle Award | Outstanding Debut Performance | Won | ||
Theatre World Award | Won | |||
Clarence Derwent Award | Most Promising Male Performer | Won | ||
2003 | Outer Critics Circle Award | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Shanghai Moon | Nominated |
GLAAD Media Award | Davidson/Valentini Award | Won | ||
2013 | Best Shorts Competition | Voice-Over Talent | The No Name Painting Association | Won |
2016 | Critics' Choice Television Award | Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series | Mr. Robot | Nominated |
2017 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series | Nominated |
Sir Jonathan Pryce is a Welsh actor who is known for his performances on stage and in film and television. He has received numerous awards, including two Tony Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards, and a knighthood for services to drama. He has also received nominations for an Academy Award, four Primetime Emmy Awards and two British Academy Film Awards.
Harvey Forbes Fierstein is an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter, known for his distinctive gravelly voice. He gained notice for his theater work in Torch Song Trilogy, winning both the Tony Award for Best Play and Best Actor in a Play. He went on to win the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for La Cage aux Folles, then Best Actor in a Musical for playing Edna Turnblad in Hairspray, a role he reprised for the Hairspray Live! television special.
Stockard Channing is an American actress. She played Betty Rizzo in the film Grease (1978) and First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series The West Wing (1999–2006). She also originated the role of Ouisa Kittredge in the stage and film versions of Six Degrees of Separation; the 1993 film version earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
James Frain is an English actor. His best known television roles include Thomas Cromwell in the Showtime/CBC historical drama The Tudors (2007–2009), Franklin Mott in the HBO drama True Blood (2010), Warwick the Kingmaker in the BBC drama serial The White Queen (2013), John Sumner in the Sky/Canal+ crime drama The Tunnel (2013), Ferdinand Chevalier in the BBC/Space sci-fi thriller Orphan Black (2015–2017), Theo Galavan/Azrael in Fox's Gotham (2015–2016), and Sarek in Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2019). He also played leading roles in the BBC dramas Armadillo (2001), The Buccaneers (1995) and The Mill on the Floss (1997).
Richard Paul Kiley was an American stage, film, and television actor and singer. He is best-known for his distinguished theatrical career in which he twice won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Kiley created the role of Don Quixote in the original 1965 production of the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha and was the first to sing and record "The Impossible Dream", the hit song from the show. In the 1953 hit musical Kismet, he played the Caliph in the original Broadway cast and, as such, was one of the quartet who sang "And This Is My Beloved". Additionally, he won four Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards during his 50-year career and his "sonorous baritone" was also featured in the narration of a number of documentaries and other films. At the time of his death, Kiley was described as "one of theater's most distinguished and versatile actors" and as "an indispensable actor, the kind of performer who could be called on to play kings and commoners and a diversity of characters in between."
Roger Rees was a Welsh actor and director. He won an Olivier Award and a Tony Award for his performance as the lead in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. He also received Obie Awards for his role in The End of the Day and as co-director of Peter and the Starcatcher. Rees was posthumously inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in November 2015.
John Cullum is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in many stage musicals and dramas, including Shenandoah (1975) and On the Twentieth Century (1978), winning the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for each. In 1966 he gained his first Tony nomination as the lead in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, in which he introduced the title song, and more recently received Tony nominations for Urinetown The Musical (2002) and as Best Featured Actor in the revival of 110 in the Shade (2007).
La Jolla Playhouse is a not-for-profit, professional theatre on the campus of the University of California, San Diego.
Lewis Jefferson Mays is an American actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a Tony Award, a Helen Hayes Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, two Drama Desk Awards, two Outer Critics Circle Awards and three Obie Awards.
Norbert Leo Butz is an American actor and singer known for his work in Broadway theatre. He is a two-time recipient of the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, and is one of only nine actors ever to have won the award twice.
Željko Ivanek is a Slovenian-American actor. Known for his work in film, television, and theatre, he is the recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Drama Desk Award, as well as three Tony Award nominations.
Michael Jerrod Moore, known professionally as Michael Arden, is an American actor, singer, musician, and theatre director. Arden won a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical in 2023 for the revival of the musical Parade.
Douglas Carter Beane is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has been nominated for five Tony Awards and won two Drama Desk Awards. His plays are essentially works with sophisticated, "drawing room" humor but just as often farce, particularly his work in musical theater.
Raúl Eduardo Esparza is an American actor. Considered one of Broadway's most prominent leading men since the 2000s, he is best known for his Tony Award-nominated performance as Bobby in the 2006 Broadway revival of Company and for his television role as New York Assistant District Attorney (ADA) Rafael Barba in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, where he had a recurring role in Season 14 and was promoted to a series regular in Seasons 15 to 19.
Thoroughly Modern Millie is a musical with music by Jeanine Tesori, lyrics by Dick Scanlan, and a book by Richard Morris and Scanlan. It is based on the 1967 film of the same name, which itself was based on the British musical Chrysanthemum, which opened in London in 1956. Thoroughly Modern Millie tells the story of a small-town girl, Millie Dillmount, who comes to New York City to marry for money instead of love – a thoroughly modern aim in 1922, when women were just entering the workforce. Millie soon begins to take delight in the flapper lifestyle, but problems arise when she checks into a hotel owned by the leader of a white slavery ring in China. The style of the musical is comic pastiche. Like the film on which it is based, it interpolates new tunes with some previously written songs.
Eric Anderson is an American actor. On Broadway, he has originated roles in Waitress, Kinky Boots, The Last Ship, Rocky, and Soul Doctor, and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical. He portrayed Mr. O'Malley in The Greatest Showman (2017). In 2022, he took over the role of Harold Zidler in the jukebox musical Moulin Rouge! on Broadway.
Skylight is a play by British dramatist David Hare. The play premiered in the West End at the Cottesloe Theatre in 1995, moving to the Wyndham's Theatre in 1996. After opening on Broadway in 1996, it played again in the West End in 1997 at the Vaudeville Theatre. It was revived at Wyndham's Theatre in the West End in 2014, and that production transferred to Broadway in 2015.
John Alberto Leguizamo Peláez is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and film producer. He has appeared in over 100 films, produced over 20 films and documentaries, made over 30 television appearances, and has produced various television projects. He has also written and performed for the Broadway stage receiving four Tony Award nominations for Freak in 1998, Sexaholix in 2002, and Latin History for Morons in 2018. He received a Special Tony Award in 2018.
John Douglas Thompson is an English-American actor. He is a Tony Award nominee and the recipient of two Drama Desk Awards, three Obie Awards, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and a Lucille Lortel Award.
Reed Birney is an American actor. Birney is known for his performances on stage and screen often acting on and off Broadway. Birney gained acclaim in 2016 for his role in The Humans winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He was also nominated previously in the same category for his performance in Casa Valentina in 2014.