Charlyne Yi

Early life

Yi was born in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, a native of the Philippines, is of Filipino and Spanish descent, and her father is of Mexican, Korean, Irish, German, French, and Native American ancestry. She attended the University of California, Riverside before leaving to pursue a full-time career in comedy. She had an early interest in performing when she attended Bloomington High School and was involved in theatre.

Career

Yi began by performing in Bloomington, California. After high school, she has performed shows in Los Angeles at The Steve Allen Theater, and The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. In 2005 and 2006, she performed in the New York Comedy Festival, and in 2007 HBO's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. Yi's film debut was in Judd Apatow's 2007 film, Knocked Up. In 2008, Yi performed as part of the Apatow for Destruction Live comedy show at Montreal's Just For Laughs Festival.

In the 2009 film Paper Heart, a "hybrid documentary" which Yi executive produced in addition to co-writing, she starred as a fictive version of herself, along with Michael Cera.

Yi was chosen as one of Venus Zine's "25 under 25" women for 2009.

She has also appeared alongside Saturday Night Live cast member Fred Armisen in the music video for the song "Rabbit Habits" by Philadelphia experimental band Man Man.

Yi and Paul Rust formed the band The Glass Beef. The duo share one electric guitar and both sing lead vocals. In 2006, they released their debut album, The Farewell Album, produced by John Spiker, bassist of Tenacious D.

Yi was featured in the video "Song Away" by Hockey. She is currently in the band Sacred Destinies.

In January 2010, Yi performed a duet about break-up lines (the opposite of pick-up lines) with Demetri Martin on the episode "2" for the Comedy Central sketch series Important Things with Demetri Martin. However, the duet was cut from the final edit of the episode.

From October 2011 to May 2012, Yi starred in Fox's series House as Dr. Chi Park, a Filipina-Korean American doctor with anger-management issues.

Non-profit work

Yi has been involved with Oxfam America since 2010, working to raise awareness about poverty and hunger around the world. Yi started the non-profit Caring is Cool in 2011, and hosted a benefit show to raise money for the organization.

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