Bobby Lee: Difference between revisions

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=== Tijuana prostitution story ===

=== Tijuana prostitution story ===

In April 2023, podcast clips of Lee telling a story of an experience with a young, adult prostitute in [[Tijuana]] resurfaced. [[USA Today]] reported that the anecdote drew online backlash and allegations of child exploitation.<ref name=”USAToday2023″>{{cite web |last=Ushe |first=Naledi |title=Comedian Bobby Lee faces backlash for resurfaced prostitution comments |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2023/04/04/bobby-lee-tijuana-prostitution-comments-podcast-resurface-backlash/11598663002/ |website=USA Today |date=April 4, 2023}}</ref> During an episode of ”TigerBelly” in the same month, Lee clarified that the story was not true and had been “a dark joke” pieced together from “a couple of awful bits”.<ref name=”USAToday2023″ />

In April 2023, podcast clips of Lee telling a story of an experience with a young, adult prostitute in [[Tijuana]] resurfaced. [[USA Today]] reported that the anecdote drew online backlash and allegations of child exploitation.<ref name=”USAToday2023″>{{cite web |last=Ushe |first=Naledi |title=Comedian Bobby Lee faces backlash for resurfaced prostitution comments |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2023/04/04/bobby-lee-tijuana-prostitution-comments-podcast-resurface-backlash/11598663002/ |website=USA Today |date=April 4, 2023}}</ref> During an episode of ”TigerBelly” in the same month, Lee clarified that the story was not true and had been “a dark joke” pieced together from “a couple of awful bits”.<ref name=”USAToday2023″ />

=== Riyadh Comedy Festival ===

In 2025, Lee participated in the [[Riyadh Comedy Festival]]. Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at [[Human Rights Watch]], said in a statement that the Saudi government is using the comedy festival to [[Whitewashing (communications)|whitewash]] its [[human rights abuses]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-09-16 |title=Major U.S. comedians set to perform in Saudi Arabia urged not to help cover up “abuses of a repressive regime” – CBS News |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/saudi-arabia-riyadh-comedy-festival-us-comedians-human-rights-abuses/ |access-date=2025-09-28 |website=www.cbsnews.com |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-09-23 |title=Saudi Arabia: Riyadh Comedy Festival Whitewashes Abuses {{!}} Human Rights Watch |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/09/23/saudi-arabia-riyadh-comedy-festival-whitewashes-abuses |access-date=2025-09-28 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Team |first=Fact |date=2025-09-18 |title=Everything we know about the first Riyadh Comedy Festival |url=https://www.factmagazines.com/saudi-arabia/riyadh-saudi-arabia/events-riyadh-saudi-arabia/everything-we-know-about-teh-first-ever-riyadh-comedy-festival |access-date=2025-09-28 |website=Fact Magazines |language=en}}</ref>

==Personal life==

==Personal life==

American comedian (born 1971)

Robert Young Lee Jr. (born September 17, 1971)[1][2] is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and podcaster. Lee co-hosts the podcasts Bad Friends with Andrew Santino and TigerBelly with Khalyla Kuhn.

From 2001 to 2009, Lee was a cast member on MADtv, and he co-starred in the ABC single-camera sitcom series Splitting Up Together alongside Jenna Fischer and Oliver Hudson between 2018 and 2019. Lee has also appeared in the films Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004), Pineapple Express (2008), and The Dictator (2012). He had a guest appearance as the cynical, burned-out Dr. Kang on FX on Hulu’s TV comedy series Reservation Dogs.

Early life and education

Lee was born on September 17, 1971 in San Diego[3][4] to Korean immigrant parents Jeanie and Robert Lee.[5][6] He and his younger brother Steve grew up in Poway, California.[7] His parents owned clothing stores in both Escondido and Encinitas, California.[6][8] He attended Painted Rock Elementary School, Twin Peaks Middle School, and Poway High School.[6] In high school, he was part of a breakdancing team.[9] After graduation, he attended Palomar College before dropping out.[6]

Career

Lee worked at cafes and restaurants before pursuing a career in comedy.[10] In 1994, the coffee shop where he was working abruptly closed.[10][11] Lee stated, “I just went next door to get a job, which was The Comedy Store in San Diego.”[10] After a few months of working odd jobs at the club, he tried stand-up during one of their amateur nights.[10] Within a year of doing regular comedy sets, he received offers to open for both Pauly Shore and Carlos Mencia.[6][10] He then began working regularly at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles, a comedy club owned by Pauly Shore’s mother Mitzi.[6]

Lee has said that his parents had hoped he would continue on with the family business and were less than supportive of his comedic pursuits at first.[6][10][8] 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, asked how much he had to pay to be on the show, and then apologized for not supporting his comedy career.[12] Lee has included his family in some of his work; his brother has appeared in several non-speaking roles on MADtv, and his entire immediate family has appeared in a sketch on the show. In 2007, he pitched a sitcom to Comedy Central about a Korean family, which was to star his own family.[8]

In 2012, Lee was hired to reboot Maker Studios‘ YouTube comedy channel, The Station.[13] Lee hosted the 9th MusiCares MAP Fund Benefit Concert in 2013.[14] From 2019 to 2023, Lee made several appearances as recurring character Jin Jeong in the Magnum P.I. television series. In 2020, Lee began co-hosting the Bad Friends podcast with Andrew Santino.[15]

MADtv

In 2001, Lee joined the cast of MADtv,[8] making him the show’s first and only Asian cast member. He has stated that he dreaded playing the characters Bae Sung and Connie Chung, as well as the “Average Asian” skits.[10] Lee remained with the cast until the series’ cancellation in 2009[10] and returned briefly when MADtv was revived in 2016 on The CW.[16]

TigerBelly podcast

Podcast

TigerBelly
Hosted by Bobby Lee
Khalyla Kuhn
Genre Talk
Format Audio & Video
Language English
Length 60–90 minutes
Production Bobby Lee
Khalyla Kuhn
Gilbert Galon
George Kimmel
Bryce Hallock
No. of episodes 478 (as of December 4, 2024)
Original release September 1, 2015 –
present
Website TheTigerBelly.com

Started in 2015, TigerBelly is a video podcast hosted by Bobby Lee and his ex-partner, Khalyla Kuhn. It also features appearances by technical engineer Gilbert Galon[17] and producer George Kimmel.[18] The show’s intro song “Shadow Gook” was written and produced by Lee and performed by Lee and Kuhn.[19] 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.[citation needed]

Prior to the creation of TigerBelly, Lee and Erik Griffin pitched a podcast to All Things Comedy but never developed the show.[20] While Kuhn was recovering from heart surgery, she developed a podcast as a way to occupy herself. Lee assisted her with its creation and eventually appeared on her show.[21][22] He then decided to focus on a podcast with Kuhn instead of with Griffin.[21]

Tijuana prostitution story

In April 2023, podcast clips of Lee telling a story of an experience with a young, adult prostitute in Tijuana resurfaced. USA Today reported that the anecdote drew online backlash and allegations of child exploitation.[23] During an episode of TigerBelly in the same month, Lee clarified that the story was not true and had been “a dark joke” pieced together from “a couple of awful bits”.[23]

Riyadh Comedy Festival

In 2025, Lee participated in the Riyadh Comedy Festival. Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement that the Saudi government is using the comedy festival to whitewash its human rights abuses.[24][25][26]

Personal life

Lee began taking methamphetamine and marijuana around age 12, as well as heroin by age 15, and went through three drug-rehabilitation attempts before becoming sober when he was 17.[7][27][28] Lee relapsed on Vicodin and ended 12 years of sobriety after receiving negative feedback from a producer.[29][7] He got sober after MADtv producer Lauren Dombrowski fought for him after he was fired from the show a second time, a story which Lee discusses in his appearance on the pilot episode of Comedy Central’s TV series This Is Not Happening.[30] On TigerBelly episode 224, Lee admitted to guest Theo Von that he had relapsed after his father’s death in August 2019 from Parkinson’s disease.[31] He subsequently went to rehab and became sober again.[32] Lee has stated that he is a recovering alcoholic.[21]

Lee is a long-time Arsenal Football Club supporter. Lee is an avid fan of video games, including FIFA, Stardew Valley, The Elder Scrolls, Red Dead Redemption 2, and The Witcher series. Lee’s younger brother, Steve Lee, is a musician, podcaster, and comedian.[33]

He was in a ten year relationship with Khalyla Kuhn, an influencer and content creator. The relationship ended in 2022.[34][35]

Filmography

Film

Television

Music videos

Documentary

References

  1. ^ “Bobby Lee Birthday”.
  2. ^ “Happy Stardew Birthday, Bobby | Ep 184 | Bad Friends”. YouTube. September 18, 2023.
  3. ^ Crowell, Samantha. “Bobby Lee: Net Worth, Age, Height & Everything You Need To Know About The Comedian”. www.msn.com. Retrieved January 5, 2025.
  4. ^ Services, Tribune Media Services | Tribune Media (October 14, 2012). “Go away with…actor and comedian Bobby Lee to Maui”. The Denver Post. Retrieved January 5, 2025.
  5. ^ “MILESTONES: September 17 birthdays for Patrick Mahomes, John Franco, Bobby Lee”. Brooklyn Eagle. September 17, 2020. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Grant, Lee (September 17, 2004). “‘Mad’ man”. The San Diego Union-Tribune. Archived from the original on March 1, 2016. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
  7. ^ a b c Archer, Greg (September 18, 2013). “Bobby Lee On Comedy, Survival And Being ‘A Big, Sweaty Ball Of Flesh’“. HuffPost. Archived from the original on December 17, 2019. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  8. ^ a b c d Yang, Jeff (April 10, 2007). “ASIAN POP / Mad Man”. SFGate. Archived from the original on March 5, 2018. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  9. ^ Woo, Michelle (April 2, 2007). “Kickin’ It With Bobby Lee”. Character Media. Archived from the original on January 29, 2020. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Nguyen, Joe (May 5, 2009). “Face2Face with Bobby Lee”. www.asiaxpress.com. Archived from the original on March 1, 2018. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  11. ^ “Bobby Lee at Levity Live”. Visit Oxnard. Archived from the original on January 26, 2020. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  12. ^ a b Rogan, Lee & Redban 2013
  13. ^ Baldwin, Drew (January 30, 2012). “Maker Studios Reboots The Station With Bobby Lee”. Tubefilter. Archived from the original on January 26, 2020. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  14. ^ The Grammys (December 2, 2014). “Set List Bonus: Ninth Annual MusiCares MAP Fund Benefit At Club Nokia”. GRAMMY.com. Archived from the original on August 8, 2020. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  15. ^ Laddin, Stephen (March 3, 2020). “Andrew Santino Is A People Person”. High Times. Archived from the original on June 3, 2021. Retrieved June 3, 2021.
  16. ^ “TV top picks”. The Santa Fe New Mexican. September 27, 2016. p. A010. Retrieved June 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Lee 2017, p. 12:00
  18. ^ Lee 2017, p. 2:03
  19. ^ Lee, Bobby; Kuhn, Khalyla; Galon, Gilbert (November 26, 2015). “The Korean Kite 한국 연”. Tigerbelly (Podcast). Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
  20. ^ Lee & Griffin 2016, p. 1:17:00
  21. ^ a b c Baldwin, Greg; Kalloniatis, Ant (November 19, 2017). “Bobby Lee is a Provoked Panda”. Second Chances Podcast (Podcast). Archived from the original on January 29, 2020. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
  22. ^ Lee 2017, p. 10:45
  23. ^ a b Ushe, Naledi (April 4, 2023). “Comedian Bobby Lee faces backlash for resurfaced prostitution comments”. USA Today.
  24. ^ “Major U.S. comedians set to perform in Saudi Arabia urged not to help cover up “abuses of a repressive regime” – CBS News”. www.cbsnews.com. September 16, 2025. Retrieved September 28, 2025.
  25. ^ “Saudi Arabia: Riyadh Comedy Festival Whitewashes Abuses | Human Rights Watch”. September 23, 2025. Retrieved September 28, 2025.
  26. ^ Team, Fact (September 18, 2025). “Everything we know about the first Riyadh Comedy Festival”. Fact Magazines. Retrieved September 28, 2025.
  27. ^ Schonberger, Chris (October 27, 2016). “Watch Bobby Lee Take on the Hot Ones Challenge”. First We Feast. Archived from the original on March 2, 2018. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  28. ^ Kozlowski, Carl (May 26, 2016). “Why Bobby Lee Is Done with ‘MADtv’“. Hollywood in Toto. Archived from the original on March 5, 2018. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  29. ^ Lee, Diaz & Syatt 2014, p. 9:30
  30. ^ Variety Staff (October 28, 2008). “‘Madtv’s’ Lauren Dombrowski dies”. Variety. Archived from the original on March 29, 2018. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  31. ^ “Comedian Bobby Lee’s father has passed away”. August 19, 2019.[dead link]
  32. ^ Lee, Bobby (December 12, 2019). “Theo Von & The Guillotine | TigerBelly 224”. YouTube. Archived from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
  33. ^ “David Choe x Money Mark x Steve Lee starts a band”. Upper Playground. August 19, 2014. Archived from the original on October 18, 2014. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  34. ^ Kozma, Leila (July 15, 2022). “‘TigerBelly’ Podcast Hosts Bobby Lee and Khalyla Have Broken up After 10 Years of Dating”. Distractify. Retrieved December 23, 2024.
  35. ^ Roberts, Andrew (July 18, 2022). “Bobby Lee and Longtime Partner Break Up, Break News During Podcast Episode”. PopCulture.com. Retrieved December 23, 2024.
  36. ^ “Bobby Lee”. IMDb. Archived from the original on February 13, 2023. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  37. ^ Kroll, Justin (July 29, 2025). “Jennifer Hudson, Aaron Pierre, Jelly Roll, Ayesha Curry Among Those Joining Sony Animation Pic ‘Goat’“. Deadline. Retrieved July 29, 2025.
  38. ^ Adriane (May 24, 2010). “The Wonder Girls: New Music Video, Exclusive Pics, Videos Here at MTV Iggy!”MTV K. Archived from the original on June 04 2011. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
  39. ^ “Jencarlos Releases New Single “Dure Dure” with Don Omar”. www.peermusic.com. July 28, 2017. Archived from the original on March 14, 2023. Retrieved April 9, 2021.

Sources

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