Jake Choi

Choi was born and raised in Elmhurst, Queens, New York. He is Korean American.[4] He was raised by his single mother, and came from "working-class immigrant roots."[5] During high school he played in the AAU.[6] He graduated from Newtown High School in 2004, where he played on the school varsity basketball team.[6]

After graduating, he moved to South Korea to play basketball at Yonsei University, and subsequently played in the Korean Basketball League.[4][7] He returned to the States and pursued acting, taking classes at Lee Strasberg Institute before dropping out due to the expense.[6][7]

In 2015, Choi played his first lead role as Ryan in the independent film Front Cover,[8] an LGBTQ romantic comedy that featured two Asian male leads.[9][10][11] Choi's performance received positive critical reviews.[12] According to Sheri Linden at The Hollywood Reporter: "Chen’s career-driven Ning defies easy labels, but ultimately the movie is about Ryan’s transformation, one that Choi deftly conveys."[13]

Choi has appeared in guest roles on several television shows since 2015, including Broad City, Younger, and Hawaii 5-0.[6] He played a recurring role on HBO's Succession in 2018.[14]

Choi gained wider prominence after he was cast as a series regular on the fall 2018 ABC show Single Parents in the role of Miggy, a 20-year-old single dad.[14][15] The show was cancelled in May 2020 after two seasons.[16]

As of January 2019, he has a recurring role on EastSiders, a Netflix dark comedy.[17] The same year, he played Charles Bae, brother of Charles Melton's Daniel Bae, in the film adaptation of the YA novel The Sun Is Also a Star.[7]

In 2018, Choi came out as sexually fluid.[7] In an interview with The Advocate he stated, "I feel like a lot of people understand it better if you just say 'bisexual', which is not the same thing, but it's like sometimes when people say, 'Oh, so you're bi?' — I don't even want to argue anymore. It's just like, 'Yeah — sure.' I feel like the term pansexual is a little bit closer. With me, I say fluid because it's always changing."[17]

• Jake Choi on IMDb
• Jake Choi on Instagram