Who Is Garrett Richard Wang?

Garrett Richard Wang (pronounced Wong) was born on December 15, 1968 in Riverside,California. He lived in Indiana,then moved to Bermuda,and Memphis and lived there for nine years. He graduated from High School from Harding Academy at Memphis.He later moved to Los Angeles and attended UCLA, majored in Asian studies, played tennis,and participated in campus theatre. Garrett's tennis playing was so good, that he considered playing for the pros, but was discouraged by the lack of Asian role models in the sport. So, he decided to pursue an acting career instead. Garrett credits UCLA theater professor Jenny Roudtree as a key influence in his development as an actor. "Jenny was responsible for my first breakthrough," he explains. "She inspired me to go beyond the status quo." Wang, in his first performance outside of college, garnered unprecedented critical acclaim for his portrayal of John Lee in the lead of Chay Yew's "Porcelain" at Burbage Theater. Despite a busy schedule, Garrett has continued to perform in various staged readings such as "Model Minority" for the Los Angeles Theater Center, "Woman Warrior" for the Mark Taper Forum and "A Language of Their Own" for the Intiman Theater. Prior to joining the cast of Star Trek: Voyager, Garrett guest starred in the premiere episode, "Submission:Impossible" (episode # 1.2) of the ABC series "All American Girl", starring Margaret Cho. He played her traditional-minded Korean boyfriend, 'Raymond Han' Shortly after that, Garrett auditioned for the fourth Star Trek series called Star Trek: Voyager and got the part of Ensign Harry Kim in 1995. Voyager became the #1 show of UPN, the network that airs the series. Garrett/Harry Kim is the first Asian-American actor & character to appear regularly in a Star Trek series since George Takei as Sulu in the original 1960's Star Trek. "I believe that I now have a huge responsibility in being one of a very small number of Asian Americans appearing on television regularly," Wang explains. "My goal now is to do the best job possible playing Harry Kim and to begin repaying my parents for the unaccountable financial support they have given me throughout the years." Wang has also appeared in the following films: 1995's "Angry Cafe", playing Mark Burton 1995's "Flesh Suitcase", unnamed character 1998's "Ivory Tower", unnamed character 1998's "Hundred Percent", playing Troy Tashima, an aspiring actor tired of playing stereotypes. 1999's "The Auteur Theory", playing Mike Wong/God 2002's Demon Island aka Pinata: Survival Island, playing Paul. In 1997, he was named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" by People magazine (picture scan from 'Garrett Wang Online'). Additionally, E! Entertainment Television has selected Garrett as on of the "20 Coolest Bachelors" in the country.