It wasn’t until he played a doctor in “Knocked Up” that real-life physician Ken Jeong decided to hang up the stethoscope altogether. In an ironic twist, the part-time actor/comedian, full-time M.D. says it was his role as a rude, cantankerous ob-gyn and the direction of Judd Apatow (“The 40-Year-Old Virgin”) that inspired him to make performing his day job.

“He’s trying to make comedy out of very real and honest situations,” says Jeong of Apatow. “He’s changed my life in terms of my approach to comedy.”

Jeong drew on his own occasional experiences of bad days and difficult patients while portraying Dr. Kuni, although admitted his role embodied “a real jerk.”

While over the last few years he’s managed to juggle hours at the clinic with stints on MadTV and comedy tours, Jeong says he’s gladly giving up a job coveted by Korean parents everywhere for an admittedly less stable profession.

Now that’s an actor that knows how to commit.

CORRECTION

In the July 2007 issue, it was incorrectly stated that Ken Jeong left his day job as a doctor. “I quit my full-time work due to my busy acting schedule, but I still work part-time as a physician,” he wrote in an e-mail to KoreAm.

Photo by Suzanne Hanover/Universal Studios

 

-Nina Ahn