Margaret Cho

In her nearly two-hour remote TheirStory interview, Margaret Cho talks about growing up in San Francisco and getting into stand-up comedy as a teenager. She discusses a pivotal career moment - opening for Jerry Seinfeld - and how that opened doors for her, particularly at MTV, and she describes how she honed her act over the years. She details her groundbreaking 1994 ABC series, All-American Girl, shares how much creative input she had on the show, and addresses some of the criticisms of the program. Cho then talks about returning to stand-up after All-American Girl was cancelled and speaks of the healing power of comedy. She also describes her experiences on VH1's The Cho Show, playing "Teri Lee" on Drop Dead Diva, guest starring on 30 Rock and being nominated for an Emmy for her role, and playing a North Korean general on the 72nd Golden Globe Awards. She talks of being a mentor to Eddie Huang and to Ken Jeong as they developed Fresh Off the Boat and Dr. Ken for television, respectively, recalls her time on The Masked Singer, describes hosting All About Sex on TLC, and talks about reuniting with Jerry Seinfeld on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. She speaks of co-hosting Fashion Police, guest starring on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and hosting her podcast, and shares what the COVID-19 pandemic experience has been like for her. She discusses the violence against Asian Americans during the pandemic, offers advice to aspiring comedians, and comments on how she'd like to be remembered. Jenni Matz conducted the interview in partnership with the American Comedy Archives at Emerson College on June 2, 2021.