Anna Daniels
Of course, Jimmy O. Yang is hardly a new face in the comedy world. The Hong Kong-born actor-slash-comedian has actually been making the rounds for a few years now, having earned credits on lauded comedies like It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, New Girl, and Fresh Off the Boat. He’s also appeared in big screen fare like Patriot’s Day (opposite Mark Wahlberg), El Camino Christmas (with Yellowstone star Luke Grimes), and Life of the Party (alongside Melissa McCarthy). If there’s one place from which most viewers know Jimmy O. Yang’s face, however, it’s almost certainly for his turn as the chain-smoking, diabolically dimwitted, would-be entrepreneur Jian Yang from HBO’s Silicon Valley.
If you’re among the few who never caught an episode of the hit cable series sprung from the sardonically twisted mind of Mike Judge, Silicon Valley followed the cringingly hilarious rise and fall of fictional wunderkind Richard Jenkins (Thomas Middleditch) as he and a faithful band of allies tried and repeatedly failed to make their mark in the tech industry. No, Jimmy O. Yang’s character was not one of those allies. In fact, he was most often out to trash talk, undermine, or outright steal from Jenkins and his crew. In doing so, he was frequently a comedic punching bag from the show’s crack comedic cast, including Kumail Nanjiani, Martin Starr, Zach Woods, TJ Miller, and Amanda Crew.
Fans of Silicon Valley can, of course, attest to the fact that Yang’s character hardly took those punches lying down, and typically punched back even harder. In doing so, Yang more often than not stole both laughs and scenes from his more famous co-stars.
Written by: Looper
