Jodi Long

From Vaudeville to the Streets of New York

Jodi Long was born in Manhattan, and her parents already knew what it meant to step onto a stage before she learned to walk. Larry Leung and Kimiye were variety performers who toured the vaudeville circuit when entertainment still depended on suitcases and trains. In 1962, she made her Broadway debut at age seven in the play Nowhere to Go But Up, directed by Sidney Lumet.

That little girl wasn't chasing fame, because fame was the family business.

She studied at the Performing Arts High School in New York and honed her craft in experimental theater before moving into film and television. But the Hollywood of the 1980s had little room for Asian actresses who didn't want to play caricatures. In 1984 she landed a role in Splash, and in 1985 she appeared in Mishaps, although her real work rate was measured on the stages of the Public Theater.

And the industry took decades to understand her range.

In 1993, she appeared in RoboCop 3, and a year later she joined the series All-American Girl. That production was a failed experiment by ABC to portray a Korean family in prime time. The show lasted just 19 episodes, and Long played the mother of Margaret Cho in a sitcom format that is hard to watch today without raising an eyebrow.

The Steady Paycheck and the Luxury Supporting Role

During the 1990s and early 2000s, she specialized in authority figures who appeared and disappeared in a single episode. She worked on Sex and the City in 2002 and on Eli Stone between 2008 and 2009. Her face became familiar to the average cable TV viewer, but her name kept getting pushed down to the end credits.

In 2008, she wrote and starred in the documentary Long Story Short, which told the story of her parents' lives on stage. The project won the Jury Award at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. That personal exercise in memory helped her reaffirm her place in an industry that kept typecasting her in supporting roles as a mother or a stern professional.

But in 2012, Sullivan & Son came along.

In this TBS comedy, she played Ok Cha Sullivan for three full seasons. It was one of her most steady jobs in American television, with a total of 33 episodes filmed through 2014. The character allowed her to explore a comedic style far more aggressive and direct than her earlier work in drama or action films.

Recognition in the Streaming Era

The awards system finally took notice of her when digital platforms changed the rules of consumption. In 2021, she won an Emmy for her role in the Netflix series Dash & Lily. She played Aunt Basil, and her win was a notable milestone as the first actress of Asian descent to win in her acting category.

That same year, she appeared in Marvel's blockbuster Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings as Mrs. Chen. The film earned more than 430 million dollars at the global box office and gave her a worldwide visibility she hadn't had in forty years in the business. So big-budget cinema called her back for high-profile projects.

In 2021 and 2022, she played the mother of one of the leads in The Sex Lives of College Girls for HBO Max. The series was created by Mindy Kaling, and Long brought the generational counterpoint needed for a storyline centered on Gen Z. Her ability to hold scenes with rapid-fire dialogue became a useful tool for writers of the new TV comedy.

In 2024, she joined the cast of The Brothers Sun alongside Michelle Yeoh. The action and dark comedy series for Netflix explored the dynamics of Taiwanese triads in Los Angeles. Long played Big Mama in a production that was canceled after its first season despite positive reviews.

Production on The Brothers Sun had an estimated budget of $15 million per episode.