Margaret Cho

As well as being an Emmy-nominated actress, Grammy-nominated musician and world renowned comedian Margaret Cho is, and always has been, an outspoken advocate and a trailblazer for Asian Americans and the LGBTQ+ community.  

Born in San Francisco in 1968, Margaret was enlightened by the diversity that  surrounded her from a young age, describing her local community as encompassing  “old hippies, ex-druggies, burnouts, drag queens, and Chinese people.” Her parents,  who she notably impersonates in her stand-up routines, are Korean immigrants.  Margaret decided she was going to become a comedian as a teenager and very quickly became a mainstay of American comedy, as she was thrust into the limelight and  forced to grow up fast. Margaret became a voice for underrepresented young people, speaking openly about her bisexuality, being unapologetic as an Asian woman in a white-male-dominated industry and being unafraid to tackle politics and taboo subjects in her comedy. 

As her career grew, Margaret broke more barriers, starring in All-American Girl, the first sitcom to centre an Asian American family. Prejudice and ignorance from executives led to the show’s cancellation and led Margaret down an unhealthy path into a battle with addiction, which she eventually overcame. Despite the adversity she faced, Margaret powered through and has since toured numerous stand-up shows, received multiple accolades for her acting and musical comedy albums, and has been named one of the best comedians of all time by Vogue and Rolling Stone. Throughout all of this, Margaret has remained a staunch activist, and has said that art and activism go together, even if your art is provocative comedy.

Margaret’s connection to the queer community runs deep, with her parents owning a  bookstore in San Francisco’s gay neighbourhood, The Castro District, during her youth, which allowed her to experience queer community from a young age. Margaret says advocating for LGBTQ+ people has been central to her career since it first began, explaining: “Activism is a huge part of who I am – my start in comedy was charity fundraising for AIDS campaigners in San Francisco in the late 80s.”
Margaret also campaigned for marriage equality, hosted the first True Colours tour in 2007 which raised funds for queer charities and campaigned against homophobia, and continues to be outspoken against the anti-trans movement that has plagued politics in recent years.

Margaret continues to blaze her trail while selling out shows and uplifting the new generation of queer and Asian comedians, who she lovingly refers to as her babies. In 2026, she received the Queerties Icon Award for her contribution to comedy and LGBTQ+ activism. In her acceptance speech, Margaret instructed queer people to stand up, be proud and “hold your partners hand in public – even if you hate them” so that the queer youth of today have someone to look up to, in the same way recent generations have been able to look up to her as a hilarious, bisexual, Korean-American comedian who isn’t afraid to speak up for what matters.