Crazy Rich Asians co-star Ken Jeong has been tapped as the lead of CBS’ multi-camera comedy pilot The Emperor of Malibu, from Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan, former 2 Broke Girls executive producer Michelle Nader and Warner Bros. TV.
In The Emperor of Malibu, written by Kwan and David Sangalli, when the son of a Chinese billionaire (Jeong) announces his engagement to an American woman, his outrageous family descends upon the couple to win their son back and test drive the American dream.
Jeong’s Gerry is shocked when he learns that his son, Auggie, plans to marry a California woman he has been dating for two years without telling his parents. Gerry brings the whole family to Los Angeles to see if they can persuade Auggie to re-think his engagement.
The Emperor of Malibu draws on a similar East-meets-West theme as Kwan’s popular Crazy Rich Asians book and its hit movie adaptation, a romantic comedy that follows native New Yorker Rachel Chu (Wu) to Singapore to meet her boyfriend’s (Golding) very wealthy family.
In the movie, Jeong also played a very rich father, the wealthy Singaporean property and construction tycoon dad of Goh Peik Lin (Awkwafina).
Kwan and Sangalli executive produce with Nader and Christina Lee, who will both showrun, and Danielle Stokdyk.
This marks the return to multi-camera comedy series for Jeong who was the creator, writer, executive producer and star of Dr. Ken. It aired for two seasons on ABC. Trained as an M.D. before he segued to acting, Jeong also is known for the role of Ben Chang on Community, as well as gangster Leslie Chow in The Hangover trilogy. His first stand-up comedy special Ken Jeong: You Complete Me, Ho, just premiered yesterday, February 14, on Netflix.
Jeong, currently a judge on Fox’s breakout hit reality series The Masked Singer, is repped by ICM Partners, Aligned Entertainment and Stone Genow.
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