Esther Ku

Esther Ku is a stand-up comedian born and improperly raised in Chicago, the daughter of Korean Christian missionaries.

As a child she was a musical prodigy, class clown and band geek. In 8th grade she hosted the school talent show and began to fill her notebooks with jokes instead of math equations. Ku would annoy the hell out of her teachers and classmates with her laugh.

In high school Ku founded an underground newspaper called “The Coup” where she honed her talent for offending people. She won the River Grove Mayor’s Award for Good Citizenship (which was later revoked).

Ku landed a job as a pen sales rep for Sharpie and moved to Boston where she officially began doing stand-up.[2] She got her start at local comedy clubs and shared the stage with Doug Stanhope, Steven Wright, Jonathan Katz, and Teddy Bergeron.

She moved to New York City to pursue comedy full time. Ku became a regular at comedy clubs such as Caroline’s, Stand-Up NY and Broadway.

Ku was a featured performer at the New York Underground Comedy Festival and the Boston International Comedy Festival.[3] She was selected for NBC's Stand-up for Diversity Showcase in 2006.

In 2008, Ku was the only female comedian from New York City to advance to the Las Vegas Semi-Finals of NBC’s Last Comic Standing, then becoming one of the top ten finalists in Hollywood.[4] Six months later, she was chosen as a finalist in the Hottest Funniest Chick Contest on the Howard Stern Show.[5]

Ku was a cast member on the MTV show Girl Code for three seasons.[1] She became a cast member on the sixth season of Wild 'N Out on MTV2 with Nick Cannon.

On July 29, 2015 she was a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast episode #676.[6] In the same year she played Maria in Season 1 - Episode 10 of The Jim Gaffigan Show.

Ku played a receptionist Tracy in The Jack and Triumph Show, a multi-camera sitcom recorded in front of a live studio audience. She worked alongside Jack McBrayer, June Squibb, and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, aka Robert Smigel.

She has recorded several voices for Family Guy on Fox.

In 2017 Ku was a cast member on next-gen female comedy sketch called Sorry Not Sorry on Go90.com.[7]

On January 28, Ku got to host the 2019 AVN Awards Show for Showtime. Cardi B was the musical guest making this the first all female host line-up ever. Ku opened for Brian Regan in Florida at Hard Rock Live arena on December 8, 2021.[8]

She is the host of her own podcast Ku and the Gang which has reached the top ten comedy podcasts on iTunes.[9] She has been a guest on The Church of What’s Happening Now with Joey Diaz, TigerBelly podcast with Bobby Lee, Getting Doug with High, Bertcast with Bert Kreischer, The Opie & Jim Norton Show on Sirius XM, Guys We F*cked podcast, The Artie Lange Show, The Craig Ferguson Show, The Jenny McCarthy Show, The Frazer Smith Show on KLOS, Playboy Morning Show, Controlled Chaos with Josh Wolf, The Jason Ellis Show, Steebee Weebee podcast and many more.

• Official website
• Esther Ku at IMDb