What is Bobby Lee’s net worth? The American comedian, Bobby Lee is an icon in not just the comedy industry, but in the acting and podcasting industry as well.
As a man whose dream wasn’t supported by most of the people around him, he had to make it to the top, struggling and fighting lots of battles. Emotional, physical, psychological battles. Dealing with the loud criticism wasn’t easy as well.
In this article, we will answer all your questions on Bobby Lee. “How old is Bobby Lee?” “what is Bobby Lee net worth” “How did he amass his wealth?” “Does he have any spouse?” “Who are his parents?” “Where did he grow up?” and more.
Who Is Bobby Lee?
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Bobby Lee is one of the most talented comedians in the United States. He is popularly known for his many appearances on MADtv where he played various characters from 2001 to 2009.
Over the years, Bobby Lee has appeared in many TV movies as well. Some of them are Unreal TV, Emerald Acres, High and Tight, and so on. Apart from being a member of the cast of these movies, he has also done voice acting for many movies and videos as well.
Bobby Lee has been active as a comedian and actor since 1994 and he’s still active today. He is popularly known for black comedy, blue comedy also known as Ribaldry, and observational comedy. As we progress, we will talk about more amazing things about Bobby Lee and Bobby Lee net worth.
Bobby Lee’s Place of Birth and Early Life
Bobby Lee whose actual name is Robert Lee Jr. was born in San Diego, California, United States. He was born to parents Robert and Jeanie Lee on September 17, 1971, making him 50-years-old.
His parents are Korean Americans who owned fashion stores in Escondido and Encinitas. These cities are popularly known for being close to the beach in the North area of San Diego in California.
Bobby Lee had most of his education in San Diego. As a child, he went to Painted Rock Elementary School in Poway, California. He also attended Poway High School and later went to Palomar College, a public community college in San Diego.
When Bobby was in high school, he was a member of a breakdancing group and he participated in talent shows from time to time. Beastie Boys were his Favorite then because according to him, he had all their tapes alongside Run-D.M.C tapes.
Bobby’s parents wanted him to take over their business. Because of this, they were not happy about Bobby’s proclaimed dream of being a comedian.
Bobby grew up in San Francisco and continued to live there for a while. He had his share of insecurity as a kid from an Asian family. He struggled a lot while growing up because he had to deal with disrespect from people, his insecurities, and other fears.
Dealing with stereotypes was another war for Bobby. In a session with him, Bobby recalls how he was having an after-work drink one day with one of his colleagues. Then this colleague spills a drink on himself and asks him how to get it off.
Bobby had to retort by saying “we don’t all own a Chinese laundry. We all don’t have buck teeth. We all don’t speak with accents.”
He knew he had to find himself before he got swallowed by the negativity in the society. Because of this, he dropped out of college. In an interview, he once stated that the darkest years of his life were his 20s. Particularly when he was between the ages of 20 and 24.
Bobby Lee’s Personal Life and Family
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Bobby Lee’s parents, Robert and Jeanie Lee had clothing stores called “Fashion Gal” in San Diego. Stores that they hoped he would grow up to take over. However, selling female clothes and fashion items wasn’t his calling.
Even if it wasn’t taking over the store, they would have accepted professional jobs. Several times, they wished he was more serious with his life. They wanted him to be a doctor, lawyer or just have a decent 9-5 job.
Well, they could not be totally blamed for rejecting their son’s dream. The Korean community in San Diego as well wasn’t of much help. They all had a standard they had to put up with. Children must always obey their parents, do as they’re told with no questions.
However, these dogmas weren’t for Bobby and his younger brother Steve who is now a musician and a comedian as well. He appeared on MADtv a few times with Bobby. Steve is the host of “The Steebee Weebee” podcast and a co-host of the “Scissors Bros” podcast with Jeremiah Watkins.
Robert and Jeanie were told to be ashamed of their son and what he was becoming. Jeanie felt her son was smart but not academically. After seeing everything he’s been doing and watching him on shows, she says she regrets having pushed him that hard.
According to her, maybe that’s why he never became a doctor or lawyer. Lee’s mom is the president of her golf club and she says it’s all because of her son.
Still, Lee has not gained full acceptance in the Asian Community. Many of them think he is a disgrace to them and their ideologies. It took him a while to get over the depression that came with those criticisms.
Bobby says what encouraged him was an experience he had one day. Thirty Asian kids got out of a bus and came to thank him. He said that encouragement, though it seems little was a big assistance to him.
Although Lee plays Asians satirically, he has boundaries that he does not cross. His comedy focuses squarely on him as a person, his life while growing and presently.
Bobby understands why his parents had high expectations of him. They worked extremely hard to come down to the United States. He does think they have the right to see their children succeed.
Bobby says he’s not an exercise person. In an interview some years back after his film “Kickin’ It Old Skool” debuted, he said he doesn’t work out at all and that he barely moves his body.
In 2016, Bobby Lee married his longtime sweetheart, Khalyla Kuhn who is half Egyptian and half Filipino. Khalyla is a nurse and is quite well known on social media.
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Bobby Lee’s Drug History
The first time Bobby took methamphetamine and marijuana was when he was twelve years old. By the time he was fifteen, he had been taking heroin and other hard drugs.
He had to undergo drug rehabilitation three times before he became sober at seventeen. Lee says going to drug rehab at seventeen had a great impact on his career as a comic.
The drug rehab he went to was in La Jolla and at the time, he was hanging out with kids who were from there. When he finished high school, he just moved to La Jolla. It was there he got his first job as a comic at the comedy store in La Jolla.
It wasn’t until twelve years later after receiving bad feedback from a producer that he relapsed and began taking Vicodin.
Bobby appeared on one of the episodes “This Is Not Happening” a TV series on Comedy Central. It was there he explained that he got sober again after Lauren Dombrowski stood up for him the second time he got fired from a MADtv show.
In August 2019, Lee relapsed again after his father died from Parkinson’s disease. After a while, he went to rehab again to become sober.
Bobby Lee’s Height and Weight
The American stand-up comedian, actor, and podcaster is 5ft 6 inches (167cm) tall and weighs 156 pounds (71kg).
Bobby Lee’s Career
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Lee’s career started in 1994 when he tried stand-up during one of the amateur nights at the Comedy Store in San Diego. Before then, he had done several odd jobs.
He washed dishes at Pannikin. He was also a waiter at Brockton Villa Restaurant which were both in La Jolla. At a time, he was also working at a coffee shop in San Diego. The coffee shop closed down after a while leaving Bobby jobless.
He had to find another job if he wanted to survive so he took the job next door. This job happened to be at the Comedy Store known as La Jolla Comedy Store. His work included cleaning and other odd jobs.
After his trial at the amateur night, he started doing comedy sets regularly. Lee was naturally good at comedy. At times, he even told stories about his family. Regardless of what he told, people laughed. It didn’t take long for him to get promoted to openings on Saturday nights.
His comedy sets were noticed by Carlos Mencia and Pauly Shore, who was the son of Mitzi Shore. Mitzi Shore was the owner of another Comedy Store in Las Vegas.
Pauly Shore asked him to open for him at the Comedy Store in L.A. Bobby says he was proud to be working there because a lot of comedians he admired had worked there as well.
All this time, Bobby’s parents were still furious about him being a comedian. Bobby was interviewed Joe Rogan on an episode of his podcast, the Joe Rogan’s Show on February 1, 2011. In the interview, Lee said his parents didn’t speak with him during his first few years as a stand-up comedian.
It wasn’t until he appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” that his father called him for the first time in years. According to him, his father thought he must have paid to appear on the show. He ended up apologizing to him for not supporting him all these years.
Bobby Lee has appeared in many movies. In 1999, he acted the role of a Chinese man in the “Underground Comedy Movie”. In 2003, he acts as a delivery boy in “Pauly Shore is Dead” and as a Korean general in “American Misfits”.
In 2004, he was the character “Kenneth Park” in “Harold Kumar Go to White Castle”. The comedy film was directed by Danny Leiner and had other casts like Kal Penn, John Cho, Neil Patrick Harris, and others.
He also featured in Undoing that same year. He played the role of Kenny. The undoing was a mini crime thriller series directed by Chris Chan Lee.
He acted alongside some notable actors like Sung Kang, Kelly Hu, Russell Wong, Tom Bower, and others. The Undoing was nominated for the Filmmaker Award for the Los Angeles Film Festival in 2006.
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In 2005, Lee played the role of “the Korean bookie” in two episodes of “Mind of Mencia”, a comedy series. Mind of Mencia had four seasons and aired from 2005 to 2008. It was shown on Comedy Central and was received warmly by the public.
In 2007, he acted Aki Terasaki in “Kickin’ it Old Skool”, another comedy film. It was one of the films Bobby was very excited to feature in. According to him, he had quite the experience during the shooting. Although he breakdanced a little in high school, he had to learn new moves.
He also featured as Danny in “American Dad” in the same year. American Dad is an animated series that first aired on Fox. It was on Fox from 2005 till 2014 when it started airing on TBS. American Dad has 17 seasons. Bobby’s appearance was in the season 2.
In 2008, he featured in “Killer Pad” as Winnie. Killer pad is a comedy horror film with about an hour, thirty minutes of airtime. Bobby starred alongside Eric Jungman, Daniel Franzese, Shane McRae, and others.
Later that year, in “Pineapple Express”, he acted as an Asian gangster. The two-hour comedy film was directed by David Gordon Green. Here, Bobby remains as Bobby who is the brother of Ken, the leader of the Korean gang.
In 2011, he starred in the film “Hard Breakers” and played the role of Travis the Stoner. Although produced in 2010, the comedy film was released in2011. Here Bobby acts alongside Cameron Richardson, Sophie Monk, Chris Kattan, Tom Arnold, and other fine actors.
In 2011, Bobby was in the film “Paul” where he played the character, Valet. He has also been cast again as Kenneth Park in “A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas” alongside former actors Kal Penn, and John Cho.
In 2012, he appeared in the Dark Comedy film “The Dictator”. Here, he plays the role of Mr. Lao, the corrupt businessman who is with the wicked general’s uncle. He is also seen in Emerald Acres that same year. In the movie, he plays the Asian man who got struck dumb by a penguin.
In 2013, our man Bobby is seen in the romance movie “Final Recipe”. He is seen in the South Korean-Thai movie alongside actor Henry Lau. He also appears in “Wedding Palace” and the web series “The Awesomes”. In 2014, he was in “Bro, What Happened?”
He played the role of Rio Syamsudin in NCIS: Los Angeles in 2015. From 2016 to 2020, he featured as Truman in “Love”, a romance and comedy series. Other series he appeared in during this period are “What Would Diplo Do?”, “Splitting up Together”, and so on.
Bobby Lee joined FOX’s MADtv in 2001. He was the first and only Asian-American to be a member of the cast then. Lee played several characters while the show lasted.
Some of them were Bae Sung, the hapless interpreter. Connie Chung, the journalist. Tank, an Asian-American street tuner. Hideki, the average Asian. Kim Jong-il among many others.
The series was canceled in 2009 after a total of fourteen seasons. MADtv has aired again in 2016 but it was only for a short while.
From 2018 till now, Bobby Lee has constantly appeared as Jin Jeong on Magnum P.I TV series. The action TV drama airs on CBS with the main characters “Jay Hernandez”, “Perdita Weeks”, and “Zachary Knighton”.
Bobby Lee and his wife, Khalyla Khun are the hosts of “TigerBelly”, a podcast that started in 2015. TigerBelly is centered on topics revolving around Asian-American issues. They also talk about topics like racism, sexuality, politics, and more.
The podcast now has an engineer, Gilbert Galon, and a producer, George Kimmel. As of the 23rd of February, the podcast has 336 episodes.
Lee almost partnered with Erik Griffin for another podcast but the plan fell through. All Things Comedy, the comedy network accepted their proposal. However, they were not able to create time for it.
With all his years in the acting and comic industry, it’s no surprise that Bobby Lee net worth is quite high.
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Bobby Lee’s Net Worth and Summary
What is Bobby Lee net worth? As of 2022, Bobby Lee net worth is estimated to be $3 million. For an Asian-American who didn’t receive much support from his family and community while starting, Bobby Lee net worth has grown considerably.
| Name | Bobby Lee |
| Real Name | Robert Lee Jr. |
| Age | 50 |
| Place of Birth | San Diego, California, USA. |
| Occupation | Comedian, Actor |
| Net Worth Estimate | $3 million |
| Siblings | 1 |
| Date of Birth | September 17, 1971 |
| Marital Status | Married |
| Kids | None |