Ben Wang

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ben Wang

• His parents got divorced when he was four years old.

• When Ben Wang was six years old, he and his mother moved to the United States. He did not know English at that time.

• He learned English in one summer by watching television for nine hours every day.

• In the morning, Ben Wang would wake up, sit in front of the television, and watch until he got tired at night.

• At first, he did not understand anything on the television shows. So, he started watching infomercials because people kept talking in these programs, and the same things were repeated.

• After that, Ben Wang started making his infomercials while using his grandfather’s camcorder to record himself. That was how he got interested in performing.

• He grew up in a small town in Minnesota, United States.

• According to Ben Wang, in that town, if one was not good at football, one had to find something else to do such as acting in community theatre and school plays.

• During a media conversation, he mentioned that he made his infomercials, and one of which was about a cardboard box, made of a simple box.

• Ben Wang showed all the ways one could use this cardbox, like sitting on it, sitting in it, putting it on the head, and throwing it at people. He also joked by saying things like,
  

  Look how hard it is to reach the cupboard without a box.”

• His mother helped him shoot his videos.

• Ben Wang was one of the few Asian American kids in his town and class until sixth or seventh grade.

• In his childhood, he had a typical haircut and wore secondhand clothes that his mother bought from the Used-a-Bit Shoppe.

• In China, his mother worked as a fashion designer. When they moved to the United States, her college degree was not accepted, so she had to study again.

• She went to school for four years while Ben Wang lived with his grandparents. She came back when he was about to start middle school.

• His grandfather, Richard Bodman, was a white man and a language expert who taught Asian studies at St. Olaf College.

• His grandmother, Hongyuan Lang, had a farm in rural China.

• At home, Ben Wang grew up in the Chinese culture. He used to eat noodle soup and not meatloaf.

• At school, he tried hard to fit in with his white classmates. He faced racist comments and had a crush on a white girl.

• His mother always supported his interest in the arts and encouraged him to do theatre. She motivated him to learn and play the piano and violin.

• After Ben Wang graduated, his mother stopped going to China and started a new career in early childhood education. She opened a preschool.

• In 2021, he started appearing in Hollywood television shows, and his breakthrough role came in the same year when he portrayed Eli Brown in an episode of the television series MacGyver, which aired on CBS.

• Ben Wang then went on to appear in many television shows such as Launchpad (2021), Search Party (2022), and Bob’s Burgers (2024).

• In 2023, he got the lead role in the television series American Born Chinese, which aired on Disney+. The show was based on a graphic novel, and he played a high school student named Jin Wang.

• The same year, he appeared as Bo in the film Chang Can Dunk by Disney+.

  

• He then went on to appear in many films such as Mean Girls (2024), The Long Walk (2025), and The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (2026).

• In 2025, Ben Wang appeared as Li Fong in the film Karate Kid: Legends alongside actors Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan.

  

• He speaks both English and Mandarin Chinese fluently.

• Ben Wang is skilled in many martial arts such as karate, kenpo, kung fu (mainly Wing Chun), kumdo, and taekwondo.

• In an interview, he shared that his biggest inspirations growing up were his teachers and his mother, who raised him alone while working two jobs.

• Ben Wang has been featured on the cover of many magazines and tabloids.