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Margaret Cho Margaret Cho (born Moran Cho on December 5, 1968 in San Francisco, California) is a Korean American comedian and actress. Cho won the American Comedy Award for Best Female Comedian in 1994. She made television history by being the first Asian American (male or female) to have a television series based around her. The series, called All American Girl, was quickly canceled after suffering major content changes over the course of one season. Cho has discussed the fact that she was forced to lose a very large amount of weight in order to play what was essentially herself. She was also told she was "not Asian enough," and then later, "too Asian". Since, she has had several successful one-woman shows. The first, called I'm the One That I Want, dealt with her difficulties breaking into show business due to her ethnicity and weight. Its filmed version became the highest-grossing film in history in proportion to the number of prints ($1.4 million with only 9 prints). The second, The Notorious C.H.O. (the title a spoof on rap artist Lil' Kim's album The Notorious K.I.M., and that in turn being a tribute to Lil' Kim's late boyfriend's nickname "The Notorious B.I.G.") dealt with her having been raised in 1970s San Francisco and her own bisexuality. Both tours spawned live movie versions, albums and books. Much of her comedy is quite sexually explicit; some of her favourite subjects include her fondness for gay men and proud identity as a "fag hag," sharp political commentary, descriptions of her problems with prejudice, substance abuse, and eating disorders, and her relationship with her mother, which she loves to satirize. She has comedically mentioned her plans to "cover her vagina with leaves" because of her belief that falling in to such a trap was the only way that someone would enter it. In the same vein, she has also remarked that if one doesn't have sex for a long time, say two years, then one's virginity is automatically earned back. In 2003 Cho began an internet presence with the advent of www.margaretcho.com and her daily weblog. She began to draw intense fire from conservatives over her fiercely anti-Bush commentary; a live performance in Houston,Texas was threatened with picketing. Although protesters never showed up, she held a counter protest outside club until security told her she had to go inside. Cho also started www.loveisloveislove.com, a website promoting tolerance of homosexuality and the legalization of gay marriage in the United States. Additionally, a clothing line called "High Class Cho" (www.highclasscho.com) was started; with it Cho hopes to bring attractive clothing to the market for plus sized women. In 2004 Cho was performing at a corporate gig in a hotel when, after 10 minutes of comedy, her microphone was cut off and a band instructed to begin playing. This was because the manager of the hotel was offended by anti-Bush-administration comments. Cho's payment, which was issued by way of check directly to a non-profit organization, bounced. Later in 2004 Cho was un-invited to speak at a gay-related fundraiser because of fear that her comments might cause controversy.
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Categories: 1968 births | Gay, lesbian or bisexual people | Korean Americans | LGBT rights activists
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