She is a 1995 graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Communications, has studied in China at Nanjing University for a year and trained with the Groundlings Improv Comedy Group in Los Angeles. Born in Washington DC by parents who immigrated from China to the East Coast in the 70's and raised in Southern California, she is a 1st generation Chinese American, who is also fluent in Mandarin Chinese.