Phil Nee(I)

Phil Nee is an American actor living in NYC. Born and raised on New York's Lower East Side, Phil was a photographer in the graphic arts department at ABC-TV. He started moonlighting as a stand up comic around 1980, and is often called the Godfather of Asian American stand up comedians. In 1985 he was announced the winner of "Showtime's Funniest Person in America Contest" after auditioning in front of a live audience at the plaza at the World Trade Center, which was hosted by the previous year's winner, Ellen Degeneres. He left ABC-TV and hit the road with Showtime, hosting the next year's contest, and performing at clubs and colleges throughout the country, and later in Asia including Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore. He was a regular cast member along with Laraine Newman of SNL fame, in a interstitial program called "The Dr. Pepper Canned Film Festival" where he got his AFTRA card. Later that year he booked his first network role on "The Cosby Show". During the early 2000's, Phil did the bi-coastal stint between NYC and L.A. performing stand up and and comedy improv with the group "Cold Tofu". Phil got off the road and signed with the New York-based About Artists Agency. He has recently appeared on "The Equalizer" on CBS, "Marvel's The Defenders", "House of Cards", and "Kevin Can Wait". He can also be seen in the film "Second Act" in a scene with Jennifer Lopez, and on season 2 of "Strangers" on Facebook Watch, where he plays the dad to the lead character played by Zoe Chao. He has also been a character in the popular video game, "Grand Theft Auto V" and the upcoming children's animated series, "Bea's Block" from Sesame Workshop and airing on HBO/Max in 2024.