Garrett Wang

Wang was born in Riverside, California, to Taiwanese immigrant parents. He has one sister.[3] Growing up, Wang moved often. He attended kindergarten in Indiana before moving to Bermuda,[3] then to Memphis, Tennessee,[4] and then back to California.[3]

In the summer of 1990, he attended a Taiwanese-state sponsored cultural exchange program, which was the first time in his life when he wasn’t the only Asian around.[3] One of the reasons he decided to get into acting was to provide for other Asian Americans a role model in the entertainment industry—a predominantly non-Asian environment.[3] Wang graduated from Harding Academy High School in Memphis.[5]

Wang’s parents were not supportive of his acting ambitions. His father emigrated from Taiwan to attend graduate school in the States and did not view acting as a stable career choice.[3] His mother had been accepted to Taiwan School of Drama in her youth but did not go due to her father’s objections.[3] When his parents met actress Bonnie Franklin at an airport in Hawaii, she told them that Wang would never make it in the business.[3] His mother eventually even suggested that he join the military to learn some discipline.[3]

Wang attended UCLA. He switched majors multiple times, going from biology to political science to history to economics and finally Asian studies with all his upper-division electives in theater