Gedde Watanabe

Watanabe was born and raised in Ogden, Utah, in a Japanese-American family. His mother worked as a seamstress at the Utah Tailoring Company. He performed in several dramatic productions in high school, both acting and singing. After graduation, Watanabe relocated to San Francisco, where he worked as a street musician while honing his acting skills. ==Career==

In 1976, Watanabe's first role was as a member of the original Broadway cast of Pacific Overtures, originating the roles of Priest, Girl, and The Boy. He has since appeared in a number of films and television series, the first of which was The Long Island Four in 1980. Many of his roles are caricatured East Asians with heavy accents, though he himself does not speak Japanese. Watanabe became well known for his role as Long Duk Dong in the film Sixteen Candles (1984). He had a starring role in both the film Gung Ho (1986) and its television spinoff. In the 1989 movie UHF starring "Weird Al" Yankovic, Watanabe co-starred as Kuni, a karate instructor and abusive host of a TV game show called Wheel of Fish. He later reprised this role on The Weird Al Show. Watanabe appeared on Sesame Street from 1988 to 1991 as Hiroshi and had a recurring role as gay nurse Yosh Takata on the television drama from 1997 to 2003. During the nineties, Watanabe studied acting at Theater Theater in Hollywood, California, with Chris Aable, who introduced him to fellow actors Jon Cedar and Steve Burton. He voiced various Japanese characters on the animated television comedy The Simpsons. In 1998, he voiced Ling in the Disney animated film Mulan and reprised the role for the 2004 direct-to-video sequel Mulan II and the 2005 video game Kingdom Hearts II. ==Personal life==

While living as a gay man and in a relationship since 1986, Watanabe did not speak much about his sexuality. It was only until receiving his role in the 2020 web series The Disappointments that Watanabe spoke of his life as a gay man on the record in a conversation with Disappointments co-stars Trevor LaPaglia and Rich Burns. ==Filmography==

Film Television Video games == Stage ==