Esther Ku is a Korean-American stand-up comedian born in Rogers Park and raised in the working class suburb of River Grove near Chicago. She honed her act at many of New York City’s comedy clubs such as Caroline’s, Stand-Up NY, Broadway as well as the urban circuit in Brooklyn, Harlem and Queens. 

Ku made her television debut as a contestant on NBC’s Last Comic Standing Season Six, advancing to the semi-finals in Vegas, then becoming one of the top ten finalists in Hollywood. She made her radio debut on the Howard Stern show as a finalist on The Hottest Funniest Chick Contest. She was a regular cast member on MTV’s Girl Code for three seasons when college kids still had cable. She learned how to temporarily rap for her guest appearances on MTV2’s Wild’n Out with Nick Cannon. Ku played a receptionist in The Jack and Triumph Show sitcom alongside Jack MacBrayer, June Squibb, and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, aka Robert Smigel on Adult Swim. She’s recorded several voices for Family Guy on Fox including a Japanese panty selling vending machine. She’s made cameos on The Jim Gaffigan Show, @Midnight, and the movie Boy Band.  Ku just hosted the 2019 AVN Awards Show for Showtime along with Cardi B, making it the first all female AVN host lineup. 

She has toured the country and the world with her brash stand-up and trusty Briggs and Riley® carry-on suitcase.  When she went to China, everyone thought she was Chinese. When she went to Malaysia, everyone thought she was Malaysian. When she went to Singapore, everyone thought she was a broke American.

She is the host of her own podcast Ku and the Gang which has reached the top ten comedy podcasts on iTunes. She has been a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience, The Craig Ferguson Show, The Jenny McCarthy Show, The Church of What’s Happening Now with Joey Diaz, Tigerbelly Podcast with Bobby Lee, The Frazer Smith Show on KLOS, The Opie & Jim Norton Show on Sirius XM, the Guys We F*cked Podcast, Playboy Morning Show, Controlled Chaos with Josh Wolf, the Jason Ellis Show, Getting Doug with High, Bertcast with Bert Kreischer, Storyworthy Podcast, and more.