Today we’d like to introduce you to Ming Lo.
Ming, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My life has had a few zig zags. As a child, I was a science and math guy, I was very geeky and even belonged to the math team in high school. We had t-shirts with a calculus equation that no one in the school could understand.
In college, I switched to humanities, studying political science focusing on international relations at Harvard University. Afterwards, I worked in finance at Goldman Sachs, got my MBA at Stanford, and worked as a consultant at Fortune 500 advisor McKinsey & Co. I loved my business career, but I wanted to do other things. A few years later, I took another turn and became an actor. I’ve been an actor ever since, doing theater, major films, television, commercials and voiceover. People ask me what area I specialize in, and I just say, “I do whatever they let me do, lol”.
There’s also a lot of downtime in acting. With the growth of digital in the early 2000s, I started spending a lot of time on production – both filmmaking and photography. I ending up writing, directing and producing a lot of industrial and local market commercials and shooting headshots in between.
Today, I’m an actor, videographer and photographer. I juggle many things, and it’s often confusing because people like to put one label on you, but it is what it is, as I say, lol.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Although people have always pointed to my early successes, everything I’ve done has always required hard, steady work. Although I did well in school, I initially was much better at math and science than at humanities and being an immigrant, communication was hard. While I spoke English without an accent, I didn’t really understand colloquial phrases and popular references, those things took a very long time to learn. Even though I understood the words that people said, I often didn’t understand what they were talking about and had to ask about it later.
I probably made it even more challenging by switching careers, which required new skills, new networks of people to work with and different practices. Still, it has been exciting and filled with new discoveries. When I left science and math for humanities, it required an entirely different way of thinking, and a much greater understanding of society and history, it took me a long time to catch up to others. The same thing was true when I entered the business world, that’s was a whole other set of skills and knowledge, and just understanding what to do in different situations was a lot of work.
Finally the entertainment world was another universe, I can’t imagine two more polar opposites than entertainment and business. And entertainment meant new relationships, new people, as well as completely different standards of performance and behavior.
Through all these changes, I’ve learned a great deal, and am much more well rounded, but it definitely required constantly facing new challenges.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
Being an Asian actor in Hollywood has had its unique challenges. It is true that Hollywood is opening up, and that has been a great change, but it remains challenging for older actors. When I started, I did a lot of small roles, playing doctors, Korean grocers, the forensic examiner, the occasional mobster or corrupt Asian businessman. This was my bread and butter. Later on, I played more diplomats, officials, police officers and continued to play businessmen. I also speak Chinese, so I’ve done a fair number of roles in Chinese. These continue to be my mainstay, and for older actors, these roles haven’t changed much.
As a videographer and photographer, I actually shoot a wide variety of things. I most enjoy telling stories, I guess that’s a bias from my acting and film background. In video, a good story – whether it’s a short film or a music video – is everything.
In photography, I’m most known for headshots and portraits, and I think people like shooting headshots with me because I have both a technical background but I also understand headshots as an actor with experience in the industry. I also enjoy shooting landscapes, architecture night photography, lightpainting, composites and fine art.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
In acting, one of my favorite roles was in a film called the Sessions, where I had a memorable comedic scene, something which I don’t get to do very often. But I’ve loved so many of my roles, which include work in The Laundromat, The Change Up, Jarhead, the Academy Award-winning Million Dollar Baby, Red Corner and others. Many people remember me as the doctor on Scrubs that always asks his patients to take their pants off, even if it’s for an eye infection; as well as roles in Friends and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
In terms of videography and photography, I just enjoy providing clients with work that they can use, that they put on their social media, their websites, and their marketing materials. With more artistic and creative work, I’m also flattered when people buy my landscapes. I’ve also done a lot of corporate work which has been published and used in media campaigns.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.minglo.com
- Phone: 310 442-7667
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mingtelo/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mingtelo
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ming-lo-photography-west-los-angeles
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0591247/
Image Credit:
Calvin Lee, Catherine Gontran, August Schellenberg, Cha Nelski, Xoe Xapoian, Rachel Bruno
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