Trivia

Jeff is an award-winning and published playwright and author. In 2018, he won the prestigious 43rd Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival for his play The Forgotten Place, which, alongside another play, Sweet, She, was a finalist for the 2019 National Award for Short Playwriting. He has also written eight bestselling Mandarin how-to books on learning English, American culture, and communicating with foreigners.

Was encouraged to apply for the A Better Chance program by his junior high school teacher Laura McIntyre (mother to Grammy winner Macy Gray.) Through the help of ABC, Jeff was accepted to Phillips Exeter Academy, receiving a full scholarship.

Jeff is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and speaks some Taiwanese.

Studied at Second City Toronto before moving to Los Angeles, where he went on to graduate from the conservatory at Second City Hollywood. He is also an alum of iO West and performs improv and sketch regularly around Los Angeles.

Played George W. Bush in two separate political satire TV shows in Taiwan. In Mimics (which won a Golden Bell for Best Variety Show), the character's name was "Lil' Bush", while on The Political Satire Show, his character was affectionately known as "Little Bullshit".

Famously asked Tom Cruise to talk to his mom (who was very sick at the time) on the phone during Tom's one and only press conference in Taiwan for the first Mission Impossible.

Spent his junior year in high school studying with the School Year Abroad program in Rennes, France, and his junior year in college in both Beijing, China and Taipei, Taiwan. Jeff has also studied Italian and Spanish, and learned Taiwanese on set while starring in a Taiwanese-language soap opera in Taiwan in 2005.

Teaches Mandarin Chinese and Improv for Learning in his spare time to elementary school children.

Sings with vocal ensemble Top Shelf.