Why Ali Wong Decided to Go G-Rated on Netflix

When you hear the name “Ali Wong,” your adult mind might go to gloriously racy places. The Emmy-winning performer once stole our hearts with her wildly raunchy and R-rated stand-up specials about parenthood and marriage. And more recently, she turned heads with a more dramatic — but equally comedic and not-suited-for kids — turn in Netflix’s masterpiece of a series known as Beef. Additionally, much of the past animated work Wong has lent her voice to is particularly racy (looking at you, Big Mouth), but now along comes the thrilling kids’ animated series Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld, which is also streaming on Netflix.

Wong voices the eponymous heroine and recently shared with MovieWeb her utter excitement about tackling the more family-friendly content — and possibly scoring some “cool points” with her young kids. “That’s the only reason why I did it,” she told us with her signature sarcasm. “That’s, like, kind of joking, but it’s kind of true because my kids can’t watch anything that I do.” Wong added:

“Even most of the animated voiceover work I’ve done, they can’t watch any of it. And I always say that, you know, there are so few animated shows that I can enjoy with my kids, so I’m excited for this to be one of them. Like, I can name all of them on one hand. So to have a show that I’m part of, that I can go on a ride with my kids, is very special.”

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Jentry Chau, set at a Texas high school where Wong’s character gets all entangled in supernatural chaos tracing back to her ancestors’ mysterious backstory, was created by Echo Wu and showcases Asian talent throughout its first season. Wu shared with MovieWeb what it was like joining forces with Wong and other big names (Lucy Liu, Bowen Yang) to bring this personal series to life:

“It’s such a dream, being able to work with Ali and having this amazing cast behind it. I think this is a show that’s really dear to me. It’s based off my childhood, and I grew up and was raised in the suburbs of Dallas, and so I think having that sort of realization where you just kind of want to watch something that resonates with people, and I feel like this is something that I have always really wanted to see on television. And so being able to make something like that come true with this amazing dream cast and dream musicians and everything is like, I’m besides myself.”

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Wu is also open to the idea of a second season and detailed what she hopes viewers can take away from a wildly entertaining tale that also remains endearing with core family values throughout. “We’re always down to play. I obviously want people to feel like there’s representation for them and also feel like they have a character to relate to,” said Wu. “I think growing up or having to like a fish-out-of-water experience is always hard to do. But I also hope that people get a celebrity or a cartoon-crush from this show. Like, I really want people to, like, experience the joys of having a cartoon-crush. We worked really hard on those characters. And so yeah, that’s my hope.”

Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld is now streaming on Netflix. Watch it here.

The series follows Jentry Chau (voiced by Ali Wong), a Chinese-American teen living in a small Texas town, who finds out a demon king is hunting her for the supernatural powers she’s been working her whole life to repress. With the help of her weapons expert great-aunt and a millennia-old jiangshi (Chinese hopping vampire), Jentry must now fight an entire underworld’s worth of monsters while balancing the horrors of high school.

Release Date December 5, 2024

Creator(s) Echo Wu

Seasons 1

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