Esther Ku

Esther Ku (born February 17, 1980) is an American comedian, television personality, and actress. Born in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago to South Korean missionaries, she was raised in nearby Franklin Park, Illinois. She began doing comedy by joking with and about her parents, and counts Joan Rivers among her idols. Ku was a cast member on the MTV shows Girl Code and Wild 'n Out.

Ku attended East Leyden High School, where she contributed to the school newspaper, and graduated in 1998 before attending the University of Illinois in Urbana, where she earned a bachelor's degree in marketing. She started her comedy career in Boston, Massachusetts, and was a featured performer at the New York Underground Comedy Festival and the Boston International Comedy Festival. In 2008, she was the only female comedian from New York City to advance to the Las Vegas semi-finals of NBC's Last Comic Standing, becoming one of the top-ten finalists in Hollywood.

Ku hosted the 2019 AVN Awards Show for Showtime on January 28, with Cardi B as musical guest, making it the first all-female-hosts line-up. She opened for Brian Regan in Florida at the Hard Rock Live arena on December 8, 2021. She was the host of her own podcast, Ku and the Gang, a pun on Kool and the Gang, from 2016 to 2018. She also made a TikTok series titled I Grew Up In A Cult about her childhood experiences. Ku lives in Brooklyn, New York.