Ronny Chieng

Ronny Chieng’s Journey from Comedy Stages to the Animation Booth

Stand-up comedy built the foundation, but voice acting quietly became one of the most compelling threads running through Ronny Chieng’s career. Born in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, into a Malaysian Chinese family, Chieng grew up between Singapore and Manchester, New Hampshire before landing in Melbourne, Australia, where he earned dual degrees in Law and Commerce. He picked up a microphone instead of a gavel in 2009, and the trajectory that followed took him far beyond anything a courtroom could have offered.

His multicultural upbringing – spanning Malaysia, Singapore, the United States, and Australia – gave him a voice with genuine range. That range translated naturally into animation and dubbing work, where conveying character through vocal tone alone demands more than technical skill. It requires a lived understanding of how people actually sound when they are confused, sharp, or absurd.

Scissor Seven and the English Dub Breakthrough

Among Chieng’s most recognized voice contributions is his work on the Netflix English dub of Scissor Seven, the Chinese animated series from creator He Xiaofeng. Chieng voiced Seven – a bumbling amnesiac assassin who also cuts hair – across the show’s early seasons. The character demanded comic timing that could land in two registers at once: physical comedy translated into sound, and genuine emotional sincerity underneath the slapstick. Chieng’s natural comedic instincts made Seven feel grounded rather than cartoonish.

Wish Dragon and a Star-Studded Animated Film

The 2021 Sony Pictures Animation film Wish Dragon brought Chieng into a high-profile ensemble cast alongside John Cho, Constance Wu, and Jimmy O. Yang. Produced in part by Jackie Chan, the film blended Chinese folklore with a contemporary coming-of-age story. Chieng’s casting reflected both his growing profile in Hollywood and the industry’s shift toward authenticity in the casting of animated features rooted in Asian cultural contexts.

Star Wars: Visions and the IV-A4 Credit

Through the Disney anthology series Star Wars: Visions, Chieng voiced IV-A4, adding a franchise with one of the most dedicated fan bases in global entertainment to his list of credits. The Visions series – built on short animated films from international studios – gave voice actors the opportunity to inhabit the Star Wars universe without the constraints of live-action continuity. It was a compact but notable credit that broadened his footprint in genre animation.

King of the Hill Revival and the Recasting of Kahn

The highest-profile voice acting assignment of Chieng’s career arrived with the 2025 Hulu revival of King of the Hill. He stepped into the role of Kahn Souphanousinphone, a character previously voiced by Toby Huss across all 13 original seasons. The recasting was part of a conscious industry push to have characters of color voiced by actors of color. Kahn – a Laotian neighbor to the Hill family in Arlen, Texas – is a character whose comedic tension comes from cultural misunderstanding and stubborn pride, qualities that Chieng’s comedic sensibility maps onto naturally.

A Voice Career Built Across Multiple Genres

Beyond the marquee roles, Chieng’s voice credits span a striking range of tones and formats. He contributed voices to Kung Fu Panda 4, appeared in the Netflix sci-fi anthology Love, Death and Robots, and lent his voice to episodes of Krapopolis, Grimsburg, and Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai. On Hulu’s Interior Chinatown – an adaptation of Charles Yu’s novel – he voiced Fatty Choi, and he recurred on the animated comedy Mulligan. Each of these credits represents a different register: action-comedy, adult animation, prestige limited series, franchise animation.

The consistency across these projects points to something beyond availability. Animation directors tend to return to voices they trust, and Chieng’s repeat appearances across multiple platforms suggest exactly that kind of professional credibility. His legal education may have trained him in precision and argument, but his voice acting catalogue proves he knows how to make an audience laugh, feel, and pay attention – without ever being seen.

Most Known Roles of Ronny Chieng

• Seven (Wu Liuqi) – Scissor Seven (Netflix English dub)
• Kahn Souphanousinphone – King of the Hill (Hulu revival, 2025)
• Pipa God (Fish) – Wish Dragon (2021)
• IV-A4 – Star Wars: Visions
• Fatty Choi – Interior Chinatown (Hulu)
• Kublai Khan – History of the World, Part II (Hulu)
• Additional Voices – Kung Fu Panda 4
• Additional Voices – Love, Death and Robots
• Additional Voices – Grimsburg
• Additional Voices – Krapopolis
• Additional Voices – Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai