BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — One actor who has made a name for himself on Broadway and in theaters is scheduled to speak at CSUB.
BD Wong is scheduled to be a guest speaker at CSUB on Nov. 5. Wong got his start in the entertainment industry about 40 years ago, when he was discovered in 1988 on Broadway.
“I got my very big break when I got my first Broadway show ‘M. Butterfly’ and I felt the door really opening in that moment,” said Wong.
The award-winning actor has been in dozens of films since, including the blockbuster hit “Jurassic Park” in 1993, where he played Dr. Henry Wu.
“I was in the first Jurassic Park movie, which was kind of a historic movie in some ways because of what it was bringing to the table at that time, and that has stuck with me in that franchise with this character, that I played over 30 years now,” said Wong.
Wong reprised his role in three “Jurassic World” movies.
Along the way he’s also starred as Dr. George Huang on NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU.” Wong left the show in 2015 to pursue other projects, but teased he may not be done yet.
“I’m dipping my toe in the water of being invited to recur on ‘Law & Order SVU,’ so if you’re an ‘SVU’ fan, you should keep an eye out for me because I’ll be sticking my head in the door here and there, I think. You heard it here first actually,” said Wong.
Beyond the big acting gigs, Wong has found happiness talking with college students across the country, about the barriers he faced as a gay Asian-American man in the entertainment industry.
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“So many things have changed and a lot of it is very positive. You know progress and moving forward and learning things and technology, all lend themselves to growing, understanding a growing shifting sensibility about all kinds of things, exposure and representation. We have much more actual representation of people of all different shapes and sizes and colors than we did before,” said Wong.
BD Wong is scheduled to speak on Wednesday, Nov. 5 at 6 p.m.
CSUB’s Dore Theater is slated to host a lecture titled “From Exclusion to Inclusion.”
The event is free and open to the public.
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