Ali Wong joins cast of NBC’s “Are You There Vodka, It’s Me Chelsea”

NBC decided over the summer to change up the cast of 2011-2012 midseason replacement Are You There Vodka, It’s Me Chelsea, and the newest beneficiary of those cast changes is stand-up comedian Ali Wong, just hired to play “Chelsea Handler’s” (Laura Prepon) best friend on the sitcom.

Wong’s character, Bianca, will work with “Chelsea” as cocktail waitresses and has been her BFF since childhood. Her character replaces a different best-friend character played by Natalie Morales in the pilot. Jo Koy’s bartender character has been rewritten for another actor who can play a potential love interest for “Chelsea.” Handler herself remains in the cast as her own older sister. The sitcom’s title comes from one of Handler’s best-selling books.

Anyhow. Wong told The Comic’s Comic that she is excited about the opportunity, although it will limit her trips to New York City, where she was the first comedian profiled in my “Meet Me in New York” series. (Editor’s Note: Remind me to do more of those profiles, and send me your suggestions please!).

Wong also quipped:

I’m very excited because being on this show will help pay for my birth control. I still feel like Vietnamese Black Swan.

Wong recently performed as a “New Face” at Montreal’s Just For Laughs fest, where she also was named one of Variety’s 10 Comics to Watch for 2011. Guess they got that one right, eh?

And in July, she made her debut on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which you can watch again here.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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