Vivian Bang

Vivian Bang is a American actress known for her versatile work across film, television, and experimental theatre. Born on October 23, 1973 in Seoul, South Korea, she spent her early childhood in the United States after her family relocated to San Francisco in 1980 and later settled in Atlanta, Georgia, where she graduated from Dunwoody High School. Fueled by a passion for performance art, Bang earned a BFA in acting from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1996, studying experimental theatre and performance art that would inform her later avant‑garde projects. After graduation she toured with the Big Art Group, an experimental performance troupe, and appeared in Off‑Broadway productions such as Calling Aphrodite and Please Stand By, earning critical notice for her daring stage presence. Bang’s on‑screen career launched in the late 1990s with small roles in independent films like Henry Fool (1997) and the short Useless (2000). She quickly became a familiar guest star on popular television series, delivering memorable turns on Sex and the City, House, Monk, How I Met Your Mother, and Numb3rs. A breakthrough came when she joined the main cast of TBS’s sitcom Sullivan & Son (2012‑2014), playing Steve Byrne’s sister, and later as a principal cast member on the comedy series Swedish Dicks (2016‑2017). In film, Bang is perhaps best remembered for her comedic cameo as a bridal‑shower planner in the box‑office hit Yes Man (2008) and as the hippie girlfriend in the romantic comedy Always Be My Maybe (2019). She co‑wrote, co‑produced, and starred in the indie feature White Rabbit (2018), a satirical look at gig‑economy culture that premiered in the NEXT program at the Sundance Film Festival and garnered a Best Actress award at the Asian American Film Lab. Throughout her career, Bang has balanced mainstream roles with experimental projects, earning a reputation as a dynamic talent who continuously pushes the boundaries of contemporary performance.