Brenda Song has taken on her latest starring comedy role in Netflix’s hilarious new sports sitcom Running Point. The 10-part series teams her up with Kate Hudson as Isla Gordon, the controversial new female owner of the NBA team the Los Angeles Waves.
Throughout the series, Song portrays Isla’s assistant Ali Lee who does whatever it takes to help guide the basketball stars to victory following a family scandal. With a wide-ranging career since her early beginnings as a child actress, let’s take a look at Brenda Song’s life up to this point.
Song was born in Sacramento, California to a Hmong father from Bangkok and Thai mother from Chiang Mai. Her father works as a school teacher while her mother is a housewife. However, her mum was instrumental in the early stages of her career. She and her mother moved to Los Angeles when Song was only six-years-old to pursue her dream of becoming an actor, and the rest of her family followed two years later.
Song also holds a black belt in taekwondo as, despite wanting to do ballet as a girl, her brother preferred martial arts and she said “my mum only wanted to take us to one place”. Song’s first foray into showbusiness was as a child model in San Francisco before acting in commercials for Little Caesar and Barbie when she was around five or six.
She went on to star in short films before landing roles in Thunder Alley, Fudge and 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd. Throughout her childhood and early teens she went on to make appearances in shows like The Bernie Mac Show, 7th Heaven, For the People and ER.
Song shot to international recognition when she first signed a contract with Disney in 2002, which scored her a starring role in the Disney Channel film Get A Clue, led by Lindsay Lohan. She continued to make appearances in sitcoms like That's So Raven and One on One, had a recurring role on Phil of the Future and was the co-lead of the Disney Channel film Stuck in the Suburbs with Danielle Panabaker.
Arguably her most famous role to date came in 2005, when she landed the part of London Tipton, the rich heiress modelled on Paris Hilton in the kids sitcom The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. She reprised the role in the sequel series The Suite Life on Deck.
The actress has admitted to having a complicated relationship to her early success as being known to so many people sparked a lot of “anxiety”. She opened up to Glamour: “I wasn't Miley Cyrus, but I was getting recognised at the mall. It made me feel like I couldn't be myself because they were expecting London Tipton.”.
Song has been in a relationship with Home Alone icon Macaulay Culkin since 2017 after meeting on the set of the film Changeland. After dating for four years they became engaged in January 2022, but have not officially tied the knot yet. During a recent appearance on Live With Kelly and Mark, she described Culkin as her “best friend”, revealing: “We’re big kids. We’re very communicative. We tend to spend our evenings chatting, going over our day. He’s my best friend. We love playing Mario Kart.
"Sometimes it’s not as relaxing as it should be because I’m so competitive. I feel so fortunate that I have someone like that to spend my days with.". Song and Culkin have two children together, three-year-old Dakota and two-year-old Carson. Dakota is named after Culkin’s late sister, who was tragically killed in a car accident in 2008.
During Song’s interview on Live, Song shared that she “didn’t even push” when she gave birth to Carson. "I always say, my second son, he really wanted to be here,” she shared. “No doubt about it. “He made that choice and I was very fortunate. I didn’t even push him out, he came out on a contraction. I was like, 'Oh, he’s ready to be here’.”.
Song has also said she has embraced motherhood, even if it came with a challenging change to her routine. "Becoming a mom, finding such fulfilment in my personal life has changed me so much,” the star told People. "I feel like for the first time it's truly that next phase in my life. And with that being said, my priorities changed. That was the big difference.
“I think that's what I was struggling with is our society really tells us as women to follow your dreams, do what you got to do, go out there, do your thing, girl, but also be a full-time mom, make sure you're at home and making dinner.". Running Point will be released Thursday, 27th February on Netflix.
