Mark Lee Kok Huang (born 16 October 1968) is a Singaporean comedian, actor, presenter, director and producer.
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Early life
Mark Lee Kok Huang was born on 16 October 1968. His father was a barber, and his mother was a hawker. His family included an older brother and an older sister. Growing up, Lee helped his mother to sell chee cheong fun in the morning and duck rice in the evening in a kopitiam at Taman Jurong, and rambutan for his father. He studied in Jurong Secondary School, where he worked three jobs during the holidays. He passed his N-Levels but failed his O-Levels.
Career
Lee is mostly known for playing comedic roles. He played the thief in the English sitcom, titled Police & Thief, as Lee Tok Kong, an ah beng character, described as "the last great series of Singapore's sitcom heyday" by Channel NewsAsia's On the Red Dot, having been convinced by the producers to act the role despite initially hesitating over his adequacy in English. Lee's first role was a talking trash bin in the variety show directed by Jack Neo which aired from 1990 to 2003, Comedy Nite, which he believes made him famous. He has also acted in movies, such as with Neo and Henry Thia in Money No Enough and Money No Enough 3, and others such as I Not Stupid and Ah Long Pte Ltd. He made his directorial debut in the comedy horror film The Ghosts Must Be Crazy.
Along with long-time colleague Christopher Lee, he received the All Time Favourite Artiste award in the Star Awards 2010.
In 2012, Lee won his fourth Best Variety Host award for his popular show It's a Small World (Season 2).
In 2020, Lee released Number 1, a dramedy show about the drag world. He played Chow Chee Beng, a retrenched civil engineer and part-time drag queen responsible for supervising drag performers in a night club. He wanted to challenge the idea that he could only act as an ah beng, and thought that the plot of Number 1 was interesting when introduced to it by Jaspers Lai. It received a Golden Horse Award for make-up and costume design in 2020. John Lui of The Straits Times wrote that it was a "giant leap" to combat homophobia and transphobia given that the movie had to appeal to a large crowd of people.
In 2025, Lee released Number 2, a sequel to Number 1, a film that focused on the protagonist's family values and the dynamic with the grown-up son. It was largely filmed in Thailand, described as Asia's "undisputed capital of queer shows" by Tay Yek Keak of AsiaOne. He played the same character in Number 1, Chow Chee Beng. He won the award for the Pioneer Trend Best Actor for his role at the Asian Art Film Awards.
Business ventures
On 9 March 2017, Lee opened a production house named King Kong Media Productions with Yinson Marine Services, a Malaysian oil and gas company. Galaxy Entertainment is a subsidiary of King Kong Media Productions, an artiste management company.
He also co-owns salons with Addy Lee, which ran nine outlets in Singapore and two in Shanghai as of 2013.
Lee also once owned the eatery chain Old Town White Coffee which he brought into Singapore from Malaysia in 2008, and founded the now-defunct chicken rice brand 13 Stages in 2017. In 2021, Lee invested in the Ipoh F&B Chain Nam Heong, which opened its first Singapore outlet at a food court in 313@Somerset mall.
Music
In 2004, Lee released an album, titled Young Hero, which included Mandarin and Hokkien songs. In 2025, he released a Hokkien song, titled My Journey, about his life experiences and reflections. It was dedicated to his wife.
Personal life
Lee married Catherine Ng in 1999. They have two daughters, born in July 2008 and on 19 August 2013, and a son born on 25 August 2011.