Wendy Ho. Singer. Rapper. Truth Teller. Ho. A musical comedian that  genre hops hip-hop, r&b, gospel, musical theater, country, and more.  Although she hates the comparison, she’s kinda like Weird Al but sexier, dirtier, and can actually spit and soulfully SING.  Ho was born in Toledo, OH in 1977 as Wendy Jo Smith.  For the first 10 years of her life she was brought up in a trailer court by her very young parents, high school sweethearts, Howard and Kim Smith.  By the time she was 5 years old she was belting along with Bette Midler, Aretha Franklin, and Otis Redding  records.  She also could be found watching a lot of 227, Amen, The Jeffersons, and Good Times.  Surrounded by white trash, and yet drawn to all things “urban,” Ho was born a misfit.   By the time she was in 5th grade she was encouraged to perform by her best friend, Tameko Cook.  Tameko, the token black girl and, Wendy Jo,  the token fat girl of the Catholic  Elementary School, St. Joan of Arc were their own little outcast society.  They spent hours together dancing to Bobby Brown, rapping, singing, and dancing.  They were separated when Wendy Jo’s family was transferred to the birth place of Blues and BBQ: Kansas City.   

Although Ho was devastated by the move west, this move was pivotal in shaping her as an artist. She became heavily involved in theatre, and was nurtured by her theatre teacher, Lee Hitchler, at Olathe East High School.  She auditioned for choir and singing roles many times, but was discouraged by the choir teacher, and was told that her voice was “too soulful, too pop.”  She shut down on singing, and focused on acting.  She continued to struggle with her weight, her self image, and trying to find her own voice as an artist, but in the mean time became known as “the actress,” at her high school.

Wendy Jo then attended Southwest Missouri State University and received acting scholarships from Kathleen Turner (SMSU alumni) and Leslie Irene Coger. She continued to work as a serious actress, and improvisational artist, but it was through drug experimentation, and remembering  the good times with her best friend Tameko Cook that Wendy Ho began to emerge.  She wrote her first official rap, “Yo Teef,” about a man that looked like Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who had invaded their theater department as a non-traditional student.   Her fellow students clamored for her to rap at parties, and Wendy Jo soon became known as, Wendy Ho. 

Ho relocated to New York City in the summer of 2002, and did not look back.  She moved directly uptown to 127th Street, Harlem USA.  She continued to dabble in theatre and sang with a band for a while, meanwhile  continuing her experimentation with all things, “street.” When she fell on tough financial times she found herself dealing, drugging, and running the hustle on the streets of Harlem, and yes, that included stealing some purses.  Wendy Ho was no longer just a character she played, but now the persona she had transformed into.

In the fall of 2004 she met music producer Craig Levy, aka Little Pioneer.  They released a 10 track cd called, The Gospel According to Ho in the spring of 2007, and Ho has been the hardest working Ho in Hobizness  ever since.  Her theatricality, irreverence, and larger than life femininity has struck a chord with the gay community,  and most of her songs have been covered by drag queens  around the world.  Her video for “Bitch, I Stole Yo Purse!” was voted the #1 Funniest Video of 2008 by MTV’s Logo Network.   This was the same video that was then ripped off by FX’s Nip/Tuck, where Jennifer Coolidge played “Hot Coco,” a character that was a blatant  imitation of Wendy Ho. The network, nor its creator, Ryan Murphy, ever gave proper credit to Wendy Ho, but recently Jennifer Coolidge owned up to Hot Coco being a, “commentary,” on Wendy Ho in an interview with The Advocate in April 2010.  

Her act can’t be narrowed down into one category—Music?   Comedy?  Performance Art?  Theatre?  Her bold humor and raunchy R&B parodies have made their way into venues of all kinds, in prestigious comedy clubs: such as, Caroline’s on Broadway, Comix NYC,  The Broadway Comedy Club,  LA’s The Comedy Store, as well as in the hottest music venues: Joe’s Pub, Pianos, Don’t Tell Mama’s, and off-Broadway theaters:  The Zipper Factory and Ars Nova NYC.  Of course, she’ll always be able to click her heels and be right at home in any gay bar across the country! In 2009 she toured to: Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando,  Washington DC, Philadelphia, Kansas City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Montreal, and then booked a gay cruise with Atlantis to Rome, Greece, and Egypt.  In April 2009, she also made an appearance on Showtime’s I Can’t Believe I’m Still Single, where she met and fell in love with, not the star of the show Eric Schaeffer, but the director of photography, Stas Tagios. In January of 2010 she relocated to Los Angeles to be with her now fiancé (he proposed on the gay cruise—TRUE STORY), and she is now working on finishing her sophomore album with Little Pioneer, Yes, I’m a Ho! to be released in the summer of 2010.  Ho and Tagios  also plan on producing music videos and are currently working on Wendy Ho: The True Hollywood Behind the Music Rockumentary.