Sandra Tsing Loh is an American writer, actress, radio personality, and former professor of art at the University of California, Irvine. Loh is the author of the bestselling New York Times notable book Mother on Fire (2008), inspired by her hit solo show of the same name, which ran for seven months at 24th Street Theatre. During that time, she was named one of the 50 most influential comedians by Variety. A Pushcart Prize winner, MacDowell Fellow and three-time National Magazine Award nominee, she is a contributing editor for The Atlantic Monthly.
Her other solo shows include "Aliens in America" and "Bad Sex With Bud Kemp" (both off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre), "Sugar Plum Fairy" (Geffen Playhouse, Seattle Rep), and "I Worry" (Kennedy Center, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville).
Her short story, "My Father’s Chinese Wives," won a Pushcart Prize in 1996, and is also featured in the Norton Anthology of Modern Literature. Loh’s previous books include A Year in Van Nuys (2001), Aliens in America (1997), Depth Takes a Holiday (1996), and a novel, If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home By Now (1997), which was named by the Los Angeles Times as one of the 100 best fiction books of 1998.
She has been a regular commentator on NPR’s "Morning Edition" and on Ira Glass’ "This American Life"; currently, her weekly segment "The Loh Life" is heard on KPCC.
Loh’s education includes a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology, an institution which granted her a Distinguished Alumna Award (2001), its highest honor, and for whom she was the first alumna to give a now-famous commencement speech. Loh’s combining of her communication and science skills continue with her syndicated daily minute "The Loh Down on Science," which is heard weekly by 4 million people. Excerpts from her solo piano CD Pianovision has been heard on several NPR shows, and she also scored the music for the 1998 Oscar-winning documentary Breathing Lessons.
