Born Insub Choi in South Korea in 1974, Choi moved to Canada at the age of one and grew up in Scarborough, Ontario, which is now part of Toronto.[3] His father was born in North Korea and "walked south" with his family as a child. Choi's mother grew up in South Korea, where she met and married her husband before emigrating to Canada with Choi and his two older sisters in 1975.[4] His father worked as a pastor of an immigrant church in downtown Toronto that he owned and founded.[5]
An immigration officer misspelled his name as "Insurp" and in Grade 9 Choi began using the name "Danny", inspired by John Travolta's character in Grease.[6] When he attended the acting program at York University, he met other struggling Asian immigrants and began going by Ins, as a shortened form of his birth name.[citation needed]
In high school, Choi played various sports and performed in a school play.[7] After school he worked at convenience stores owned by friends of his parents.[8]
Choi attended North Toronto Collegiate Institute in the early 1990s.[9] He graduated from York University's theatre program in 1998.[3] His first application to the fine arts program at York was rejected.[7] He completed a Master of Theological Studies at Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, graduating in 2002.[3] He credits his success to his studies at Wycliffe, which he believes made him a better writer.[10]
Following his graduation from York University, Choi worked with fu-GEN, a Toronto-based Asian Canadian theatre company, which helped him figure out what he wanted to portray to an audience through his work. He stated that working with fu-GEN showed him "who [he] really was and what [he] really wanted to say mattered in the world of art," and it was there that he first envisioned Kim's Convenience, a play that eventually became a successful television series.[7] He is credited as a co-creator, producer, and main screenwriter on the series, which ended after its fifth season.[11]
In 2012, he collaborated with Gregory Prest, Raquel Duffy, Ken MacKenzie and Mike Ross on a theatrical adaptation of Dennis Lee's children's poetry book Alligator Pie,[12] for which they received ensemble Dora nominations for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Direction in the Theatre for Young Audiences division in 2013.
Choi's 2013 one-man show, The Subway Stations of the Cross, was inspired by the homeless and mentally ill men he met in parks and public spaces across Toronto.[13] He has also created the show, The Beats and the Breaks, about hip-hop, as well as The KJV: The Bible Show.[14] In 2018 and 2019 Choi toured with his stage show Ins Choi: Songs, Stories and Spoken Word.[15]
Ins Choi married Mari in March 2005, and together they have two children. They reside in Toronto Canada.[16] Like his father who was a preacher, he also follows the Christian faith.[17]
^Victoria Ahearn, "Alligator Pie lifted from page to stage; Lee's ever-popular children's poem takes on new life form". Kamloops Daily News, October 29, 2012.
