Who is Justin Hakuta? Ali Wong expresses thanks to ex-husband post her Golden Globe 2024 win

Ali Wong thanked her co-star Steven Yeun, the maker Lee Sung Jin, and her ex-husband Justin Hakuta; in her thanking speech when she won the Golden Globes for Best Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or a Motion Picture Made for Television for her role in Beef.

Thanking Hakuta, she said:

"I really need to thank the father of my children and my best friend, Justin for all of your love and support. It’s because of you that I’m able to be a working mother.”

The couple met each other at a mutual friend's wedding reception in 2010 and started dating shortly after. After dating for a while, the couple decided to tie the knot on November 27, 2014. They also became proud parents to two daughters Mari and Nikki before deciding on a split in April 2022, after eight years of marriage. They remain close friends and co-parents to their daughters.

Justin Hakuta is a Harvard Business School graduate and a Fulbright scholar. His LinkedIn shows that he is the co-founder of a company he recently started by the name of Stealth Startup that works in the field of information technology. Hakuta also contributes to philanthropic work.

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Beef actress Ali Wong's ex-husband Justin Hakuta's education and early life

Hakuta was born on October 18, 1982, in the United States, to a Japanese father and a Filipino mother. His father Ken Hakuta was a famous TV inventor, also known as Dr. Fad who invented a toy called Wacky Wall Walker and was a host to a kid's invention show The Dr. Fad Show which aired from 1988 to 1994 and earned him the title Dr. Fad.

Justin was raised in Washington DC where he did his schooling from the prestigious Sidwell Friends School.

Justin Hakuta graduated with a bachelor's degree in Decision Science with a minor in Spanish from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004. He received a Fulbright Scholarship following his graduation which funded his field study.

As per Carnegie Mellon University's website, this study was about NGOs combating human trafficking in the Philippines, a cause that was close to his heart because of his close ties to the country.

During the four-year course of his studies at the university, he also frequented Mexico where he was a student at Tecnológico de Monterrey and learned cognitive sciences, economics, and the history of Mexico.

Adding to the feathers in Justin's hat was Harvard Business School, where he got his MBA in 2011. This timeline coincides with the time he met Ali. Reminiscing on their first meet, Ali had said in one of her many stand-up specials that his graduating from Harvard was a big reason for her inclination towards him.

She made the right decision because the couple was able to make a combined net worth of more than $5 million.

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Justin Hakuta's career after the Universities of Harvard and Carnegie Mellon

Between Carnegie Mellon and Harvard, in 2004, Justin Hakuta worked at Honest Tea as a Sales and Marketing Associate. Later that year, he became a co-founder of All Day Buffet, a philanthropic project providing food to the needy.

At Harvard, he interned at Seventh Generation, a personal hygiene company. He then went on to co-found Avacara, a company that provides financial services.

After serving as a President of Products at GoodRx, Vice President of Young Alumni at Harvard, and Product Strategist at DirecTV, Hakuta now manages Stealth Startup, a company he co-founded in August 2023.

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Justin Hakuta's Instagram depicts him as a foodie as his feed is lined with dishes. There are also several posts of him supporting Ali Wong and his time with his daughters before their divorce. That might be why Ali still addresses him as her "best friend" and maintains close relations with him.