Dat Tien Phan was born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1975. He and his mother emigrated to the United States and suffered through financial hardships for most of his childhood. He grew up in San Diego, California and attended West Hills High School in Santee, California.

After the September 11th attack, in which the World Trade Centers were destroyed in New York City, Dat truely realized that life was short and began to seriously focus on his stand-up career.

Dat Phan moved to Los Angeles, and for a time, lived out of his car. One tragic night, Dat was robbed at gunpoint while working at the Hollywood Improv. Dat had nothing to lose as he auditioned for the NBC reality show Last Comic Standing, with few dollars in his pocket and surviving off of very little food such as bread and water and top ramen.

Dat found himself one of the final 5 contestants on the reality show and on August 5th, 2003, Dat became NBC's Last Comic Standing, beating out great comedians such as Ralphie May, Rich Vos, Cory Kahaney, and Tess Drake.

Dat currently resides in West Hollywood, California. He has moved from sleeping under a desk in a studio apartment, shared with his friend and fellow comedian Ron Mcghee, to a one bedroom in the same complex. His room is bigger and he doesn't sleep under a desk anymore, but he does sleep beside it. He has yet to purchase a bed. Ron and another roommate occupy the rest of their new apartment. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.