Journalist, author and broadcaster, Ben Fong Torres and actor B.D. Wong will be keynote speakers at this year's OCCC Spring Banquet.

Ben Fong-Torres was born in Alameda and raised in Oakland, in Chinatown, and later in East Oakland. He was an editor and writer at Rolling Stone, writes for many national magazines, and is the author of such books as The Rice Room: Growing Up Chinese-American, and Not Fade Away, a collection of his work. He was portrayed in the film, Almost Famous.

He is also a broadcaster and, since 1997, has co-anchored KTVU’s broadcasts of the Chinese New Year Parade, for which he has won three Emmy awards. He is a member of the Alumni Hall of Fame at San Francisco State, as well as the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame. He has been honored by the Oakland Chamber Awards and the Organization of Chinese Americans.

Ben is the S.F. Chronicle’s radio columnist, has a home page, benfongtorres.com, and contributes to AsianConnections.com. He lives with Dianne, his wife, in San Francisco.

B.D. Wong is a Chinese American actor. He was born and reared in San Francisco. After graduating from San Francisco State University, B.D. moved to Manhattan where he made his Broadway Debut in "M Butterfly" for which he won the coveted Tony award as well as Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Clarence Derwent, and Theatre World awards for the same performance. He is the only actor to win every one of these prestigious honors for the same show.

His triumphant stage performance led to featured roles in Jurassic Park, Father of the Bride I & II, Seven Years in Tibet, Karate Kid II and many other movies. He has a major role in the new television series "Awake", and is one of two shrinks that Jason Isaac's, a troubled detective, sees, each in a separate reality. B.D was also in the series, Law and Order, for 11 years, as Dr. Huang, a forensic psychiatrist.

The Spring Banquet is a fundraising event and the premier networking event for the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce.

This year's banquet will be held at Restaurant Peony in Oakland Chinatown on Wednesday, April 25, 2012. Festivities begin at 5:30PM with a reception and silent auction. Dinner and program begins at 7:00PM. Master of Ceremony will be Bay Area sports anchor, Rick Quan.

All proceeds from this event will help fund programs to promote a more vibrant Oakland Chinatown.  For more information visit our Spring Banquet page or contact us at oaklandCTchamber@aol.com or 510.893.8979.