For Suzy Nakamura, ‘Dr. Ken’ means diversity, ‘gwishins’

As a child, Suzy Nakamura recalls, she was content to quietly observe and leave the talking to others. These days, the actress and comedian is making noise as a smart, self-possessed sitcom wife on ABC’s “Dr. Ken.”

It’s a career milestone for Nakamura, co-starring on a successful series after being part of some 20 pilots and a few short-lived series — which, she says cheerfully, brought variety as well as paychecks to her life.

“I haven’t gotten bored,” she said. “And I’m very proud of that (the tally). It’s difficult to get a pilot every year.”

If she’s finally in a durable show, she’s glad it’s “Dr. Ken.” The comedy about an Asian-American family does more than use ethnicity as window-dressing, Nakamura said, which she’s found to be the norm. Characters she played often were “my face with some white person’s story,” Nakamura said. “What we need is to have the stories be more diverse.”

This Friday’s Halloween-themed episode exemplifies just that, she said. “Dr. Ken,” starring and produced by physician-turned-actor Ken Jeong (“The Hangover,” “Knocked Up”), airs at 8:30 p.m. EDT.

“We’re doing a Korean ghost story and (the producers) researched the crap out of it” to make it authentic, she said, down to the look and contents of a Korean peasant hut. “It’s not the money or the time given. It’s the respect to someone else’s story.”