She was born in 1974 in Battambang, the capital city in north western Cambodia, and soon after her family fled the war after Vietnam invaded.
[1] Ali's work with the group "I Was Born With Two Tongues" (1998-2003) is archived with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program.
Ali co-founded and was executive producer of the Mango Tribe[3][4] (2000-2006), an alternative performance collective to voice the stories of Asian and Pacific Islander American women.
As a follow-up artwork, she announced The Red Chador as dead to make a statement about rising anti-Muslim sentiments, as well as other human rights violations and forced disappearances.
In these works, the artist playfully inhabits a sinuous, caterpillar-like costume whose color references the robes of Buddhist monks, in which the bug is also not given a specific gender to be "hybrid in nature".
[10] In a series of social encounters in locations around Phnom Penh, Ali's bug impassively occupies central stage among communities, schools, cinemas, restaurants, bars, and urban and rural landscapes undergoing rapid change and development, in order to challenge religious intolerance, difference in others, and a globalizing world.
Ali was also the $20,000 grand prize recipient in the Millennium Park music festival's online video contest, with her work titled, "1700% Project: Mistaken for Muslim".