For W’s annual The Originals portfolio, we asked stars of film, fashion, art, music, and more to share their insights on staying true to themselves. See this year’s full class of creatives here.
On Jury Duty, you play meek, shy Noah, who accidentally gets drunk and struggles to think for himself. But before being cast on the surrealist, documentary-style reality series, you were hired as a writer, which earned you an Emmy nomination. How did you get started in comedy?
I made YouTube videos with my friends through high school and college, but they were all really bad. I started doing stand-up to meet other comedians who could maybe be in the videos to make them better. It was pretty cynical, but then I found out I really, really liked stand-up. A Daily Show writer who saw my set on YouTube passed it to Hasan Minhaj, and they hired me to write for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The next week, I dropped out of college and moved to L.A.
How did your family react?
I always wanted to drop out of college. I didn’t really like school. When I got the Correspondents’ Dinner, it was just like, “Go for it.” They were always pretty supportive when I was a kid. I don’t think anybody thought I was going to be a lawyer or anything, so there was no “Oh, no, your lucrative professional career potential!”
What drew you to making those videos in the first place?
When I was a kid, I wasn’t allowed to have a TV in my room. The vibes of the house were a little bit chaotic and uncomfortable, and it was deeply, deeply strict. But everybody would chill on a Thursday and watch the NBC lineup of shows, like The Office and 30 Rock. It’s a little corny to say, but it was this two-hour block where everybody would be nice. My dad had creative aspirations, and he respected that some of the writers on those shows were also actors, that Tina Fey was the creator of 30 Rock and also the star. It registered to me early that it was important. Donald Glover having Derrick Comedy on YouTube, getting hired on 30 Rock, and then becoming an actor on Community—I didn’t know that you could move from those screens or between them. The Judd Apatow comedies and Lena Dunham were also huge influences, for similar reasons, where somebody’s wearing many hats and the stuff is really good.
What was it like to be both writer and actor on an improvised show like Jury Duty?
It’s the closest feeling to making a video with your friends on the weekend. Being on a show where they’ve been generous enough to give you some creative autonomy, you feel empowered to make suggestions. You never get to do that.
On The Sex Lives of College Girls, you play Eric, a student at an elite college, an aspiring comedian, and the love interest of Bela [Amrit Kaur]. What’s it like to work on a Mindy Kaling show?
Mindy also fits the bill of being a multi-hyphenate person from my favorite show growing up. If it hadn’t been for Sex Lives, I never would’ve been allowed to act on Jury Duty. It completely changed my life.
You’re currently on a stand-up tour yourself. What is it about the stage that you love?
With stand-up, there’s no lying to yourself about how funny something is—it’s just you. With the Emmy stuff, that would be something where I could really lose myself and start to convince myself, like, Damn, I am so funny. But then you bomb onstage, and you get to feel how interesting that is and try to be funnier.
What’s next?
I love the approach of putting together a community of people and having that group rise up together. I made a pilot during the strike, Fintech, with my own money and my friends. We toured it around to see what people liked and disliked, to sharpen it up. Always Sunny and Broad City are extra funny because those people are really friends. When people have chemistry, you can tell.
Grooming by Ciara Maccaro for Dior; Photo Assistant: Sara Lemieux. Special Thanks to Swingers Diner.