In comedy, it's so subjective; there is no right or wrong.
Nahnatchka Khan
The family sitcom has been around forever, since the advent of television. I don't need to reinvent it. But if you take something and you do it in a way that you haven't necessarily seen before, that's right where I live.
I was Persian-American, but I hated bringing Persian food to school. I just didn't want to stand out in that way. I wanted to be like everybody else.
You can be a successful woman and also be vulnerable, and that's important to show people.
Norman Lear was talking about everything in the '70s... race, sexism, all of it. The network comedy really stayed away from that in the 1980s and 1990s.
Not everybody can see every moment of their life displayed by one set of people. It's just not going to happen.
Some people don't have a sense of humor about certain things, and other people do.
In the writers' room, the challenge is always to tell interesting stories in unexpected ways, so we try to never limit ourselves in how we accomplish that.
Sometimes you can feel the gears shifting in scripts, like really trying to make something work that feels sweaty for whatever reason. I really enjoy reading material that just flows - it's definitely a skill to make something feel effortless.
The more visibility, the more opportunities for Asian-American actors to play great roles. It goes to the studios opening up roles they might not have considered Asian actors for. The talent is there. I don't think there needs to be one superstar, but having more roles open up, that's the way changes happen.
This is going to sound weird, but when I was a little kid, the Iron Sheik was really big in our house.
I went to USC and got my first break writing for a kids' show called 'Pepper Ann.'
Using humor as a wedge into different kinds of stories is my go-to. I think anything I do would have some sort of streak of humor in it.
Find like-minded people who are on the same page as you, and then lift each other up.
If I waited to write only for a Persian lesbian, I'd still be waiting. But I can write for straight white men because those are the jobs.
Having a range of perspectives allows you to tell stories through a different lens and approach things from fresh angles. If you're straining everything through the same filter, you're always going to wind up with the same product.
I love women who don't apologize.
Sometimes you can't really control the language around you. All you can do is follow your voice and your path - dedicate yourself to stories that matter.
When you take stock, there are so many more choices and points of view that are necessary.
Special things happen when you center people who haven't been centered before.
You can be layered and more than one thing - you can exist outside of the box.
When you start out as a TV writer, you get a lot of pressure from outside forces to fit into what they think people want.
Writing in another person's voice is a skill you have to develop when you're working on someone else's show. But if you can maintain your perspective, that's what will make you stand out.
I never had a backup plan. I've only been good at one thing. I admire people who are jacks-of-all-trades. That's not me.
I've always been passionate about movies, TV, and writing, and I've been working so hard at it for so long. There were lots of setbacks, but I loved it so much, there was no alternative.
'Fresh Off the Boat' will be syndicated. This show and these characters will live forever in the pantheon of classic family sitcoms.
For immigrant families, television is what connects you to American culture, but it's also what makes you feel like an outsider.
When we were growing up, the only person we saw on TV that vaguely resembled us was the Iron Sheik - the pro wrestler whose signature move was the 'Camel Clutch.'
Comedy always benefits from different points of view and even tension. It can never be satisfied.
I think a lot of quote-unquote 'comedic actors' really go for the laugh and are overly straining and sort of trying.
There's some actors that go easily between drama and comedy because they play the naturalism of the role, and they just have natural timing.
If you try to describe NASCAR to anyone, you sound crazy.
I really related to that experience of being what we call the 'bridge generation' and always trying to navigate your more traditional growing-up experiences with wanting the latest Air Jordans or whatever it is: Trying to explain to your parents why, and they just, like, don't get it.
Networks love data. They love to be able to look at numbers and try to predict what they think will work.
I love strong female characters.
It's cool to be able to use comedy as a way to make people feel like they're a part of a bigger collective rather than as a way to divide.
My family never took vacations growing up. It just wasn't a thing.
It's something that's almost taken for granted in sitcoms about white families. Like, 'Oh, we're going on a summer vacation!' As if that's something that everybody does.
I've read many great samples, both of existing shows I liked and original pilots, and definitely hired the writers - or, at least, tried to!
If you take a step back, you realize that the TV landscape really has been... There have been some amazing shows in terms of representation, but not for Asian people.
My parents certainly didn't understand TV comedy. They wouldn't turn on 'Married... With Children' and laugh.
Whatever I do - whether it's directing, producing - I just come at things from characters, from stories, from jokes and scene rhythms. I'll always have that at the epicenter, I think.
You don't have to be just one thing. I think that applies to women in front of and behind the camera.
With 'Always Be My Maybe,' this has to be funny; this has to be entertaining. And then, when we stop for these moments with the characters that are emotional, you kind of feel it more because it's a little bit unexpected.
I personally feel like the end product is always better when you can make a collective. It's like a band. You can have a bunch of individual great musicians, but when you come together, there's a sound that it creates that you couldn't do on your own.
In terms of leadership, you've got to allow for people to be amazing and to contribute in a way that's meaningful. You can't hold on so tight that people don't get a chance to do what they do best.
Stuff starts to feel stale comedically when you're just rehashing things, so putting together a writers' room where the majority is made up of people who have not been the focus of the story, it flips everything around.
Cable shows do 13 episodes. I get that. I can wrap my head around 13 episodes. You make them all, you post them all, and then you get to air them. The network cycle is way more intense. There's more episodes.
Women behaving badly has always been funny, to me personally, so I knew I wanted to do something like that.
Randall Park and Ali Wong, they are so many things; they're not just one thing, they're bigger than just their identity.
