Quotes from Nico Santos

I've done retail before.

I had a rough start when I moved to L.A. I couldn't find a job, so I couch-surfed for the first two years.

When I worked at Dior, Paris Hilton and Kathy Hilton came one time and they were kind of crazy.

I like making adobo, because it's easy and it keeps in the fridge for a while. Or I'll make pasta with bolognese - something I can make a big batch of and can keep eating for the rest of the week.

I come from Oregon, which is this super-white state, so I didn't really have a lot of Asian friends in high school and college. And my background's in comedy, and your friends are just your peers in comedy, which is a whole mix of people.

It wasn't until I worked on 'Crazy Rich Asians' that I all of a sudden have this Asian crew of friends that I became super close with.

I grew up in the Philippines and we had all this amazing fresh seafood, but uni was something that I was weirded out by. It wasn't until I was an adult that I was like, 'Let me just go ahead and try this.'

I'm from the Philippines and I moved to this country when I was 16.

I didn't want to do Chekhov or Shakespeare. So I switched my major from acting to costume design. Eventually, I got a job working as a wardrobe assistant for a theater company. I would dress the actors, fix their costumes, do the quick changes for them and all that stuff.

We must work to change in our hearts and minds what it looks like to be undocumented. It is the high schooler dreaming of college who isn't aware of his status. It is the single mother working grueling hours in a warehouse just to provide for her children. It is the family that sits next to you in church. It is your neighbor.

My mom is definitely crazy. She would totally be a stage mom if I was a child actor.

We, Filipinos, are really great about keeping a positive attitude and seeing the silver lining in all things. We're survivors!

It still baffles my brain that I actually get to portray a character on American television that's this gay, femme-y Filipino guy.

I don't think people should be afraid of portraying people with accents, especially Asian accents.

I'm portraying out characters, I'm portraying femme characters, characters that are really outside of the box. I never thought I would get that opportunity to portray those characters at all, much less have a career that I have.

My family always believed in me, even when I didn't. Having that love and support made me not afraid of failing. I knew my mom would be proud of me just for taking a chance and pursuing my dream.

I should have been born a crazy rich Asian because I do have expensive taste. I have champagne taste but I'm on a beer budget.

Superstore' is, like, my fifth acting job.

You rarely see a Filipino family on TV.

When I moved to L.A., I had no intention of really pursuing acting. I wanted to focus on stand-up. It's crazy to me that my acting career took off much faster than my stand-up career.

I'm so Filipino. I'm fluent in Filipino.

I miss Philippine mangoes, you just can't get them here. Mangoes, you can't get lanzones here, you can't get siniguelas, all these fruits that I grew up with.

My brownness is something that I can't hide. There are some straight-acting or straight-passing queer people out there, but I'm not one of them. This is something I would rather not have to hide.

Shows like 'Superstore' and certainly 'Pose' are leading the way and showing queer people of color in a much more complex, nuanced light that we've never seen.