Quotes from Nico Santos

A lot of people know me from my character that I play on 'Superstore,' Mateo, and I'm not interested in playing straight roles. I'm all about playing queer roles.

It's really great to see the queer landscape really change to include everybody and make the rest of the world understand that we're not just one or two things. There's so much about the queer community that needs to be represented.

I never thought in a million years I'd be involved in a project that celebrated the fullness of my identity of being queer and Asian.

I was in the closet up until I moved to the U.S. But I was always one of those kids who couldn't really hide being gay. Some queer kids are just more straight-passing than others. I was not one of those kids.

The fact that I get to play a queer Filipino on television and another queer character in 'Crazy Rich Asians' is huge. I never thought I'd have a career being myself. I always thought that being an actor in Hollywood meant that I would have to put that side of me on the back burner.

I lost my accent pretty quickly, so everyone assumes I was born and raised in America. But I'm very much still in touch with my Filipino roots. That will never go away.

Superstore' is the most amazing work environment ever. Every single person on set is someone you'd call a friend. We have the best crew, as well, and we all hang out even when we're not working. We push each other to be better, and we bring it out of one another. I have learned and grown so much.

I thought my high school would either be like 'Beverly Hills 90210' or 'Stand and Deliver' - it was just a run-of-the-mill high school.

What I've come to find out is it doesn't matter if you're selling a $10,000 gown or toilet paper: The everyday sort of humdrum of customer service and retail is the same.

First of all, Asian representation hardly exists to begin with.

My brother joined the Army. He served multiple tours in Iraq and now lives in Texas with his family.

I think I understand why most actors and actresses are insane, because having to go through an emotional roller coaster as your job every day of your life would make somebody absolutely loopy.

People with accents exist and just because they have an accent doesn't mean they're less intelligent or what-have-you.

Femme people exist, and they are layered and they are complex and they are intelligent.

My intent when I moved to L.A. was to get in good with the comedy clubs and, eventually, try to break into Comedy Central and have my half hour special.

Never in a million years would I have imagined that this is how my life would have ended up. I just thought I would be living in the States, doing a regular job.

Generally I try to be as healthy as possible, but it's hard to be on set because anything and everything is available to you. I'm healthy half the time, and half the time I'm like, 'Sure let me go back and see whatever snack they have laid out.'

Everything you could imagine Michelle Yeoh being, she lives up to that.

It's really mind-boggling to me when I think about where I started and where I am now. It's kind of insane.

I came out to one or two people in high school and then it wasn't until I was a freshman in college that I was fully out of the closet. It was like the late '90s.

The fact that I'm able to portray these complex, fully realized, queer Asian characters? I never thought it would be in this position. You just never see those types of characters and that type of representation.

I want to show people out there that there's such a huge spectrum of people within the queer and Asian community.

In high school the very first job I got was I worked as a cashier in Burgerville, which is this fast food place in Oregon. I kind of grew up to be a spoiled little kid so my dad was like, 'You're going to get a job for the summer!' I was this clueless immigrant like, 'May I take your order? Sorry sir, I don't know what I'm doing!'

We all need to call upon our lawmakers to create a path to citizenship for hard-working, law-abiding undocumented people and their families.