SXSW Live Episode: From Dreams to Dollars: Nico Santos' Comedy Empire
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- For something that's like such a blockbuster hit like Crazy Rich Asians, do you feel like you got compensated properly? - I did not. - You're giggling.

So listen, your career is at a position where you are consistently booking work, but you're not 100% sure when it's going to come, what size is going to come out. Like, how do you budget? It's feast or famine. And it's my experience in retail that you would make so much money Christmas, the holiday season. Yeah. And then come January, you would actually owe the stores money. Speaking of the paycheck, what pays better, movies or TV shows? So support for this show comes from Smartsheet.

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These feats of human ingenuity are executed by many people taking many steps that lead up to one big goal, making the seemingly impossible possible. Whether you're organizing a team, scaling a business, or sending a rover across the solar system, Smartsheet is the work management platform that helps all those details turn into one big leap. Smartsheet, the place where work flows. Learn more at smartsheet.com slash vox. Support for Net Worth and Chill comes from Intuit.

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Alrighty, what's up rich friends?

- Welcome back to another episode of Net Worth and Chill with me, your host, Vivian Tu, AKA your HBFF and your favorite Wall Street girly. And today we are in for a treat. As the daughter of Asian immigrant parents, I know firsthand there's a ton of challenges and triumphs of building wealth while straddling two very different cultures.

And today we are diving deep into one of the most inspiring immigrant success stories in Hollywood. Our guest took an incredible leap of faith moving to America as a teenager and went on to become a groundbreaking force in an industry that desperately needed some shaking up. From working retail to stealing scenes in Superstore and Crazy Rich Asians, my favorite movie, he's shown that when talent meets hustle, magic can happen.

But what makes his story even more powerful is how he's broken barriers as an openly gay Filipino-American actor, proving that authenticity isn't just good for the soul, it's good for business too. I'm beyond excited to welcome someone who's not just changing the game on screen, but redefining what success looks like for the next generation of Asian-American actors, creators, and talent. Please give it up for the incredible, the iconic, the absolutely fabulous, Nico Santos. Hi!

That was the nicest introduction I think I've ever been given. Thank you so much. I hope I can live up to it. Oh, please. You will. You already have. You already have. Thank you so much for being here. I'm so excited to get into everything in your career and pick your brain. But before we start, Icebreaker. Okay. What is the brokest you have ever been? The brokest I've ever been. There was one time where I was just doing stand-up comedy and I had to do a gig in New York.

And so I took the gig, was couch surfing at a friend's house. The gig didn't pay much. I basically would just end up

Minus my airfare and how much they were paying me, I was going to be just positive like $50. But I needed the $50 to continue living. So I went to New York, got paid my $50. I had $10 a day to live off of. I was there for five days. I bought a meal from the halal carts. And I had to split it into two. So I ate half of it for lunch, half of it for dinner. I didn't eat breakfast.

And I was like, I'm living the dream. Yeah. Sometimes you're so broke, you have to eat sleep for breakfast or for dinner. I mean, like those things where you're like, I ate ramen for six months. I mean, it's true. It's true. And so many people know you from Superstore or Crazy Rich Asians. But your journey to Hollywood actually started in the Philippines. How did growing up there, like, shape your approach towards comedy and acting? Well, I mean, Filipinos are, I mean, is anybody here Filipino? No.

Okay. I mean, you know our people. Like...

You know, I definitely get my humor from my mom. Like, all the titos and titas are just, like, just, you know, like, making fun of you all the time, all your cousins. I think that's what developed my sense of humor, definitely. I had no sort of idea that this is where I was heading towards when I was still living in the Philippines. I kind of, you know, we were, like, I was a big fan of, like, Hollywood movies and, you know, like, when I was growing up, actually, when I moved to the United States, I

I thought, because I just watched American Programming, I thought the high school I went to was going to be like Beverly Hills 90210. Or like Stand and Deliver. I don't know if you guys remember that movie, Stand and Deliver. I was like, it's going to be one of those two experiences. And it was just like...

a regular high school in Gresham, Oregon. And I was like, oh, yeah. And the people who were there weren't actually adults playing high schoolers. Yeah, exactly. Where's Andrea Zuckerman? I don't know where she is. Yeah, it was a real sort of like, oh, this is not what I thought it would be because I had just visited as a tourist before. Very different experience moving to America.

And how was your family's financial situation in the Philippines before coming to the U.S.? Was that something of a consideration when you were deciding to move?

It was. You know, we were lucky enough in the Philippines that we were sort of like upper middle class. But the culture in the Philippines, even if you were like middle class, it's very easy to be able to afford household help. So, I mean, I grew up with, you know, my nanny and we had a driver, we had a cook. And then, you know...

The economy in the Philippines just, like, crashed. You know, my family used to have three wine stores and liquor stores, and we supplied... It was a retail store, and we supplied wine and liquor to hotels and restaurants in Manila as well. And when the economy tanked,

My mom was kind of just like, you know, your dad's in the United States. Might as well just see what America can offer. Because my older brother was about to turn 18. And we had to get in before he was 18 so that he can get his green card. Yeah. And...

My mom was like, if you don't like America, you can always move back to the Philippines. So we did. Me and my brother moved to Gresham, Oregon by ourselves to live with my dad, who we never really grew up with. And we went from having a very nice three-bedroom home with the household help to there were eight of us in a 1,200-square-foot sort of really dilapidated house.

Just very, very humble home. And I was like, where's the maid? Who's going to do my laundry? Like, you are. It's you. Yeah. I was like, okay, I don't like this. Okay.

But you know, you have to learn. You have to learn to survive. So I learned real quick. Yeah, you did learn real quick. But obviously moving into a new space with so much risk, a lot of people love you in Crazy Rich Asians, in Superstore. But my favorite...

that I've seen you on my screen was when you were the, essentially, the Regina George of the Filipino mafia. Yes. In St. Dennis Medical. Essentially, Filipinos are oftentimes known to be, you know, a very popular career as being a nurse. And you were the lead nurse.

I was. In St. Down's Medical. I was a leader. The meanest of them all. That's so funny. You know, when I did that episode, I guess I'm not on TikTok.

I guess it went viral. I got like 6,000 new followers like overnight and I was like, what happened? But everybody on online was kind of just like, finally a Filipino nurse. You know, ER did 25 seasons and we've never, we've only seen one. But it was a very fortunate thing because the co-creator of St. Dennis created Superstore. So they actually called me and was like, we got this role for you. Yeah. What do you think? I'm like, I'm down. I,

I was filming something in Toronto at the time and thankfully we were able to work it out with the schedule that I like. I flew back to LA, worked Monday, Tuesday, then the next day moved back to Toronto to work my other job. But instead of playing a nurse on screen, did you ever feel pressure to...

be a nurse or maybe a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer or any of the other approved Asian jobs that we're allowed to have? I'm very lucky that like my dad did very much say is like, I would like you to be exactly one of those three, doctor, lawyer, engineer. But like, well, I'm going to do theater. Sorry.

Good luck with that. But my mom was very, very super supportive. Then my mom eventually moved to the United States as well. And yeah, she went to all my open mics. She went to a lot of my shows. And the first time she saw me in an open mic, she's like, I think you really got a shot at this. She's not a typical tiger mom by any means, which I think really worked to my advantage.

Yeah. And you mentioned earlier that you made $50 when you were initially doing standup comedy. Can you talk to me a little bit, just cause I don't understand how do comedians even make money?

Yeah, so when you're a comedian, there's a couple of different avenues you can do. If you're pursuing sort of like the comedy club circuit, you have to work your way up. And as a novice, you start getting hosting gigs. And then once you graduate out of hosting gigs, you get feature gigs. You're the middle act. And then once you graduate out of that, you're the headliner. So for hosting, like...

entry-level hosting gig at like a sort of a B-level club, you'll probably get like $75 a show. $75? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's usually a local person. Sorry, $75.00. Huh? $75 per show. And that's usually, so they usually hire a local person to host, right? And let me tell you, the rate of pay for comedians has not changed since the 80s.

Yep. They wanted to do a comedian's union or a stand-up union, but the clubs are basically like, we're not going to pay anybody if you guys do that. Feature act, yeah, you'll get like $100, $150 per show. Again, usually you work with a local feature. Okay. But a lot of the times, you know, when you're a headliner...

You don't know these local comics. You can look them up, you know, but you'll only see like part of their set or just one joke on TikTok or whatever. And you just don't know. So a lot of, myself included, a lot of headliners like to bring their own feature act. But they only pay that much for the feature. They won't cover the airfare or the hotel for your feature. Unless you're like a huge, huge comedian like Ali Wong or, you know, Chris Rock or...

Then obviously there's a budget for that. But for just a regular comedy club, ain't no budget. You got to cover it. And I've covered it a lot of times. And then if you are the headliner, you get like,

Either you work a deal where it's just per show, like, you know, 200, 250, or you get a cut of the ticket sales. It's like a 70-30 split. And then if you, you know, you sell out, you get a bonus, and then you sell another amount, you get another bonus. So that's like the club circuit. But then it's different for, like, you know, arenas and theaters. It's a very different story. And at the beginning of your comedy career, you were living paycheck to paycheck. Paycheck to paycheck. What?

What financial lessons did you learn during that time? It's crazy. When I was broke, I actually was a lot more careless with money. More careless? Yeah. When I was broke, I was like, well, I'm already in debt. Just add another zero to that number. I don't care. You know, I can't pay it now. Go ahead and come for me. I don't have money. You know?

So, you know, when I was pursuing stand-up comedy in San Francisco, I was also working retail. So, like, yeah, and a lot of my paycheck went back to Neiman Marcus because, you know, like, oh, it's only...

70% off, it used to be $3,000, now it's, you know, 500, I can afford that. And be like, you have to pay your rent, what are you doing? Yeah, so there was a lot of that sort of thinking. And now that I'm sort of more financially stable, I actually, like, I pay people to, like, keep track of my money because I'm very bad with money.

But yeah, I mean like it should be the other way around. I should be just like spending all my money right now. But no, like back in the day when I had no money, people were like, you look great. I'm like, I know I can't eat for a month. I look fabulous. You look fabulous while skipping meals. All your meals. Yeah. Nice. Okay. What?

Well, while you were working towards acting and your comedy dream, you mentioned earlier Neiman Marcus. You actually worked in retail. You worked at Neiman's. You worked at Dior, Bottega, Jimmy Choo. He really said, I'm only going to pick the most expensive possible designer brands to work at. She's not going to work at Target. Facts. So just be honest with me. What were you making at that time in retail? When I was working retail, I was making a lot of money. Why? A lot of money. How? Because I work on commission. Okay.

So depending what store you work for, Neiman Marcus was just straight up commission. So I worked in the handbag department. I was getting like, I think like five to 7% commission depending on what brand you sell. Okay. The first sort of retail job I got was at an independent high-end shoe store. I was making 10% commission, just that. Okay.

And, like, Bottega was, like, a high hourly plus anywhere between 4% to 9% commission, depending on what product category it is. So, yeah, when I was working retail before I started stand-up comedy, I was, like, making, like...

Almost six figures. Bank? But, yeah. But it was also San Francisco at the time. It was very expensive to live in. Again, I was much more foolish with my money back then, even though I was making a lot. I felt like I was broke because of rent and living expenses. And because I was buying handbags and shoes all the time.

And going out a lot. I went out a lot. A lot of that money went into my liver and up my nose. So, you know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying?

So, even though I was making a little bit more money than when I moved to LA to start over, I was still broke. Yeah. But you can, as a retail person, make a lot of money. Yeah. Like, the top salesperson at Neiman Marcus, I remember, was...

sold she worked in the in the designer couture department, you know ready to wear and she Got a five to seven percent commission and her yearly sales were seven million dollars Do the math quickly someone do the math quickly. Yeah, so

That's a lot of money. If you're a career retail person, high-end retail person, you make money. That's like $350,000. Yeah. You make a lot of money. And so being in a high-end retail environment, you have to sort of like, you can't just like rely on the walking customer. It's about building the relationships with all those rich people out there. So you have your...

client book that you take with you from job to job. And you just, you know, when I left Neiman's, I went to Bottega. I would call those people up. Mrs. So-and-so, I'm not in Neiman's anymore, but if you need Bottega, come see me, bitch. Yeah. I'm gonna sell you a handbag. That is crazy. And I want a little bit of insider info because

What is the best way for us to shop at these luxury stores without breaking the bank? I mean, either get a job at these stores because, I mean, it's very different nowadays. Nowadays, they're very stingy with their discount because back in the day, there wasn't like the RealReal or the Rebag. And now they're very stingy. But when I was an employee, it was like double discount. I was able to get Dolce & Gabbana suits for like $150. Yeah.

There was one time when I worked for Dior where it was owned by LVMH and Louis Vuitton had an employee sale that was like, each shoe that was on sale, $35. Honey, I bought 12 pairs of shoes. Yeah. Again, couldn't eat that week, but I got 12 pairs of Louis Vuittons. Yeah. That is crazy. But like, if you can't work at a retail store and get the discount, you know, a lot of the...

I mean, all these brands have sales, but sales are more common in the department stores or boutiques. Like, not the brand boutiques, but like in LA, there's a boutique called Maxfield, carry a lot of high-end stuff, and they have sales. I was able to get a nice pair of Dior sneakers for half off that was still full price at the store, thank you very much.

So I was like, score. But yeah, that's the easiest way, I would say. Yeah. Another hot tip for anybody who's curious, if you are already, don't book the trip, but if you are already going to the EU, especially countries that are the home country of that designer brand, it is a great way to not only take advantage of the exchange rate to get that item at a lower cost initially, but then you actually get a VAT refund, which is anywhere between like a

10 to 15% discount for that value added tax that you don't have to pay because you're a tourist. I did that in Italy. I know you did damage in Italy. So just go to Italy and go shopping. Yeah.

Now pivoting into acting, the entertainment industry, notoriously unstable. How do you manage? So how so? How do you manage your finances knowing that, you know, your career is at a position where you are consistently booking work, but you're not 100% sure when it's going to come, what size is going to come out? Like, how do you budget? It is it's feast or famine. And it's my experience in retail that really sort of like mentally prepare me for that kind of

income flow because they were, you know, working retail, like, you would make so much money Christmas, the holiday season. Yeah. And then come January, you would actually owe the stores money because you would be in the negative because you had so much return. Yeah, it was insane. So it's kind of prepared me for that type of

of money incoming. So, you know, I became, again, I hired people to look after my money, to make sure I put away for a rainy day, you know, make my investments, all those initials that I don't know about, like RIA, IRA? IRA. IRA, yes. Don't worry. I'm like, NWA? I don't know. We'll do a little money Q&A after, so don't worry. Some guy named Roth? I don't know. Yeah.

They make sure I'm in all of that. And yeah, and I just sort of like, you know, I still enjoy myself, but at least I know that, you know, you pay yourself first. Like that one guy said. Yes. So I definitely do that. Yeah. But it is hard. I mean, especially this just recently with the strikes thing.

It was pandemic, then strikes, then the fires in L.A. It was really, we were like, we got to just tighten our belts here a little bit. Yeah, for sure. And has that financial instability ever made you consider branching out into like other things like production or other business ventures?

Not necessarily within the entertainment industry because it's, you know, like it doesn't matter what department you're in. Producers also stopped working. Exactly. Like, you know, like costume designers all stopped working, set decorators. But, you know, I would love to, I would love to like open my own like cafe. You know, I'd love baking. I got really into it. I know I got really into it during the pandemic. I baked a lot when I was a kid and during the pandemic, I was making like three dozen cookies a week that my husband was like,

send these away. You cannot have these at home. So I would love to open up a little, you know, dessert store, pastry shop, you know, something like that. What would we call it? My husband, who's also a great cook, he does savory, I do sweet. I don't know if I can even say this on your screen. Just believe this if this is not good. But we were like, we should name our cafe Fagettes. Oh my God. I'm like, brilliant name, but I don't know if people are going to be on board with that.

Wow. I know that is a South by Southwest first. Please do not cancel me. I can say it because I'm gay. Yeah.

I absolutely love that. And I love that you're thinking about that. Maybe that's like a nice, like cool retirement. Like when you have your like eat, pray, love moment. I told my business manager, I was like, what do you think if I open like a pastry shop cafe? They're like, the restaurant industry is notoriously very, very, very high risk. Like do not do it until you, you know, are making like, you know, like Angela Bassett money. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Support for this show comes from Smartsheet.

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More than just an audience, it's your SMB media partner. Learn more at medialabs.intuit.com. Okay. All right. We'll make note of that. So you've been in quite a number of things, both feature films as well as TV shows. How do you decide what you are going to do and say yes to? Yeah.

It's a number of factors. It also depends on where you're at financially that year. Yeah. At the time you get that offer of the job. You know, when I first started, I booked, Superstore was my big break and that was 10 years ago. Yeah.

you know, my goals back then were very different. I was like, I will do any job. I don't care where it films. You know, I'm just here for the exposure. Like, I need to get my name out there. Now, you know, like, I'm 45. I'm turning 46 this year. I'm married. We have a puppy. We own a home. And it's, you know...

If I'm not financially struggling at the moment, then it's like, does it film in LA? If it doesn't film in LA, I don't want to go. Because a lot of stuff films in Atlanta, Vancouver, Toronto. And being away from your loved ones is very hard. I don't want to be away from my home. It's very hard when you're like six months away, three months away. So if it's not about the money, I look at it as far as content wise.

Will this project move the needle for my career? Is this a character I want to play? Is the message of this script something I agree with? But there are those jobs you take just for the paycheck. Because you have to. Speaking of the paycheck, what pays better, movies or TV shows? It depends what your rank is, basically. Wait, explain this to me. So...

For somebody like me, I consider myself just like a regular working actor. I get paid more doing television. So if you are a series regular on a television show, you get paid per episode. And I was fortunate enough to work on Superstore, which did 22 episodes per season, which is very rare. Because right now, a lot of TV, you just do like eight episodes, 10, 13. What's like a TV show episode pay ballpark?

Anywhere like low, low range would be like 15 to 20 starting out per episode. Oh, okay. And then high range...

If you were like sort of more well-known working actor, but not like a huge star. Yeah. Like definitely like six figures. Oh, wow. Like 150, 175. For something like that's 22 episodes. Yeah. That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money. And then if you were like a pretty big star, it could be like, you know, like 400, 350, 400. Wow. 500. You know, the Big Bang people, Big Bang Theory, they got a million dollars per episode. Yeah.

Per episode? Per episode. Towards the end. Towards the end. In their 11th, 12th, 13th season. But you also have to realize that A, we pay taxes on that amount. Yes, of course. And B, we pay commissions. So depending on how many people you're repped by, it's anywhere from 20% to 30% commission payout plus the tax. So you're essentially making half of what you get. Yeah.

So people are always just like, you are so rich. I'm like, half of this is gone, baby. Yeah. Half of it is gone right away to your reps and the government. Yeah. And then you got mortgage, you know, bills. It's, yeah. What about movies? What do those pay? It depends, again, on the role that you play. Yeah. Like, so our union, SAG-AFTRA, has a minimum scale of what they give you for roles. Like, if it was like,

There are certain roles that are like a guest star in a TV series or like a supporting role in a movie. It could be anywhere from like, depending on how many days you work as well, it would be like 5,000 to 12,000. For the whole movie? For the whole movie, yeah. And then sometimes per week. It depends how long the shoot is as well. So there's also this thing called Schedule F.

where they basically just do a buyout of your time. So I've done this for independent films because the budget is obviously a lot smaller. So schedule F is like $65,000 and then that's all you get. You don't get overtime because sometimes they can be like, you'll just get the weekly rate and that's eligible for overtime. But yeah.

really you want the schedule left because it doesn't equal to your money. For something that's like such a blockbuster hit like Crazy Rich Asians, do you feel like you got compensated properly? I did not. You're giggling. I did not. You know, listen, when Crazy Rich Asians came out, the landscape of the entertainment industry was very different. Warner Brothers was taking a huge risk. You know,

doing this movie with an all Asian cast the first movie with an all Asian cast in 25 years and they just didn't know if it was going to do well and the unfortunate reality is you know like they make those decisions with white people

talent all the time. But yeah, just have this $20 million. If it flunks, we don't care. But if you're a person of color, if you're POC, queer, they don't take those chances. So they were very, very careful about the money. And a lot of us, 90% of us got paid scale for that movie. And I basically made...

a third of what I get paid per episode for the entire movie. But again, I took that job because I knew it was something special. We loved the material. You know, like you wanted to be part of this sort of groundbreaking project, whether it was going to do well or not. Thankfully, it did well. And yeah, it was very much the right decision. But my entire team, my agents, manager, my lawyer,

was like, "Do not take this job. It is a shitty fucking contract." Sorry, can I swear? - You can swear. That's fine. - Okay. It is a shitty contract. But I was like, "I really have to do this. I love the character. I love the script. You know, I want to take a chance on this." And I'm glad I did. - Okay. At this point in your career, lightning round. - Mm-hmm.

movie that doesn't pay very well or TV series that does pay very well, but you're really excited about the movie and not that excited about the TV show. Which one are we taking? At this point in my life, I would do the movie actually. Yeah.

Because right now, you know, like I've done those jobs where it is stable and I've been able to save money in the bank and, you know, we have a home and all that stuff. Thankfully, we are a double income household. Dinks. Yeah, I'm not. Dinks, is that what it's called? Double income, no kids. Oh, well, we have a puppy. Double income. Plus dog. Plus. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

But so right now, you know, I'm not worried about like losing my home. So I would definitely sort of consider a project that was like, you know, challenging or, you know, would again move the needle for my career. Yeah. Something like that. Okay. Let's move on to the longest running show that you've been on, Superstore. We love Superstore. Talk to me a little bit about streamers. How has that changed the...

pay structure, the residuals. How does that work? Are you making money off of that? I make money, but not what everybody thought I'd be making. So traditionally in network television, once your show hits 100 episodes, it could go into syndication, which means another network will buy it.

And then you just get a huge chunk of money as well as the residuals from those shows. So like, you know, TNT will just buy like the entire series, Will & Grace, and they would just show it over and over. So that's why you hear people like people in Friends or Big Bang Theory that are like, I'm worth, you know, like $200 million. It's because of syndication because it really is a huge check and it's just money that keeps appearing.

But streaming, you know, when it first appeared in the scene, it was considered new media, which is a very different contract according to our union. And like the minimum for new media is actually like $100. Yeah. So not a lot. No, no. So like my residuals for Superstore, because there were a lot of episodes...

You know, it's not peanuts, but it's not as much. It's not in a hundred millions, it's not that much. Because I would have flown private had that been the case. Yeah, so that's really changed the game and I have to keep working. Superstar was going to be my retirement plan. Because once we hit like a hundred episodes, I was like, I'm set! And they're like, this isn't going to get syndicated. I was like, okay, what's the next job? Yeah.

You switched it up very quick. You call yourself a working actor, but so many people do look up to your career. Do you have any advice for young actors who want to break into the business?

I would have to say if you are somebody who wants to break into the entertainment industry, whether it's in front of the camera or behind the camera, be absolutely sure that this is your passion and this is what you want to do because it is not easy. It is not easy.

And if there is something else in your life, I'm not trying to squash anybody's dreams. If this is what you want to do, by all means, like pursue it a thousand percent like I did because I knew that I could not work at an office job. And the first time I did an open mic for stand-up comedy, I was like, this is how I want to pay my bills. I just want to pay my bills, you know, making people laugh, being a stupid idiot on screen or on stage or whatever.

You know, like, I don't want to be like table for two right this way, which I did for many years. But yeah, just a make sure that this is your passion and you are in all in a thousand percent.

And B, there is a little bit of delusion that needs to happen in your mind. You have to be a little delulu. You know, delusional confidence of being like out of thousands of people trying to be a star in the industry that they're going to pick me. So, yeah, you need to have like it's a marathon. Yeah.

Because you get rejected every single day. So you have to develop a thick skin. Don't take it personally. You have to remember that other people's success is not your failure. That was a big... Ooh, talk to me about that. Well, because when you're auditioning, it's very common. You're like, I auditioned for that role and...

that motherfucker booked it instead of me and just end up hating these people. But you just have to realize other people's success is not your failure.

I love that. Only one person can book a job. They can't have two people working the same role. And there's all these stories in Hollywood of like, oh, so-and-so didn't book that job, but then they got this job, and then they won the Emmy for it. There's all those stories in Hollywood. So what's meant for you is for you. I know this is a little woo-woo, but it's the truth. I love that so much. Yeah.

I know you had some really great advice just now, but do you have any regrets about your own career?

Not a huge regret. I mean, like, the one what if I was actually thinking about was after I filmed Crazy Rich Asians, obviously the movie did really well and I had a lot of interest from all these studios. I was getting a lot of additions and projects that I had to say no to because I was under contract for Superstore up to six seasons. And Crazy Rich Asians came out, like, after the third season, I believe. Yeah.

Or during the fourth season, rather. And at the end of the fourth season, for anybody who's not seen the show, something happens to my character that I could have easily done a clean break and left the show. And I often wonder, like, had I left the show at the height of Crazy Rich Asians and tried to take the other opportunities I was presented...

Where would I be? But again, you know, working very hard with my therapist to just be in the present and don't think about the what ifs because you are where you're supposed to be at the moment. And, you know, and if I had done that, then I probably wouldn't have met my husband, wouldn't have this wonderful home that we have and this wonderful life that we're living with a very adorable 10-week-old puppy. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

What would you say was the pivotal moment of when you were like, everything is bad. I am living paycheck to paycheck. I can barely make ends meet. At what point did you feel good about money? There was one point where this was like,

second season of Superstore because first season of Superstore I kept my day job up until episode wait what were you doing you were just retail I was a host of the restaurant okay and you know again it's a very volatile industry so people were like why are you still working at the restaurant I kept picking up shifts during the weekends and I was like I don't know if this show is gonna go like you know I'm saving all my money and if we get canceled tomorrow

Like, you know, I'm broke again. So by like episode six, the showrunner was like, quit your job. What are you doing? You're on television for God's sakes. But I finally decided the start of season two of Superstar, I was going to get my own apartment. I had never lived by myself before. And the apartment I got was in a very nice neighborhood in Los Angeles. And it had an in-unit washer and dryer. And I was like, I am rich. Yeah.

I'm going to do a load of laundry at 2 a.m. Whenever you want. Whenever I want. And you don't need quarters. And I don't need quarters. Yeah. I really felt like, oh, I'm stable. First of all, I could live by myself and not worry about my bills. I was out of credit card debt for the first time in my life. I was able to rebuild my credit score. Yeah. And things were on the up and up. And I really was just like, oh, this is what an adult looks like. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Speaking of the up and up and moving into your first apartment by yourself, you're not by yourself anymore. We've mentioned him a couple times. You have a loving husband and a new puppy.

How do you guys talk about money, split finances in your relationship? You know, we're both very independent people. Yeah. Which actually I think works really well for our relationship and our marriage because we got our own thing going on. So we do spend a lot of time together. But, you know, I've got my life. He's got his life. You know, he's got his friends, my friends, and we have mutual friends as well. We sleep in separate bedrooms. Really? Yeah.

Yes, honey, and let me tell you, it is the best thing in the entire world. A lot of people are like, that's so weird. No, honey.

First of all, we have different schedules. So when I'm working, sometimes I have to do an all night shoot where I start at, you know, 6 p.m. and go till 6 a.m. Or I have to be on set at 530 a.m. And he's a night owl. So I also snore and have sleep apnea. So he was like, we're not sleeping in the same room. See, that was the part you left out. Yeah. Like you have a CPAP machine that's like zippered.

All night. When we're traveling, we don't sleep in separate rooms. You know, we sleep in the same room. So we can sleep together if we have to, like, traveling and stuff. Yeah, have to. Have to. But the thing is, like, we, again, are very independent. We like to do our own thing. So the sort of the routine at night is, you know, we'll cook dinner, have dinner. And then after dinner, we'll cuddle in one of our rooms and watch TV and be like, catch up on our stories. And then...

We're going to be like, all right, time to go to bed. But going to bed means I'm just going to go back to my room, watch more TV of my choosing, and then after a couple hours, go to bed and then see each other in the morning. It's incredible. I feel like we're getting life wisdom, too. Honey, we barely fight. And I do think it's because we have our own bedrooms and we have our own bathrooms. Yeah.

Okay. That is very important. Yeah. We are coming up on time, so I do want to kind of just kind of close this out and talk about your highs. What do you feel like is your personal high point of your career, like the highest moment so far? Highest moment so far, it was the year that, like,

I don't know. There's a couple of moments. I definitely set a lot of goals, like when I moved to Los Angeles. Yeah. And not to be all woo-woo, but a lot of it has come true. I really do believe in goal setting and really putting it out there. But I was like, I want to be on TV by the time I'm 35. Superstore happened at 35. I want to do a movie. Then Crazy Rich Asians happened.

I want to do a Marvel movie. I'm a huge comic book nerd. I did Guardians of the Galaxy. So it's just those things that sort of keep happening and keep setting goals. But like the year that Crazy Rich Asians came out, the movie was nominated for Best Comedy. We were nominated for Best Ensemble in a comedy movie or in a movie. And I was nominated Best Supporting Actor in a comedy series. And I was like...

what is happening? You know, like, and honestly at that time, like, and I still do, I still like battle imposter syndrome sometimes. It is a lot of what my therapy sessions are about. And so I really was like, at that time when that happened, I was like,

I'm like, oh, they only nominated me because the movie's doing really well and blah, blah, blah. And everyone was like, shut up. Like, you know, you've worked really hard and you did really great work. Just be proud, accept it. And, you know, I was like, you know what? You're right. Blood, sweat and tears to get to this point. And like from a whole nother, from the other side of the world as a teenager and now, you know,

You're sort of like on this stage. It was really kind of just like, yeah, pinch me moment. It was great. Yeah, you absolutely deserved it. Thank you. And to wrap us up, you're at a pretty good point financially now. You're at a pretty good point in your career. What would it take for you to walk away from it all and say, I'm retired? Like a hundred in the hundred millions of dollars.

I love doing this job. Yeah. This is like when I'm not working, my husband tell you like I am a freaking mess. Like during the strikes, I was just like I would get really depressed, you know, because a lot of time and not just with entertainment, a lot of time our self-worth is tied into our jobs. And I've had to work really, really hard to to realize and to remind myself I am not my job.

I am a worthy person even though I'm not an actor at the moment. If I'm not acting at the moment, if I'm not doing comedy at the moment, I'm still me and worthy to be there. Again, a lot of therapy. But I do, I love doing this job. It's the only way I want to make a living. It's the only way I want to pass my time. So I would love to keep working as long as possible. But if I win Powerball, one of those billion dollar jackpots...

Yeah. Bye-bye. Buying a mansion in Malibu. Making it fireproof. It's true, though. We really do need to be fireproofing those homes. Before we wrap, are there any financial questions that I can help you with your life and your finances? Okay. I actually was going to talk to my business manager about this. So I do have like...

like, some money just in, like, a regular investment. What is the regular investment? The S&P. Yeah, yeah. But they were like, you could probably transfer it to something that yields more. Yeah. But, like...

Should I? Or is that low risk, high risk? And like, where should I move it to? Yeah. So I would say if you have money in an investment account that is largely in index funds that track the S&P 500, that is a medium risk opportunity. Okay.

There are certainly fixed income assets like bonds and stuff that would guarantee a lower yields. That would be less risky, but you would get less. And then there's other stuff that you as a high net worth individual, someone with connections who works in the industry might have access to. So things like angel investing or providing seed money,

or even potentially private equity investing or, you know, just private investments as well as some higher risk growth funds, some sector specific funds. All of that stuff is higher risk, but with a potential for higher reward. The reason I have to say potential for is because everyone thinks if they invest at the risky stuff, they're magically going to get money. That's not how it always plays out. And yeah,

If you feel like you are now in a position where you are focused on wealth growth and you're not worried if you were to lose every dollar, you would still have other stuff that would protect you, that would keep the roof over your head, that would feed you and would still allow you to retire comfortably. But this could just potentially take you to the next level. I don't think that's a bad idea.

However, if this is money that you are relying on to potentially fund your future retirement, to potentially be a little bit of a parachute, I wouldn't necessarily go crazy with some of these higher risk investments because I know people in our industry, especially people with platforms, love to talk about, oh, I'm angel investing, I'm impact investing.

I opened up my new cafe called Pagettes. Yeah, literally. But a lot of those things go to zero. And if money is something that you're really focused on, it's not always the best idea to take those massive risks when there are more dependable, more tried and true methods. But again, it really depends on your entire holistic picture. This is not financial advice. I have to say that. But

Nico, thank you so much for being with me here today. I've had so much fun chatting with you. I can't wait to come to the cafe. I won't say it. Please, please. Like, tell us, what can people expect next from you? Where are we going to find you? Where can we watch? I'm on Instagram, at Nico Santos. I'm currently on The Z Suite, which is on Tubi with Lauren Graham. It's a really silly, silly, funny show, so please watch that. And I'm just actually looking for my next gig.

Amazing. They did just announce that Crazy Rich Asians is going to be a series. Yeah. On Mac. So I may or may not be involved in that because that just got announced. So I'm hoping we'll see. I'm hoping because I would like to have something to watch. Yeah. So but that's not good. Probably not going to even start filming until 2026. Yeah.

Man, I forgot that those timelines are so long. It's long, yeah. Making these things is long. Yeah. Thank you guys so much for coming. I'm looking at the timer. We are out of time. Really, really appreciate it. Thank you guys so much, and thank you, Nico. Thank you, guys. This was so much fun.

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Net Worth and Chill, part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. If you liked the episode, make sure to leave a rating and review and subscribe so you never miss an episode. Got a burning financial question that you want covered in a future episode? Write to us via podcast at yourrichbff.com. Follow Net Worth and Chill Pod on Instagram to stay up to date on all podcast related news. And you can follow me at yourrichbff for even more financial know-how. See you next week.

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