Rising Stars: Meet Eric Cheng of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Cheng.

Hi Eric, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I have always been and still am a dreamer.

I grew up in Troy, Michigan to two Chinese immigrants who were both automotive engineers. I was always a really gregarious kid, getting in trouble for doing cartwheels in class or talking nonstop to fellow students who didn’t always need me to be talking to them. I was cheerful, chatty, and funny. I always loved, performing and being in front of a crowd– something that followed me through my young adult years.

I was always taught to work hard and to do whatever I could to achieve my goals. My parents had really high expectations of me, having aspirations that I would attend a top college. My parents were hopeful believers in the American Dream.

I never saw myself as the most gifted or smart person in the room, but I always knew that I could outwork people. I also knew that my ability to connect deeply with a wide range of people was a gift that I could use to fill in the gaps when my talents didn’t quite cut it. I was class president, student government president, and held leadership positions while being very involved in my high school’s theater. One of my first “aha moments” occurred when I watched a musical that my high school put on– I was like “I HAVE to be a part of this”. That ignited my pursuit for being a performer, the first time I really felt like I put my aspiration to action.

I was shocked when I got into Harvard. I hoped that it could happen to me, and I knew that there was a chance, but even today I have a narrative that luck won’t swing my way and that even if I hustle harder than anyone, “it” just won’t happen to or for me. That said, I was prepared to get to Harvard and get used to being unremarkable and average, but I’m grateful to have found my place, acting and directing in the college theater and even getting cast in The Hasty Pudding Theatricals– I was the only person of color cast at that time. I also co-founded an Asian arts group on campus (the Asian Student Arts Project aka ASAP) and was voted to be the class president. I studied economics and psychology; I have always been interested in understanding people on a deep level and using data and research to create positive change and effective solutions to society’s most pressing issues, including education, mental health, civil rights, and more. I am proudest of the projects and spaces I created that didn’t originally exist. I also proud of all the deep connections I made during my time there. That’s probably the most important value of mine: connection.

My post-grad journey to being digital creator and host after college was very winding and nonlinear. After moving to LA to pursue the dream of being an actor-writer-comedian multihyphenate in what felt like a golden age of entertainment for AAPI and LGBTQ+ people(I joked that I wanted to be gay Asian Ellen, which made people respond with “oh, so Bowen Yang””), I trained at the Groundlings, made short films and sketches, won a TV writers competition, and even signed with a manager at a big-name company. However, I couldn’t have predicted that, amid the momentum and relentless pursuit of “the dream” motivated by both my childhood passion and hustle mentality, I would come to realize that dedicating my life to performing, even as a successful performer, didn’t quite fulfill me.

Despite my successes, there was an emptiness that I felt, one that arose from a lack of connection, community, and purpose. At the time, I had to reckon with how important it was to me to be the funniest person in the room or even to have my own TV show get made. I realized that I wanted to feel more like my actions had a direct impact and that I was working directly with people rather than performing in front of them– to me, that’s the essence of genuine connection. Thus, I embarked on a journey to rediscover myself outside of being a performer in what felt like an existentially-motivated complete overhaul and upending of my life, becoming a high school government and economics teacher, a dance coach, and a 988 crisis and suicide lifeline counselor.

Fast forward to now, I am the host of a podcast called Wait, Say More, about all things “zillenial”– the intersection and combination of Gen Z and millenial– from personal to political. In my talk show, I speak with creatives, politicians, and experts on zeitgeist issues and topics that affects young adults today, from dating to quarterlife crises to the loneliness epidemic. At the core of who I am, I am a listener and facilitator; I love the power of conversations in learning, and I love acting as a conduit connecting people and ideas. Through the takeaways, life lessons, and compelling perspectives that arise in my show, I grow as a host and person.

Through being a talk show/podcast host, I also accidentally became a content creator, which has served as an interesting callback to my performer roots. I primarily use my background in comedy and sketch to create political satire and spark dialogue about the tumultuous political time we are in with the intention of carving out a voice for progressive young people like myself. In addition, I am currently a community mental health educator, where I train people to be effective crisis and suicide hotline counselors, and most recently, I have gotten involved in local politics in Los Angeles and managing digital media for political candidates for 2026. I am now going into schools to teach first-gen, low-income students social and professional skills including financial literacy to equip them with the tools they need to achieve economic mobility. Basically, I see myself as an “edutainer” in a sense– using my performer side to truly engage with people while equipping them with awareness, knowledge, education, skillset, etc.. that can genuinely help them. Writing this out, I can recognize that everything I have done before– even when it did not feel like it at the time– has gotten me to where I am today.

I now have aspirations to combine media with politics to spark effect progressive change. In my current work, I’ve discovered the linkage uniting my performer side with my educator side, and I plan on continuing to foster this in whatever way. I also see myself continuing to do a lot of different things all at once; a philosophy that has cemented in me is the idea that everything you do in the past and present informs anything you do in the future.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I am very grateful for the life that I’ve had and every experience that came along the way. In the past, however, I have struggled with my mental health. Throughout my life and into adulthood, I have dealt with depression and anxiety, which has motivated me to be an advocate in mental health, leading me to the work that I do now. I’ve come to understand that my journey has also been a superpower; it has allowed me to understand people on a deeper level beyond what someone’s image may suggest. I try to make someone’s day every day in big or small ways, because you never truly know what people are going through.

As an adult, I’ve learned that a cure of my own internal struggles is getting involved in my community, fostering genuine relationships, and being of service to people. I’m still figuring out the best way to do this, but whenever I am in a low place emotionally, I am reminded of the power of connection.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
At the heart of almost all of my content is an intersection of comedy and politics. So much of our political system gives rise to comedy, which sometimes feels like the only way to cope with the perils of the former.

I am a host and digital creator who is deeply invested in the issues and problems that Gen Z and “zillenials” (between Gen Z and millenial) face on both a personal and political scale. In my content, I blend my budding interest in politics, background in comedy acting and writing, and experience as a mental health counselor and previous high school teacher to ultimately speak to and represent an audience that I am a part of. I’ve always had a deep appreciation and commitment to representation, reflecting and portraying stories of people who are historically underrepresented. As an Asian person who is also in the LGBTQ+ community, I first came out to LA to pursue a career in entertainment as a performer to shape stories that I hadn’t grown up seeing.

Fast forward to now, I think that my desire to tell and take part in stories has cemented in the real world and the now– shit show and all. I was compelled to create my talk show, Wait, Say More, because I learned that the most impactful and interesting stories in my life are those from people I admire, particularly people who have defied the odds and created a distinct and fulfilling path for themselves despite barriers. I also have a part of me that I call my “existential side” that endlessly contemplates about purpose and meaning, which has flared up particularly post 2024. In a world that a young adult can so easily view as hopeless and banal, how can we like, keep going? How can we find meaning and still pave the way for progress and change when our generation has inherited daunting baggage in the form of threats to democracy, economic mobility, an epidemic of loneliness and isolation, etc. ? Through my talk show/podcast, I get to connect with people and ask these types of questions; I get to facilitate a space where the personal gets political and the political gets personal.

In terms of what I am most known more, it’s definitely my characters in my political satire videos, with one character in particular: KayLeighAnne, the MAGA Kween. As KayLeighAnne, I wear a blonde Lucius-Malfoy-esque wig and create skits from the exaggerated perspective of hyper-conservative, Republican women. I also have created other characters, but the algorithm seems to really just love (or push out) KayLeighAnne. My videos that feature her, amongst other personas that seem to dominate a lot of media right now, point out what I believe are hypocrisies and seem to stick with people who similarly feel defeated by politics right now, but in a strange way, they’ve also generated conversation (along with hate comments) that have allowed me to better understand perspectives that differ from my own; yes, I am building an audience from comedy and satire, but my ultimate goal is to find a way to bridge the divide between perspectives from people like me and people with differing beliefs. Tbd on how exactly I am going to do that, but I have ideas.

I am proudest of having, and developing, a voice and starting to transfer it into action. I think in the earlier years of being a creative, I sat in the comfort of fiction and storytelling, but now I am becoming more outspoken while also trying to use stories to enact change. In an effort to break through the barrier and echo chambers of social media that so often makes me feel disconnected from my actual community, I’ve recently found ways to use content creation to steer attention towards work that I admire. I got to interview a friend of mine, Hester Jean Lee, who has developed a following through her advocacy in supporting immigrant vendors amid the ICE raids here in LA. This year, I’ve applied my social media skills to creating content for progressive candidates, including someone running for Congress in my home district in Michigan. And I’m starting to create content for, and getting more involved in, various initiatives and organizations like the DSA and LA Forward. Content creation and hosting has opened a door to organizing and civic engagement, which has contributed to my interest in local politics.

This coming year, I am excited to launch a project with my partner to combat the loneliness epidemic on a personal, local level in LA especially for young adults (no one tells you how isolating and discombobulating post-grad life can be!). As a 988 crisis counselor, I am constantly reminded that loneliness is the precursor to so many of life’s hardships, and I hope to create infrastructure around connection, a value that drives me in everything that I do. More to come on that.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
My energy. I have been told by friends and acquaintances that I am like an energizer bunny, going from place to place with utmost pep– they say that I am sometimes hard to pin down. My energy and constant curiosity makes me love creating connections with people wherever I go, and I think it has helped me be successful in the sense that it has helped me access opportunities and a sense of adventure that incorporates an element of randomness.

I think this, combined with my belief and trust in myself and what the world has in store for me has helped me get to where I am. I have to challenge myself everyday to break the barrier of overthinking and contemplation– asking myself what I “should” do or what the “right” decision — and instead prioritize taking action. Every time (almost without an exception), the latter has led me to success and adventure. When I see my life as a process of collecting data and seeing what really fulfills and motivates me, I am led to successful outcomes. Whenever I think too hard about what I “should” do, I often run in to trouble.

I want to look back on my life feeling as though I seized every opportunity within my reach while bringing positivity to the world.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericsaymore/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-cheng-0b589099/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ericsaymore
• Other: https://tiktok.com/@ericsaymore_