- She's hilarious, she's a great actress,
she's a Golden Globe winner whom you know from movies
like "The Farewell" and "Crazy Rich Asians",
which little known fact, she was my favorite character
in "Crazy Rich Asians".
Hilarious.
Her new movie is called "Raya and The Last Dragon".
It's in theaters and on Disney+ with premier access
on March 5th.
Give it up for Awkwafina, y'all!
(cheers and applause) (upbeat music)
Hello!
- All right, hey!
- I'm not lying, I have had another co-star of yours
from "Crazy Rich Asians" whom I love,
but you are my favorite.
You were so great.
- Thanks, thank you.
You're my favorite, dude.
You're awesome.
- Well, you can just say that and I'll take it.
- No, no, really.
- Well, your Comedy Central show is called
"Awkwafina is Nora From Queens".
So should I call you Awkwafina or Nora?
- You can honestly call me whatever you want, Kelly.
- Okay, cool. - Whatever you want.
- Well now I just wanna make up a name.
Now I just wanna call you queen.
- Yes, I'll call you right back.
We could have a mutual- - I'm totally kidding.
- I will call you Nora for now,
just because I feel like everybody probably
calls you Awkwafina, but I love Awkwafina.
But what did you think of Anthony and Ranita's story?
Did you think that was so cool?
I love the never giving up on your dreams and pursuing it.
- Yeah, I really like what they said about, you know,
if you're still breathing, you have time.
I think that it was really beautiful.
I don't know.
I'm not the best guest to follow up with that
'cause I don't think that I was a good student at all,
but I'm definitely very inspired by their story.
That was awesome.
- Yeah.
Even if you're not a good student,
I just love the fact of like,
I never thought I'd be a talk show host.
I never had this dream before
and then your life just kind of takes changes
and different journeys that you didn't really think.
And I love the fact that like, you don't give up on it,
you just say yes and go, I don't know, I'll try it.
And I think that that's cool.
'Cause you only get the one life,
but you went to the Fame High School in New York.
Did you have to audition to get in there?
I'm imagining so, right?
- Yes, yes.
I auditioned, oddly, with the trumpet,
which I played for a long time.
And LaGuardia was great,
but you know, it was really my junior high school years.
I was like, I love the trumpet.
I was like a trumpet hog.
And we would do songs.
My band teacher would bring in songs,
like we do "Pearl Jam",
but then we'd also do like "Livin' la Vida Loca"
and I remember he actually pulled me aside and was like,
"You need to let the woodwinds shine
because you're taking up too much."
And it was like, really?
I'd be like, this is more of like a brass song,
don't you think?
I don't think there's a lot of flute solos
in "Livin' la Vida Loca", if you know what I mean.
- I feel like you're wrong, band director.
(laughter) - Yeah, I was like,
excuse you, I'm going to go and shine as the song
asks you to do
as a trumpet player. - Can't stop this, yeah.
- Yeah.
- Well, you must've been pretty...
I always imagine, actually,
one of my first jobs was being a waitress in a comedy club.
I was a cocktail waitress
and I always imagined like, 'cause they're so hilarious.
Like everybody gets up on stage.
Were you like a class clown or were you shy?
I always wonder what the background of that was.
Were you always funny in class or were you not?
- I mean, I was definitely the class clown.
I was definitely the girl
that didn't really care, you know?
So I also think that, yeah-
- We would have been friends, by the way,
like 100%. - Really, were you
a class clown?
- Yeah, I definitely was.
My friends and I, we were those people,
but definitely I was the girl that was like,
I don't care about the things
that you're caring about right now.
- I've spent time in your hometown,
I believe, I think. - You did?
- Burleson, Texas?
- Why? (laughter)
- Yeah, I'm all about the Rendon school district,
the Fort Worth, the Mansfield.
- Oh my gosh.
I lived in Mansfield as well.
Fort Worth, Mansfield and Burleson.
- You lived in Mansfield?
- Yes!
- You lived in Mansfield?
Wow. - After "American Idol",
like I had a farm there.
So you are from Queens, but no,
but Queens is, it's so interesting for someone
from a small town in Texas.
So what was it like for you growing up there?
- Queens was, I think it was,
you know, it's a very interesting place.
It's the biggest borough of all the boroughs,
but there are parts of it that are pretty suburban,
but I remember feeling, growing up ,
that Manhattan, the city was kind of like a dream, you know?
And it's funny to be in a place like Queens,
'cause you're so close, but you're so far away from it
at the same time.
So it definitely had a small town feel,
which I'm sure you could identify with in Mansfield, yes.
Me and my hydrant, yes.
(laughter) - Me and my hydrant.
- It's not my hydrant.
- It's mine!
Did you pee on it, it's yours?
- I didn't. (laughter)
I think a lot of people did pee on it
right before I grabbed hold of it.
This is pre-COVID times, guys.
But yes, yes.
- So wait,
do you look back at what the people who raised you,
like what they went through.
Do you look back at what they went through
for you to get your life and where you are?
'Cause I do that with my mom,
was like a single mom for a lot of my life with three kids
putting herself through college, doing all this stuff.
And she really worked so hard and I now later in life,
I'm just like, oh my gosh.
I look and I thought I had it hard and like, gosh,
she had it so much harder.
Do you often look at your family like that?
And then especially where you're at right now
being so successful and really living out your dream.
Do you look at that differently now?
- Yeah.
I mean, for me,
I was raised by my grandma, so I definitely,
I can relate to what you're talking about,
that whole single mom journey.
'Cause that's of, you know, I was raised
by a single dad also.
My mom passed when I was four and yeah,
I mean, it's weird coming back.
I haven't been back to New York City
in pretty much over a year.
And I think every time I come back, you know,
the city changes a little bit more
and I see my grandma and she's getting older.
And I think right now I'm just really grateful
for where I am and definitely, I think,
where I came from, you know?
I think that when you grow up,
sometimes you just want to kind of leave town,
but then you get to a point where you realize
that just everything that happened to you is for a reason.
You know, so.
- Absolutely, and those memories of where you grew up,
even if it's not where you end up,
it's still such a special place.
Like, regardless because it molded you,
if it was a bad situation or a good situation,
it molded you into who you are now.
- For sure, yeah.
- How do you think tough times have helped your comedy?
'Cause like I said, I was a waitress in a comedy club
and it was often weird for me because I figured out
pretty quickly that comedians actually,
while they're very funny on stage,
afterwards when they're waiting for the money
and you're cleaning off your tables, they go very dark,
a lot of them like, and I was like, wow, the funny is over.
So I was always like, wow, I guess it is true.
A lot of humor does come from darkness sometimes
and like tragedy or things like that.
Do you think that that's helped your comedy at all?
I mean, I can't imagine, first of all, losing,
you know, not having your mother there
since four, that's horrible.
So like, I can't imagine even that, like missing it.
'Cause I didn't have a father growing up.
So it was like any kind of daddy daughter thing
or anything that came up that you kind of wanted
them to be there for, that sucks, you know?
And that's gotta affect you a little bit.
I think that's often why I go to humor often as well
is because I have to find kind of the funny
in things sometimes.
- Yeah.
I think we're wherever there's light,
there has to be a darkness.
I think, you know,
comedians very often,
for me, I think it came out because I,
when my mom passed,
I really didn't wanna be like this beacon
of kind of like this sad thing.
I wanted to make people laugh.
I wanted people to be happy around me, you know?
And so that definitely influenced it.
I wanted to spread joy and in a weird way,
but I think also, people would be surprised
'cause like, yeah, what you said
about like the comedians kind of after work.
There is a kind of a seriousness that I think
puts people off sometimes,
because it's just like, aren't you supposed to be
like super energetic and like crazy?
And it's like, yeah, well, I mean,
like the other times I'm just very neurotic
and worried about everything, you know?
So there always is, I think it goes hand in hand.
- I think, I feel like too, not that they have to
like entertain you all the time, but I feel like
there's so much energy expended.
It's like right after I get off the stage and like tour,
like that night, I don't feel like talking
to a bunch of people.
Like, everybody's always like, "Oh, we're gonna hang."
And I'm like, "I'm exhausted.
I kind of wanna just chill and have some downtime."
So I totally, I get it as well.
But I have to ask you,
is it true that when you first started
you pretended to be your own manager at first?
- Yes, yes I did.
- How did that go?
- Not well because his name was Edward.
No last name, didn't think about it that far.
So eventually, I realized
that the male assistant might not work.
And I had to tell my friend Maya and I was like,
"Listen, in case anyone calls, you work for me, okay?"
(laughter) - You work.
- So it was just like-
- So go along with it.
- Yeah, yeah, pretty much.
- Wouldn't advise it. - I love the boldness of it,
of the idea.
- It was bold. - Yeah, I totally do this.
So I wanted to ask though,
you said that you were raised by your dad and your grandma.
Are you still pretty close with your grandma?
- Yeah, I'm very close.
She's my best friend, she's my therapist.
I talk to her every day.
Yeah, that was when I brought her up to "GMA".
That was awesome.
- Aww.
How does she feel about it?
You taking her to "GMA" and how does she feel
about all your success?
- I think she's really happy about it.
When I was young and I would always ask her, like,
can I go have singing lessons?
I want to do this.
She always supported me,
even since my first music video.
She was never that grandma that was like,
"No, go to med school, go to law school."
She always supported my dream.
So very, very thankful for that.
- What an amazing thing to have that person in your life.
Like not everybody gets that person in your life.
That's really cool to have someone so supportive.
So you said music videos.
So what was your first passion?
Was it comedy, was it music?
What was it?
- Oh man.
I mean passion.
Well, I think comedy, it came to me
in a really different way.
Whereas, you know, like music and making beats and stuff.
I mean, I'm sure
you're like a awesome musician,
but obviously-
- I'm not a great musician.
- No, you are! - I'm really good
with this musical instrument.
I tried piano and guitar and I'm so basic at it.
It's not a talent.
But I can rock the cords.
- That's what I mean.
You have to learn certain aspects of music, right?
So like that's why I think music is definitely my passion
'cause I love learning more about it.
And I know that I'm not that good at it,
so I wanna get better and stuff, so yeah.
- I feel like it's such a release too,
it's like so therapeutic, 'cause even though I suck,
I still have a piano in my office, at my house.
And I sit there with my headphones on so nobody can hear it
and I play it, even if it's bad
and it makes me feel good. (laughter)