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Talks at GoogleHow to American | Jimmy O. Yang | Talks at Google
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At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Jimmy O. Yang on immigration, identity, and making it in comedy
- Jimmy O. Yang recounts moving from Hong Kong to Los Angeles at 13, struggling with English and identity, and using TV and school experiences to learn American culture.
- He describes the clash between Asian family expectations (obedience and stability) and American ideals (independence and pursuing happiness), which shaped his education and early career decisions.
- He explains how leaving a finance trajectory led to a period of working multiple jobs while building stand-up skills, and how mentorship steered him toward immigrant-based storytelling.
- He walks through early Hollywood setbacks, stereotyped audition breakdowns, and the slow build from small roles to Silicon Valley—while still being broke and driving Uber early on.
- In audience Q&A, he addresses representation, accents, ‘Where are you from?’ identity dynamics, reverse culture shock, and his focus on creating his own material to expand Asian opportunities.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasAssimilation started for him before the U.S., and the U.S. amplified it.
He describes already feeling like an outsider in Hong Kong because of language and intra-Chinese bias, and then experiencing a second, larger wave of disorientation and pressure to fit in after moving to Los Angeles at 13 with limited English.
Pop culture became his informal “American studies” curriculum.
He credits watching BET (especially Rap City) with teaching him everyday English and cultural cues that school didn’t cover, and he recounts trying to adopt trends like sagging pants to fit in.
He navigated parental expectations by choosing the most acceptable path he could endure—until he couldn’t.
He says his dad wanted a “legitimate” path, leading him to start in mechanical engineering and switch to economics because it was easier while still acceptable to his parents; after seeing the finance track up close, he realized he couldn’t tolerate the career even though it was stable.
His core tradeoff was disappointing his parents briefly vs. disappointing himself permanently.
He frames the decision to leave the safe career track as choosing short-term parental disappointment over long-term self-disappointment, and he describes the messy, multi-job period that followed as he tested stand-up and entertainment work.
Mentorship pushed him from imitation comedy toward personal, non-stealable storytelling.
He emphasizes the role of a mentor (Sean Kelly) who urged him to stop doing generic jokes, lean into his immigrant story, and make a decisive move to LA before hitting “a point of no return.”
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesIt was probably better to disappoint my parents for a couple years than to disappoint myself for the rest of my life.
— Jimmy O. Yang
It’s freedom, people.
— Jimmy O. Yang
It was the first time in Hollywood that I felt white. And it felt great.
— Jimmy O. Yang
My job is not to judge that, but to portray them in a humanizing, funny way to make them look better.
— Jimmy O. Yang
My job is to really nail the opportunities that they create for us, and really when I go into an audition room, not just being the best Asian actor, but being the best actor in that room so I can get that role.
— Jimmy O. Yang
SPEAKERS
Gretchen Howard
hostPartner at CapitalG (Alphabet’s growth equity investing fund) and event moderator/host.
Jimmy O. Yang
guestComedian, actor (Silicon Valley’s Jian-Yang), and author of "How to American".
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
