Liza Koshy Does It All — While Making Us Laugh

Liza Koshy in conversation with actor America Ferrera

Liza Koshy has done it all. As someone who has come up in the world of content creators and internet sensations, “all” means to write, act, produce, edit, direct, promote — and now the 23-year-old is well on her way to taking on even more. Majestically, Liza has mastered YouTube with more than 17 million subscribers (that number is only ticking up as you read this), hosted Nickelodeon’s reboot of Double Dare, nabbed four Streamy Awards, and launched her own YouTube Premium series, Liza on Demand. She’s done this all while making everyone in the room crack up with her easy charm and infectious laugh.

As Liza forays into more traditional films and television, she has held tightly to her sense of self, the one that reeled in droves of fans and made her the rising star she is. She’s also become more aware than ever of the platform she occupies and the issues she cares about, seeking ways to imbue her hilarity with salient messages on how to make the world a better place. Speaking with actor and activist America Ferrera, Liza opens up about the transition into adulthood and stardom. —Gabe Bergado

America Ferrera: You were in Vietnam recently, right? Tell me about the trip.

Liza Koshy: I went to Vietnam partnering with Girls Opportunity Alliance with Michelle Obama. I had never been before, and I actually had the pleasure of bringing my sister Olivia with me, which was really cool to experience because she’s the one who got me into being more politically active and aware and to use my platform in that way. The organization worked with Room to Read, which provides financial, emotional, and material support for young girls in high school and middle school out there.

There's a lot of cultural, structural challenges in place holding these girls back, and they are not taking no for an answer. I actually got to sit with a Room to Read alumna who now owns a corner store, she’s this full-on businesswoman. She’s the only female-owned store in her area. I [also] got to sit down with a magnificent artist [who is only 16]. I didn't realize how much I would relate to a 16-year-old Vietnamese girl living across the world. To step into her home and see her parents’ disapproval and the art she's expressing was something I heavily relate to as a creator myself. At first, my dad took my phone, deleted my followers, and then took me off of social media. He didn't know I was hiding an iPad from him that was running the entire thing from underneath my mattress. I'm glad I did.

AF: After that trip, has anything changed for you either personally or professionally? What are you still carrying from that trip?

LK: I think I'm a full woman now. I'm thankful for the experience because it allowed me to open my eyes to a world that I had never seen before. But also it gave me the confidence to pursue absolutely anything that I put my mind to simply because this girl is able to have the determination, the respect, and the confidence to continue doing what she truly loves.

AF: What was your mission when you first started creating content? What was your driving force?

LK: I’m going to be honest: I was straight-up bored. I was just entertaining myself, and whoops, I accidentally entertained other people too.

AF: It’s been so wonderful to watch your success, but also, in recent months, using your platform for other things you care about, like Creators for Change. The content you did around voting engagement on that trip we got to take together with Alicia Keys to Dallas. How has your mission and the way you use your platform changed since you began?

LK: What started as boredom is now very intentionally using and promoting things that I love, things for the betterment of the world we believe in. I was sharing my story, and that's how people related to me, but it's kind of our story. That has been super exciting to me to realize that it's about us as a whole. I'm excited to share how I'm doing my part so that I can encourage others to do their parts too. Whether that be for voting or simply by the products that I use or climate change, just becoming more and more aware, which I think we are more than ever, but turning that awareness into action. Being the cause of that action is something that's so exciting for me now. That was a huge shift for me, just being on the ground with you and Alicia and learning and absorbing from you guys and realizing, wow, there's quite a lot to be done and I'm excited to do it.

AF: How do you make it authentic to you and for your voice and for your audience?

LK: To go back to my younger self, I make decisions based on what little Liza, or my future kids, even, would want to see or would want to hear. What me and my brilliant cocreators, Deb [Kaplan] and Harry [Elfont], have done with Liza on Demand is stories we wanted to hear in our own youth that are empowering and impactful. What opened up season two was being uncomfortable with my body as a young kid and how you express yourself, trying to come into your own. That's what I really try to do is implement things that I truly care about into the scripts that I read, into the scripts that I write, into the scripts that I perform, feeling aligned in all ways in the projects that I commit to.

AF: After our voter registration trip to Dallas, you made the most engaging, entertaining video that wasn't preachy or [full of] boring, dry facts. You were so funny. Is that something that you think is specific to your generation, the kind of talent and skills of making your message irresistible?

LK: I think so. It's definitely a mix of myself, but also I think the generation I come from. There's so much being thrown at us all at one time that we're expected to know the most about everything, which is really hard and pretty impossible to do. A goal a lot of content creators nowadays have is to keep it quick, short, to the point, but have the message, have the entertainment value, and keep it fun and lighthearted. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. That's the best way to drive home a message, social commentary, or anything like that. That's what we do a lot in Liza on Demand to get the point across, but get it across in a way that you didn't even realize you learned something. That's definitely my generation. We move fast. We talk fast too.

AF: I was so excited to see that you took on directing and put yourself behind the camera for your show. What compelled you to do that?

LK: It was scary, but it was less scary because I had my directors and cocreators with me. I flipped through their binder like a maniac and tried to figure out what my version of directing is. I could do it because of the people, especially the women that made the path easier for me to walk upon. It was similar to stuff that I had done in my own living room, but only for myself. Directing myself was less of a challenge than directing others, obviously. For many, directing yourself is a weird thing, but that's something that I kind of grew up doing. However, directing my own kiss was wild. That was an experience. I'm excited that for season three, I'm going to be writing a full episode and directing that episode, hopefully. That's the plan. I'm excited that I get to take what I learned and implement it in a better way [than previously done].

AF: What's so interesting about your platform is that you built it yourself from the beginning, and you did do it all. You acted, you directed, you set up the camera, you edited, you added the music, you posted it. As you transition into things that require more collaborations, is it weird to have to let go of some of that?

LK: It's a tough thing for me to let go of that control, but it's more exciting to invite in collaboration. To have so many collaborators and be in a writer's room instead of just my living room was super exciting. What's really cool about the path that people are able to take nowadays is that through digital media, they're able to create their own audition reels, create their own résumés online of sorts, and pave their own path. I love embracing new roles, whether that be new characters or new projects, the documentary, or a new role as a voter registration party-haver.

AF: From the outside, what I see is fearlessness. Is there something that scares you or makes you feel daunted, or does that just not exist for you?

LK: I know we're friends, but it really means a lot to hear that coming from someone that I was so happy to see on my TV growing up. You've worked so incredibly hard to make sure that unheard stories are represented properly. I'm just thankful to you because I just pull a lot of inspiration and a lot of that fearlessness from you and your story and what you've crafted for yourself and for our world.

Honestly, I tend to lean into my fears and squash them so that I'm not scared of them anymore. A lot of things that really do scare me, I'm more so “just do it” — that way I can't give fear that power, which is really relieving once you do it and just super empowering when it's done. That's where I thank you. Because you tried it, I got to too.

Meet the rest of Teen Vogue's Young Hollywood Class of 2020.

Stylist: Chris Horan (@chrishoran20)

Makeup Artist: Lottie using TYNT Beauty (@lotstar)

Hair Stylist: Lauren Palmer Smith using Shu Uemura (@laurenpalmersmith)

Manicurists: Jacqueline Yekikan (@nails_by_jacqueline), Merrick Fisher (@merricures)

Set: Justin Fry (@jebuz)

Let us slide into your DMs. Sign up for the Teen Vogue daily email.

Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: Meet Teen Vogue's Young Hollywood Class of 2019

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue