Mike Cabellon is the first to admit that surviving in Hollywood as an Asian actor is tough. But credits his success landing his role on “Mr. Mayor” to the fact the producers prioritized funniness over all other factors. “I could talk about Asians in Hollywood for a long, long time, but I feel lucky that on this show they were truly looking for the funniest person for the job,” he said. “I had friends who auditioned for this who are Black, who are Latinx. They really kind of just went across the board and they were like, ‘who feels right?'”

And once Cabellon was on board, his character was fleshed out to be Filipino, a step he deeply appreciated. “The character didn’t really exist yet, but they sort of wrote to me,” he explained. “And so I’m really grateful that this season I’m able to be proudly Filipino. There’s one episode coming up that we had a Filipino director and two other Filipino actors, and I’m like, this has never happened to me in my career. It felt momentous, even though it’s such a small thing to ask for, to have other people on set who look like you.”