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Marcello Hernandez poses for a portrait in Portland, Ore. Credit – Clayton Cotterell<\/em><\/p>\n M<\/span>arcello Hernandez loves to work. The 28-year-old Florida-born comedian says so a dozen times during a phone interview with TIME the morning after wrapping shooting comedy film 72 Hours <\/em>and performing two stand-up sets in a single night for his 30-show tour as he prepares for his upcoming Netflix special.<\/p>\n Hernandez\u2019s career has been years in the making: starting out as an assistant to a manager at an Ohio comedy club before selling tickets in Greenwich Village in exchange for commission and performance time and later touring with legend Gilbert Gottfried<\/a>. Today he\u2019s most recognized for his Saturday Night Live<\/em> characters, like the super-suave Domingo\u2014a Latino heartthrob known for stealing women for a night (or more)\u2014or Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny<\/a>\u2019s fictional nephew. He and Bad Bunny have become frequent collaborators outside the show, which Hernandez joined in 2022, too, including appearing together in a music video by the latter and acting as family again\u2014this time cousins\u2014in Happy Gilmore 2<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Though the political landscape has shifted, with wholesale immigration crackdowns across the country and a President demanding fealty from media, Hernandez says he doesn\u2019t consider himself \u201ca very political person.\u201d He does not, however, shy away from making his background central to his comedy. \u201cIf you come to my show, you\u2019ll see it\u2019s a big part of my identity\u2014the fact that I was raised by immigrants\u2014and I\u2019m very grateful for that,\u201d says Hernandez, whose mom is from Cuba and dad is from the Dominican Republic. \u201cI\u2019m the first American in my family, and I realized that the opportunities that I have are because my parents were able to leave their country and come here and try to give me a better life.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Hernandez says he tries to focus his energy on creating the best things he can create. \u201cI\u2019m actively trying to work as much as I can so that I can have the means and the power to do more and help more people and create a name for myself, but also to represent for Latinos, which is really important to me.\u201d At SNL<\/a><\/em>, he says, the funniest material wins. \u201cI\u2019m just writing stuff that I think is funny. If people laugh in the writers\u2019 room, and at the dress rehearsal, and if the host and the musical guests like it, you have a chance,\u201d Hernandez says. \u201cI never have to be like, \u2018Can I please speak Spanish this week, Lorne<\/a>?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n