<\/p>\n
Growing up in Pella, most of the information Andrew Lopez got about being a Hollywood actor came from the TV show Entourage<\/i> and all that he could find about filmmaker Judd Apatow.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things I found was that when he was in college, he would interview comedians, and that’s how he started,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cAnd Judd went on to be the godfather of modern comedy, and I just started taking in all that info.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his freshman year of undergrad at Iowa State University, Lopez and a friend learned that the student union board had a fund for entertainment events.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we knew from watching those TV shows and just reading up on Judd Apatow and stuff that if we could get access to that money we could get access to the agents, and we could get access to the producers who help those artists, and then it would just be more knowledge for us,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n
Taking full advantage of his position, Lopez even booked himself to open for the visiting stand-up comedians, including Aziz Ansari, Amy Schumer and Bo Burnham.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was crazy,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I was bombing, by the way \u2014 I was not good.\u201d<\/p>\n
But for Lopez, it was another way for him to learn what it was like to be an entertainer and get a feel for being on-stage as a stand-up comedian.<\/p>\n
\n\nI love Iowa, and a lot of things that were coming out on TV around that time period of 2018 was just like talking down on what they would call flyover states.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Andrew Lopez<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
After receiving what Lopez calls \u201ca top tier education in drinking on Welch Avenue,\u201d he graduated in 2012 and moved to Los Angeles. Lopez landed an assistant job at the Creative Artists Agency and his friend began working for Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino, another act that was booked at ISU. In short, the scheme totally worked.<\/p>\n
In LA, he worked at the agency during the day and did stand-up at night. Eventually, he landed a job as a writer\u2019s assistant for Neighbors 2<\/i> and Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates<\/i>. He was working for screenwriter Brendan O\u2019Brien, who ironically \u2014 or perhaps prophetically \u2014 was once an assistant to Apatow.<\/p>\n
About five years after, he had outgrown his role as an agent and his career was plateauing. No one was reading his scripts and he was bombing on stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was eating alone at a Filipino restaurant, literally, like crying over like a bowl of rice, being like, \u2018I’m gonna move back to Iowa. It’s totally fine. I’ll be a teacher,\u2019\u201d Lopez said. \u201cAnd I remember Jo Koy walked into the restaurant, and he was the only other Filipino comedian.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lopez told Koy how much he meant to him, and asked if he would ever meet him for coffee. Koy gave Lopez his number and then brought him out on the road for four years touring arenas.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that’s when I became a good comedian, was because of Jo Koy,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cBut yeah, it was a random encounter at a restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the last few years, Lopez has appeared on FX\u2019s The Bear<\/i>, where he plays Garrett, a disciplined restaurant worker who first appears in the season two episode \u201cForks.” He’s also been in Apple TV\u2019s Platonic,<\/i> playing Reggie, a status-obsessed foil to star Seth Rogen. He\u2019ll next be gracing the screen in the Will Ferrell\/Zac Efron film Judgment Day<\/i>, currently in post production.<\/p>\n
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