Liza Koshy On Internet Stardom and Chasing New Dreams | Pretty Big Deal

as always this episode is sponsored by my go-to stop for all things makeup Revlon hey everybody I'm Ashley Graham and this is pretty big deal we're confidence is key every episode I get to pick the brains of brilliant inspiring honest new and old friends who are a pretty big deal [Music] today we are talking to the unstoppable Liza Koshi Liza is an internet sensation turned actress director and has made Forbes 30 under 30 list twice in 2019 she was named one of Time Magazine's most influential people on the Internet y'all she's only 23 playback if you backstage talking to yourself and I can I can help her I can go sit there and talk to her oh my gosh video there's like a little playback of you being like [Laughter] no I couldn't hear you I just saw you like oh yeah that was like my like hi if you want to give me money to pay for all of this oh your sponsors yes mid contraction right now but I know you know a thing or two about sponsors on YouTube ciao girl I know right you see guidelines the legalities anything you're saying things I don't even know I have people for that I know I have people that tell me those words I don't know what they mean oh my gosh yeah when did you realize that like you had to make it a business because I've yeah I didn't know that like there was so much business behind all of this I was I was always so curious I'm like oh you too yeah how do you make money YouTube's I know but then they talk about how much money you guys make it can't because of the ads that play on the videos not before the videos right and then you also have like sponsors that reach down they're like hey if you integrate our brand into your brand yes essentially as a person on YouTube you become a brand yes so then you're your own name and then there's like brand integrations it's wild it is really well yeah but welcome to it how I feel very welcome gonna wear no description subscription there subscription or prefers super why this is called pregnancy brain no yesterday I almost made a fool of myself in front of Anna Wintour and I forgot the word judge on TV when on stage and I was like looking at her and I was like I'm supposed to say a word I'm supposed to say a word and then my friend Paloma goes I'm a judge I would for one one know what thinking about embarrassing myself in front of an I know I totally want to talk about it let's talk we're gonna get there okay okay okay well okay so okay but first like off like the cuff random question anything asked mom if you could change your Wikipedia what would it say I'm the one who wrote it so I would how do you get that because I heard that like if you want to change a fact you have to have like three dollars no you took like three articles saying the same exact fact about you and you have to like submit it in order to change your Wikipedia I don't know if that's real what just what I heard okay I will write three articles then and then submit for the change wait so what would you change about your Wikipedia I actually haven't read my Wikipedia really I'm really good at not reading things about me that I haven't written myself so I don't look at the comments cuz they will tell you things about yourself you weigh no weight so you don't read comments I try not to read comments on YouTube Instagram social Twitter Instagram I find to be a very positive place YouTube is like its constructive and Twitter is opinionated yes yes that's a good way to put so I just look at that I'm like okay I know places to go where I need a little bit of my soul fed from people who appreciate my work and then I'm like okay cool I know where to avoid I'm not like dive in spiral you know yes which I want to talk about spiraling and I feel like there's just so much depth to you that I'm really excited to talk about that was a sweetest thing anybody's ever said to me and really there's no there is there's lots of death for a very small person there's a lot of depth than that thank you I'm overcompensating for my stature wait how old are you on Sony three congratulate you you looked amazing on Halloween by the way thanks Jessica Raab you know it's like it's just the way we went but let's start in the beginning you were in vine I was on vine and then he went to you - I did and your dad did not get it my dad did not get it and so good day he got it when I was ironically on a college tour and yeah I was checking out plays and says my junior year in high school I think was checking out Emory University go Emory I don't know that I didn't for one year and I do not remember it said I went to a college tour and it wasn't until like another tour it started following our tour and we're whispering behind us and my dad was wondering like what's going on and then they walked up to me and said hey can we take a picture with you and then like 15 kids took pictures with me and it was amazing oh it was it was a group yeah I was like a group of like high school kids my age who were recognizing me from my work online and I didn't realize it was work at the time it was just like my videos and crying and and my dad was like what is this what is she doing why was I making her delete followers yes he did girl do I can get any followers you have to go through and block each person and then unblock them at least that was the 2015 way instagrams me how many subscribers did you have at the time I think I had like 300,000 on vine jeez it was it was a think that it was just like Oh nobody knows me no and then walk around yeah people come up to me be like Google Booga and yeah that's like what and then he decided from then on out like continue to make videos it's obviously having some sort of impact I don't know if it's a positive one but I try I think it's positive if I had you I'm pretty big deal it's no big deal so wait but then your dad was like okay but I want you to go to college then dad said okay once we go to college okay and I went for one year the University of Houston go Coogs and then I took a gap year because my dad picks me up from the airport and said do you feel like you need to move out to Los Angeles and being open the door he opened the door being the youngest of three you was like well we have other to get this one out and I flew out to LA it's like a gap year off of school and now it's been gap years Wow feel like when you were in that first year of college that content was just kind of rolling your life and it wasn't really about studying anyways it wasn't about studying was about other things for sure buddy well yeah okay because I partied hearty I partied hard it's like I don't want to say you have to get it out of your system yeah I got it out of my system am I glad I got it out of my system I just don't know I think a little bits coming out every now and then a little bit came out this past Halloween party at one point did she reach out and say no but I did I got a little bit out of my system and then and then continued on making videos once I moved out to LA and that's when I got on YouTube and then that was it yeah was it scary just like kind of going in and and not knowing much but yeah I mean okay there there's the other thing about vine like vine just spin away and then you disappeared everybody's resumes did that freak you out when vine left or were you already making the transition then to youtube I was making that transition onto YouTube so I felt like I had that little like you were one of the lucky ones I was I was lucky oh I'm so lucky but I had that to fall back on because I had been building that platform right um and I've been making characters on there so yeah and you talked about was it calls your bio and Instagram subscription no prescription no so much subscriptions and subscriptions but you say that you're the little brown girl with big dreams yeah I want to talk to you about the importance of representation yes ma'am so what does that mean for you it's exciting for me because I come from a mixed background so my dad is Indian he's from Kerala which is a little tip of India yes I have my grandmother lives there I call her um achieve for the culture oh and she Amity yes that means grandmother in Malayalam which is the you're like did you just need the native tongue of my dad okay um and so she is 97 years old living in care India if you want to live forever girl drink a tumeric latte every day yours right yes tumeric all the time there's probably good quality food no there's no glamour my feelings get into that another time the podcast everything's in the backyard like fresh ginger is growing like it's a beautiful like flourishing lush place um so if you have a chance to go go and then mom is mommy's of German background okay and I just found out because my mom's sister did a ancestry.com little DNA tests and found out I'm 6 percent Jewish 6 percent yeah I think I have 3 percent Jewish oh yeah yeah it didn't make sense to me no but I have a lot of German and Russian in me okay so my mom is German background yeah yes so the representation from for you is like you what is it for you for me it's being it's coming from just a very mixed background and wanting to make sure that like you know mixed kids and kind of like that that culture which is why I'm so appreciative of Tracee Ellis Ross and like mixed dish because that's a story that like I've always been excited to tell and I'm excited to see that on the screen for anybody who's kind of having their own like culture identity crisis of sorts throwing up because I being from Houston it's so diverse itself that like where did I belong was a question that I was constantly asking myself and I think we all do still we do into adulthood but as a kid in middle school in high school I was really trying to figure out to hang out with Indian kids or no I wasn't Indian enough now but the white kids know I'm not white enough but brown and this now how did your mom and dad raised you I think more so Indian actually because I had Indian relatives in Texas whereas I had like 17 Indian relatives in Texas whereas my mom had to God Virginia so that was the bigger influence for you yeah so I got killing myself to be brown cuz I am yeah a lot of people just think I'm kind of anything I get Puerto Rican I didn't know you know yeah yeah so I'm brown cuz the Indian but a lot people think I'm Puerto Rican or same girl span again and I speak Spanish because it Texas as well same grow up what's your happy back white she's white really seriously I know there's people ask me all the time you I love where this is going but just give me two seconds giving you a grocery so liver has always been the ideal option but it can also be wildly expensive but not with thrive market thrive market has an easy-to-use app with all our favorite obscure healthy snacks hello and it's in between 25 and 50 percent off traditional retail prices members receive those amazing offers plus all the orders that are over $49 are shipped free and delivered within two to three days so you never have to feel guilty about going overboard holler and it takes all the hassle out of healthy living and I can come home from a long day and find a lovely box like this one it's also an easy way for us to try new things like roasted dandelion root tea hello I couldn't recommend this box enough hair to thrive market calm / pretty big deal to unlock 25% off and a 30-day free trial don't miss this limited time offer to check out the rock market today now let's get back to the show um okay so let's talk about all the characters that you've created because it's like you created these characters and I think you've said that you needed them I did they were figures in your life that you felt like there was there was parts of you that were missing yeah and you were maybe yearning for yeah I said you know what I'm gonna create characters can you tell me about that and like where did that come from it was all like laying in my subconscious dormant and I did not know what I was doing and so I went to a beautiful place called therapy hello hello made it and figured out what I was doing and I was kind of like compartmentalizing in these different characters for myself and figuring out like okay I needed I wanted and craved the confidence which is what I wanted to go out into everyday life with just the utmost confident persona and I crew that persona and his name was jet and he had a bowl cut and he was great at every damn sport I've seen Jeff but he was awful you've seen him no I mean on your youtube okay yeah oh my god no but like you're 73 questions yeah you're right [Laughter] so how where did that come from that you need a jet for me it came from like I just I want to feel like even if I'm not so good at it which I was obviously not good at being this athlete of sorts or being this like guy of sorts that he was just fully believed that he was the utmost confident person in the room he just believed in his power and believed in himself even if he wasn't doing everything right and so for me that was like creating a character that I wanted to portray and like tap into mentally spiritually emotionally for myself that like so what not everything has to be perfect or right don't have to be great at it all but I'm going to tell myself that I can therefore I will be so how do you tap into jet without putting on the glasses and the wig and and because I mean that's how I know job right yeah that's how the world knows jet but how do you bring that into Liza into the everyday world that's me standing in the shower and repeating positive affirmations to myself what are your affirmations oh there are many but like just like I am and I can and I see the love and I see the God in others mm and I and I just hope that they can see that loving me but if not regardless I'm going to still believe in them and offer mm-hmm but if minor I am bold I am brilliant I am beautiful oh I know yes I was just like those were like the simple things that I needed when I was 18 yeah so you know you just you grow and things evolve and yeah affirmations changed yeah I was curious what yours were yeah you have another character that you create - I did I have oh did I do Oh still have them there was with me all the time Helga Oh got ya she was my maternal character because I didn't have my mom with me out in LA so I created her to kind of be this like parental figure of sorts that was like reprimanding and like thought she was right - all the time - or like had this alternative way of doing things that just like no it can be done this way like that so did they just like come out in moments where you were like okay I know I need to be told about myself and then Heyliger would come and she would tell you oh yes she was like the other perspective you're about to walk into like a meeting and you're like I am jet they can do anything out loud I did it in public bathrooms all the testing this is your Sasha Fierce this is nice I call it sausage fears I always love that Beyonce told us about Sasha Fierce because we don't know a ton about her but just to know that yeah that would you be right this different way of like coping and tapping into the our powers so did you you create a jet and Holga and you create and you also brought them to you - they did but through just bringing those characters you were also creating so much on YouTube yeah and you were the fastest growing youtuber Wow ever at that time I think I don't think I am anymore I don't know the social media is just like chains and I don't like virality of everything has changed but did that feel like in the moment how it is right yeah Oh am i girl impostor syndrome like why is this happening to me and then to also see like outside comments saying why is this happening to her but it was mostly like love and positivity that I was surrounded by but it was it was like whoa hold on what did I do wait why out tripping because it was 10 million followers yeah you had posted every Wednesday for five years that sounds three years don't age me girl was it three years three years two and a half I knew here young girl she's Louise but that must have taken a mental and physical hold on you it did it was just like the cranking and need for content what happened what made you should want to shut down it was more so that I got will shut down social media not yeah I don't want to shut down yeah I didn't I didn't want to shut down mentally but I felt myself getting to a place where I wasn't believing in myself anymore which is why I didn't want to reach that shutdown point and I didn't want to say oh I'm taking a break because I didn't know exactly what the plan was and I was looking for an answer I said okay I'm gonna take a break for a week I'm gonna take a break for a month I'm gonna take a break for a year and it became like a year and a half or so and I kept trying to look for an answer as to what I meant to do what am I supposed to do I love making videos but now I'm making you know bigger productions with lies on demand with you know the different shows and movies that have been a part of and hosting and I was trying to figure out what's my purpose like what am I supposed to do here I still have an answer but it's becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable that I found a lot of like peace in but it was confusing and I I know I might have let down my audience in the sense that like you you promised this content every week and now where it had no did you have FOMO walking into like not being able to provide content or was it anxiety ridden it got there a little bit but I still kept creating content in different ways okay so it was more so for me like I can't do this in my living room by myself anymore because I got spoiled with having other productions and having other people and having other created it wasn't like you shut down did not shut down okay so went into like a writers room and started bouncing around ideas and got so excited to work with other people's like other people think like this to us and so got so thrilled to work with other people that that's what I fell in to is creating a show on YouTube a 22 minute long 10 episode show that's now in its second season that's incredibly successful thank you and in his second season the first episode that came out it was the most viewed YouTube premium show no it was I know it was I don't have to read my cards to know that [Laughter] amazing success right there thank you thank you so makes me happy that like hey that little break from that other content made to make this content that other people enjoy - so lies on demand you wrote it I helped write it okay helped conceptualize it more so those are from the brilliant minds of Deborah Caplan and Harriet l5 okay remember can't hardly wait or yes yes yes yes all right and conceptualize and you're directing I did I directed this evening you directed all season to one episode how did it go it was amazing it's a rom-com episode so I had to direct my own kiss huh Wade you direct yourself naked you didn't do that one I did not do I got it okay thanks thank God no because I was aggressive the naked all over LA I was me I was straight up barefoot in downtown I ain't catch nothing I'm good you yeah I mean Barefoot's one people think it's gross but I'm from the country girl we barefoot all the time to hex the street so what was it like directing yourself it was wild because you have to like give a performance while also watching somebody else give theirs and so you're trying to do your best to like be your best but also trying to make sure that they're doing everything you want them to so the story goes well it was it was hard it is a hard thing to do I want to continue directing but other things that I'm not in got it I have clothes on because now you're in the directors guild I am I don't arise in the same glove wow what does that mean to you that means thank you to everybody before me who helped me get in and pave that path so that I could literally just walk up in the club and Cheers because there's a lot of like Deborah Caplan herself fought to basically be heard and have her story told as a woman and have female driven stories be told in Hollywood and we were talking about females being a part of behind the scenes before you started rolling you know it's just it's important yeah and we had like a woman behind the camera on lines on demand and made it all the more comfortable to be naked okay exactly yeah exactly yeah so you and I have some in common we both been to the met your first year you were hosting the red carpet yeah and then I saw you the second year and I was so happy the next year we were like oh I know you yeah well because honestly Liza you make everybody feel so comfortable that's and you have this like I don't know you just your best friend vibes they said that's as simple as I can make it feel so we're going out for drinks yeah how did that come about was it from your spoof of 73 questions it was from my spoof of 780 question gosh that spoof led to the actual 73 questions that I did which is really good it'll let you so no don't worry do you see these lights also we're gonna talk about your skin oh thank you it's a little messed up from hawlucha are you kidding me best thing you can do like a 5 feet away right now so you're getting a good don't we had the mat the mat was wild what was your first experience like my first experience was like a kid with their lunch train middle school trying to figure out where to fit kind of thing because the Med one of the biggest deals of fashion it's the Oscars of fashion it's the gram is a fashion I mean it's a big deal to like get invited by Anna Wintour it's like it an even bigger oh my god so who dressed you for your first year my first year was Allison Andrea rich okay I think okay shut up and then my second year was Beaumont oh yeah yeah yeah wait which one was like your arm that was that was this past year okay yeah it was like a little it felt like I was one of those like saloon doors yeah like letting people in amazing by the way oh thank you yeah I loved this last man did you oh my god that Berdan I know it was on you I know it was it was amazing how do you prep for something like that that was the very first year I had no idea how to prep I just studied everybody I want look through their Twitter's what was the last thing they said let me pick up on some kind of information when they come up here but it's mainly just like welcoming them in and asking them how they're excited to be here because it's huge but I had a binder and I had my go to vote girl who stood next to me and like helped me out with some of the designers and making sure I knew oh yeah there's always someone there just like whispering in your ear yeah like Anne Hathaway I'm a little but yeah it's it's just a lot of people it is are you gonna go this year you think I miss coming I'm looking direct down the Cameron I'm asking Anna right now I just love that you know doors you though if she does I'm so happy oh no your Vogue approved an approved you've been to the met twice now there's one Lena Dunham told me it took her seven years to get a plus-one so I told my husband I was like you can hold in there for another four years maybe you can come in there any what I was talking around the beginning about the depth of Liza because I think that there is so much to you where you know you break you broke off at YouTube you started doing something behind the scenes you weren't feeding the fans you weren't just like giving people what they wanted constantly which is a big deal because I think sometimes you know being having a lot of followers on Instagram YouTube Twitter whatever it is you sometimes wake up thinking about your fans you sometimes wake up thinking about the content and a and B it can make you anxious it can make you spiral yeah and I want to know like what effect did it truly have on you and your psyche every morning for me it was more so fulfilling an expectation of what people had of me because I kind of told them and I've been using this metaphor a little bit but I've been telling them for two years what to expect from me in terms of like characters content in terms of like even an Instagram theme and I kind of built this definition around myself and for awhile that definition fit who liza was and then as I started to just grow and evolve and have different experiences and travel and be closer with my family and close with my faith it kind of evolved just as just life does like oh she's changed well damn right she has and she's evolved actually yeah and so any three years supposed to be yeah yeah in a constant state I think we're all in a constant state like evolution for ourselves hopefully and that for me was rewriting that definition and what to expect for me and now I've relieved myself of that like pressure of sorts feeling like oh I have to be this or have to say that in order to be me cuz that's not a way to live what makes you feel centered in this crazy mess of social media and having to perform and give content sitting on a beige couch and speaking to someone with the most soothing voice podcast I can even match the color coding of the couch I mean I know is ridiculous right I'm blending in you won't see me but you keep talking about your face are you a Christian I am yes the ground soon yeah yeah I grew up Southern Baptists oh I had to figure that whole thing out cuz then when I moved to New York I was like wait why am i why do I was supposed to be a Christian my mom and dad said I was yeah and I went on my own discovery I was like okay no why do I want to go to church why do I believe in God who is he to me Who am I to him and it feels like there might have been some kind of same discovery that you went through as well a little bit too so I was raised Mennonite oh my god my mom was raised Mennonite yeah we are related that's weird that's that is we're German Mennonite German Mennonite yeah like nobody night is really I mean like my mom couldn't wear pants in front of my grandfather oh wow and like her skirts had to be below the knee and like there's buns I don't know if you guys had to wear buns and bonnets and stuff my grandmother did but it was a little less strict in that sense but it was my grandmother's mother it was like very strictly so Mennonite so you had to go through a just self-discovery of like what does it mean to be Mennonite yeah and like there's like a saying that my grandpa sings I could have danced all night but I'm a midnight like you cannot see daddy where you cannot show uni campus and I'm over here dancing on my kneecap and you're all so it's okay I'm taking in a lot of magazines my grandma did not approve it yeah that's why I'm going against it the culture that I was raised but that's how change happens right but do you have like a moral compass that you kind of live your life by more so just connecting and making sure that that I'm fueling that connection with my faith and then I'm going to I do actually go to a church mosaic Church in there yeah it's wonderful and like just to have that like sense of community and people who are just kind of looking and striving towards the same goals and things there really is a sense of community when there's a church something outside love is that you've got this okay I'm gonna mess up the name go do it butcher it c'est moi yes is this quoi is this booze you can leave your face but you're a beauty ambassador so tell me about that partnership longtime personal goal of mine was to have like some kind of skincare or makeup or beauty because I've always been so interested in it having been like a performer from a young age and having to wear makeup and so that was always of interest to me and then I also had eczema and valasco and all types of skin rashes on your film my face growing up and it was never really shared cuz I was too busy making like sketch videos and things like that instead of like vlogs where I shared my dreams and goals so for me this is like stepping into that and being so excited about it so this product works for you this product works hurry it Wow I have handed it out to my family and friends and it's like it's vegan it's cruelty-free it's also ewg verified what is that oh just like ewg item no with acronym stands for that's okay but if you want to go home and look up what ewg is it's ewg free AWG for you yeah verified which means that it's it's basically that's a really hard verification to get it's an amazing company and it's good humans behind that's important I refuse to work with any bad human so anything I do work with just morally aligned with me and I'm excited to promote them because they're dope that's really important that's great well so lies on demand is doing incredible yeah man I'm proud and are we going into season three imma look into the camera again and ask for a season three please I would love a season three and if so then I will make sure to write a script in its entirety just me on my own and also direct that script suit that's the plan I would love to do that yeah so I'm really I'm really fingers crossed okay so that's coming up what else is coming up for mr. Isaac O'Shea how's the part of a movie recently it's called work it it's gonna be on Netflix it's not out yet not out yet well said what are you doing I'm dancing wait because you're an incredible dancer thank you did you take dance classes or is this just like all natural this is from dance classes okay for the boy to play I really love watching your videos cuz they make me feel so hyped I'm like you know what I'm getting out of bed yeah I'm gonna dance - I'm not gonna look as cute you're an inspiration I will replace that label of a host actress model with a hype woman yeah I'm just a high-pass woman thank thank you for coming on pretty big deal you're so sweet thank you for having me this is a huge deal to me oh thank you for letting me say in your presence and all the neutral color tones that's what we do but I do have one more thing so so what we do at the end of every pretty big deal what we do at the end did you like that I was like yeah I did it well she is human at the end of every pretty big deal we do a lightning round live boldly lightning round and you just have to answer the question okay go come on all right so the last pretty penny you spent oh pretty penny puppy you got a puppy puppy we have you introduce the puppy no not yet but I'm bout to today on its go did you bring it I did she's a little nervous she's asking me actually but she is and she's not bad I like my breasts well around her I feel like a mother they don't enter very swollen they went up a cup size cheese Louise what's your biggest deal-breaker no I I feel like it's just like not I'm not a good human it's a big deal that's a deal breaker yeah okay last one because you're a pretty big deal and I only have pretty big deals on my show what's a pretty big deal to you right now ooh besides your dog going back to our conversation about having just equal representation behind the camera behind the scenes but also in front of the scenes yes in Hollywood that's been a big like topic of conversation with anybody that I've talked to recently so I'm happy to be that yes it's very important Liza Koshi thank you so much for coming on you're just a breath of fresh air thank you I'm smell a little hot today so that's really nice you say no I had a sweater on over this I was like it is not sweater weather in LA you know I did that thing where you only wear a jacket and never gonna do it so I'm like I committed hard I don't know slow down after blowing anything down don't forget to join the conversation on social follow pretty big deal and Instagram and Twitter and send us all your questions and comments we want from you you [Music] you

Channel: Ashley Graham

Views: 337,203

Rating: 4.9587598 out of 5

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Id: iRwJp5uq1I8

Length: 34min 24sec (2064 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 03 2020