# @ucberkeleyofficial on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DQprXePkkWq
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/64635359-ucberkeleyofficial-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/e933711ef0.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-11-04T22:24:48.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** UC Berkeley (@ucberkeleyofficial) — https://gondola.cc/ucberkeleyofficial

## Caption

Actor johnthecho (BA ’96, English) had his eureka moment visiting friends at UC Berkeley in 1991. “I said, ‘My god, I need to go here.’”

He dropped out of the school he was attending, moved to the Bay Area, and transferred to Berkeley to study English in the College of Letters and Science. “It was the first independent, proactive thing I did for myself.”

“It’s a big university, which was great for me. There’s so many different kinds of people and ideas floating around. You could put on any t-shirt you wanted, and I mean that in the identity sense.”

One day his roommate brought home a flyer for a student production. On a whim, John auditioned, winning a role in his very first play. Then came a life-changing production. eastwestplayers, a regional theater company, was bringing The Woman Warrior to life and needed Berkeley’s stage. The university agreed on one condition: use our students.

John landed a role alongside professional Asian American actors. Without meeting these actors, “I would never have considered the possibility of doing it for a living.”

During rehearsals, he sat at Maxine Hong Kingston’s feet asking questions. (Kingston, as in UC Berkeley professor emerita of English and the author who wrote the book they were adapting.) “That just doesn’t happen as a kid.”

Ethnic studies professors like Ronald Takaki and Elaine Kim gave him language for what he was living, shining a light on concepts like “model minority”—a myth John still confronts in Hollywood and himself today.

Nearly 30 years since his Berkeley and American Pie days, John’s career spans Hollywood blockbuster franchises like Harold & Kumar and Star Trek to his young adult book Troublemaker.

Now he’s a jack of all trades: writing, producing, and acting. A long way from those Zellerbach days, coming in on stage left instead of right.

His advice for future grads? “Don’t hesitate. Jump in and help somebody. People who pitch in without being asked go very far.”

🔗 Read John’s full interview at the link in our bio: https://bit.ly/3JHXgqO

#UCBerkeley #CalAlumStory

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## Tags

ucberkeley, calalumstory

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