Meet Yanyao Qi | Actor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Yanyao Qi and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Yanyao, why did you pursue a creative career?

What would I be doing if I weren’t pursuing an artistic career?

I have a vague memory that the 5-year-old-yaoyao used to love drawing and painting… … excuse me for a sec, perchance my serendipity with ART was already flexing their muscles at this point of time.

In fact, I’ve made great efforts to avoid going onto this road. As everyone knows: art making is not an easy and sustainable career to pursue if one’s goal is to become successful.

Although the present-day-yaoyao has relatively clumsy arms and legs, the much younger version of yaoyao learned years of traditional Chinese dancing in elementary school, and held the post of ‘Entertainment Committee’ in her class for many years. (An Entertainment Committee is the person who’s in charge of making posters and planning events for festivals.) After moving to the US, I went to a magnet high school and chose Fashion Design as my career direction of interest.

Wait a minute, did I just say that I’ve made great efforts not to go down this path?

Anyway, after staying up all night HAPPILY for a design class assignment, my beloved mother decided that I cannot have a career that takes up so much time with so little money. (She didn’t like my design.) Later that afternoon, she came home and informed me that she has changed my career direction to Nursing.

I was FURIOUS!! Then I continued the rest of my high school life struggling to study those Nursing courses. I wasn’t the best in theory classes, yet I believe my practical ability was very strong. After successfully obtaining the certificate of completion in Nursing, I was admitted to ASU majoring in Finance.

Two years later, after going through the crisis of failing one accounting course, I decided that I cannot live my life not doing what I like, and willfully chose a few courses that intrigued me; Theatre 101 was one of them. It was the first time after many years that I had experienced the feeling of ‘willing to endeavor for something I love’.

Then the next school year, I was already a Theatre major at USC.

Having said that, why did I pursue an artistic career?

It must be fate.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?

I’m an actor, and I’d also like to consider myself an artist who creates interesting human stuff. I graduated from University of Southern California with a B.A. in Theatre and minor in Cinematic Arts. I have specific tastes in acting, plays and movies, USC is the place where I learned how to make my aesthetics happen. From stage acting to directing, to film lighting and film editing. I was able to learn these valuable skills that prepares me to start my career as an artist.

I used to call myself a ‘Theater Maker’ back then. I heard someone call themselves that during a group audition and I stole the title since then. I met a group of good theatre-lover-friends, and joined the very first Chinese speaking theatre group at USC — Gate Five Chinese Theatre. I started as a lighting crew and ended up directing two productions in the group. Outside of school, I grouped with friends from UCLA and CalArts and created our first original experimental play — Liaozhai: Tales of Extraordinary (Company Creation Festival) and Liaozhai: House of Tales (Hollywood Fringe Festival).

After graduation, my obsession with acting was firing and I believe I needed to start with some strict fundamental acting training, a place where I get to practice acting everyday. The Art of Acting professional conservatory appeared in my eyes just in time, and now, almost three years later, I graduated from the conservatory and I’m so ready to use my talent and create lots of characters.

I’m an introvert. Before knowing the word ‘introvert’ when I first came to the US, I used to always say ‘I’m very shy’ in the beginning part of social activities so people wouldn’t expect much speech from my mouth. I’m used to getting comments like “the entertainment industry doesn’t suit you ’cause your personality”. But I have another theory, and I believe most introverts would resonate with me. Introverts have very rich inner worlds. Being an introvert made me particularly imaginative and creative. Instead of exporting, I’ve been importing views and information in my mind most of the time. I’d treasure all kinds of feelings and emotions I sense, and remember events that moved me, observe humans and animals reacting to different things, and secretly imitate them. I’m not doing these things on purpose because I’m an actor, I do them because they enrich my heart as a human being, it helps me to get to know myself better. And when it’s my turn to give, I have a lot to give.

I was really flattered when Shoutout LA reached me for this interview, but it took me days to think about what to say in the interview. I somehow felt ashamed because I’m such a ‘fresh off the boat’. I call myself an actor yet I don’t have a great work that represents me. Then I thought: success is done step by step, I have to make my first couple steps to get to where I’m looking at, even if the steps are looking clumsy. One day, I wish I could introduce myself with “Hi, I’m yaoyao! I’m an actor, and I’m known for shows and movies X, Y, and Z.”

Shoutout LA, thank you for having me. Hope to see you at the top!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

The spots that I’ll definitely take my best friends to when they visit LA would be San Gabriel, Torrance, and my place. San Gabriel has lots of very very tasty Chinese restaurants and street foods. Since I grew up in various cities, I don’t usually just crave one type of food, I crave the food everywhere from northeast China to south China. Most of my friends are the same. Thus going to San Gabriel will satisfy our stomachs with a TianJin breakfast, a HongKong Dim Sum, a Xi’an lunch, a ShenYang dinner, a Taiwan dessert, and a SiChuan night snack. The selections are varied, and you’ll always find your plan B nearby when one of them turns you down.

Another goto spot in my list is Torrance. There are many great Japanese restaurants located in Torrance. And I personally think that the traffic in Torrance is much better than other popular areas in LA. After having a great meal of Omakase, or Izakaya, or Ramen, or Beef Don, I would take my friends to the Manhattan Beach nearby to experience the incredible sunset, take a walk by the beach, digest a little and get ready for desserts. (Not kidding.)

When the day ends, we’ll drive back to my place. We’ll have some wine and cheese, and talk about the meaning of life.

If we end up getting some sleep for the night, I would take them to the Angeles National Forest and find a trailhead and take a nice two-hour hike to start the new day. After the healthy hike, I’d probably look for a fancy brunch in Pasadena.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

The luckiest thing that has happened in my life is having friends with the same fundamental views. They’d understand what kind of dreams I’m chasing after; they’d support me, try to watch every performance; they’d sit with me and figure out how to achieve my goals with me. It’s my friends who made me believe that I’m someone worthy of dreams, and I’d give the same support and love to them.

I have a great mother. The time she lived through doesn’t allow her to share my dreams. But she’d try to understand what I do. She’d pay attention to whether I have performances, whether I’m getting acting jobs, whether I’m making enough money to support myself. As a mother, she simply worries about whether her daughter will be able to gain a foothold in this world.

Last but not least, I’d like to mention myself a little. During the process from discovering the dreams to chasing them, I encountered a lot of luck – the support of friends, great mentors, and etc; and of course there are some setbacks such as finding jobs, or the disapproval of my Asian family. I managed to maintain myself a sincere heart, respect my profession, and never stopped learning. There is a long way to go, and a lot of room for improvement, yet I also want to say: yaoyao, it’s great to see you coming along!

Website: qiyanyao.com

Instagram: yaoyaoqiyanyao

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@yaoyaoqiyanyao5075