Feb 9, 2022
Christina Anthony, Kenny Leu and Von Decarlo visit Friends and talk about the changing career paths, American history, and the importance of inclusivity with host Marina Franklin.
Kenny Leu is an
actor, who is becoming one of the leading Asian American performers
in the industry. He is widely recognized as Gohan from the
webseries Dragon Ball Z: Light of Hope (34 million views). He is
the son of Chinese immigrants and grew up in the San Francisco Bay
Area, where he graduated from UC Berkeley with an engineering
degree. After founding several startups in the Silicon Valley,
competing in martial arts tournaments around the world, joining the
United States Wushu team, and selling one of his startups to
Google, Kenny decided to pursue film and television. He quickly
landed roles on NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles and The Player, performing
all of his own stunts. Kenny has since starred in NatGeo’s The Long
Road Home (2017), Roland Emmerich’s Midway (2019), and Yakuza
Princess (2021). He also was invited to appear in the popular
Chinese series The Impossible (奇迹) (2019).
Kenny's breakout role will be as the lead in A
Shot Through the Wall (2022), which just had its theatrical release
Jan 21 in North America and Jan 24 in the UK.. He plays a young
Asian-American cop who is responsible for accidentally shooting and
killing an innocent Black man, through a wall. Both Kenny and the
film earned nominations for Best Actor & Best Narrative Feature at
Beaufort International Film Festival. The film premiered to rave
reviews at the New York Asian American Film Festival, Los Angeles
Asian Pacific Film Festival, Bentonville, and Whistler, to name a
few.
Christina Anthony is a multi talented actress, writer, vocalist, and improviser. She is originally from the Chicago comedy scene and is best known as an alum of the Second City Chicago's resident e.t.c. stage, where she co-wrote three original sketch revues and performed thousands of shows for Chicago audiences. Most recently, Christina starred opposite Kristen Bell in the Netlix series, The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, which dropped Jan. 28th. Christina is also a series regular on ABC's Mixed-ish, a Black-ish spinoff. Her favorite on-camera roles as an actress include Key & Peele (Comedy Central), Mash Up (Comedy Central), Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ (Seeso), Take My Wife (Seeso), Bunk'd (Disney), Why Women Kill (CBS All Access), ER (NBC) and The Dilemma (Universal). A charismatic theater performer and vocalist, she has also been seen off-Broadway in Found (Atlantic Theatre), Second City's Romeo + Juliet Musical (Chicago Shakespeare), The Art of Falling (Hubbard Street Dance Chicago + Second City – LA & Chicago), among many other credits.
Von Decarlo is a New York based stand up comedian with global ad campaigns, and national commercials for Disney, GNC, Match, and Carnival Cruise Lines. She performed at the Just For Laughs comedy festival for Kevin Hart’s LOL Network, as well as, the Lil’ Rel and Friends show, and has been a featured comedian on HBO’s innovative talk show Pause with Sam Jay, Laff Mobb’s Laff Tracks on Tru TV and HBO Max, CNN’s talking head year end wrap up special, BuzzFeed, The Jerry O Show on FOX, Fox Soul, The Breakfast Club, and more. In addition to hosting The Power Hour and The Godfrey Complex on Sirius XM‘s Urban View, she was also the first woman, and first comedian, to host her own show on the SiriusXM NBA channel. Von Decarlo is the Executive Producer of the Patrice O’Neal documentary, Killing Is Easy, on Comedy Central, and the producer of three posthumous comedy albums Mr. P, Unreleased, and The Lost Files. Her debut comedy album, A Draggable Offense, is available on all major platforms, and can be heard on the She So Funny and Laugh Out Loud radio stations on Sirius XM.
Always hosted by Marina Franklin - One Hour Comedy Special: Single Black Female ( Amazon Prime, CW Network), TBS's The Last O.G, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Hysterical on FX, The Movie Trainwreck, Louie Season V, The Jim Gaffigan Show, Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert, HBO's Crashing, and The Breaks with Michelle Wolf.