The streaming adaptation of Interior Chinatown leaps off the pages of Charles Yu’s award winning-novel of the same name and comes alive on Hulu. And for lead Jimmy O Yang, co-stars Chloe Bennet, Ronnie Cheing, Tzi Ma, Archie Kao, Lisa Gilroy, and Sullivan Jones, and showrunner Charles Yu and pilot episode director Taika Waititi, the series does more that subvert police procedurals, it also spotlights dreamers breaking out of being background characters and balancing humor with cultural commentary.

Streaming on Hulu, Interior Chinatown the show follows the story of Willis Wu (Yang), a background character trapped in a police procedural called Black & White. Relegated to the background, Willis goes through the motions of his on-screen job, waiting tables, dreaming about a world beyond Chinatown and aspiring to be the lead of his own story. When Willis inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, he begins to unravel a criminal web in Chinatown, while discovering his own family’s buried history and what it feels like to be in the spotlight.

The Nerds of Color had a chance to speak to the cast and crew of Interior Chinatown, where they answered questions about how the series relates to their experiences, the rewards of being a part of something that strikes a balance between comedy and cultural commentary, which one of them was most likely to break, and which parts of Yu’s book they were most excited to see be interpreted by Taika Waititi.

All episodes of Interior Chinatown are streaming now, exclusively on Hulu.