Path to the Emmy Awards: Young Mazino
Gold Derby calls the darkly comedic limited series Beef “Netflix’s breakout show of this year,” and we’re here to talk about one of its breakout stars. Ali Wong and Steven Yeun lead Lee Sung Jin’s show about a heated feud that ensues between two strangers connected by an incident of road rage, but one lesser-known supporting cast member holds his own against such big names. We’re talking about Young Mazino, whose portrayal of Paul Cho in the series has him in the running for this year’s Outstanding Limited Series/TV Movie Supporting Actor category. If the 31-year-old actor garners the Emmy nomination, it would be his first recognition from the Television Academy. Should you wonder what path led the rising star to this moment in his career, you’ve come to the right place.
Mazino grew up in Montgomery County, Maryland and shared during an interview that he’d had a passion for acting from an early age. “I had the bug ever since I was a little kid,” the actor told Men’s Health. “I would reenact movie scenes, frame by frame, with an obsession. Or write my own movie scenes as a form of play, which became a form of escape, which now is a pursuit of truth, I would say.”
The rising star shared with People that he wasn’t always planning on pursuing an acting career, though. “I was headed towards a very traditional path that was safe and stable, but I was also very depressed,” he recalled. “I had a very formative moment where [I] realized life is very fleeting — it’s there one day and it’s gone the next. And I decided to pursue something I actually cared about.”
During a Netflix Tudum interview, Mazino gave more context on the experience that drastically changed his career trajectory. He was 21 years old and working as a lifeguard for Ocean City Beach Patrol in Maryland when he got a call about an incident. “By the time I got there, [someone] had drowned,” Mazino stated. “One of the girls [involved] was just sitting there with a blank, thousand-mile stare. I remember looking at that as you never know — life can be so fleeting.”
That’s when he made the decision to drop out of college, and Mazino got on a bus to New York City. He figured out a survival job, started taking classes at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, and began performing as an actor. Mazino worked on films of the student, short and indie variety, as well as landed small roles on series like Blue Bloods, Prodigal Son, and New Amsterdam. The actor shared with Tudum that after rising through the ranks at his survival job, he was forced to choose between a commitment to corporate life or dropping out of it altogether. He went with the latter option, and then the pandemic struck. With no steady income and a pause on productions, Mazino left the city, and he told Vanity Fair that he was living with his parents in Maryland when he got the self-tape audition for Beef.
Before his breakout opportunity came along, Mazino had begun questioning whether an acting career was the correct path for him — he wasn’t sure if it would pan out. During his debut talk-show appearance, Mazino told Jimmy Fallon that he had started examining if he was truly happy pursuing acting. The actor’s parents weren’t initially supportive of his decision to go after the dream, but Mazino relayed his dad’s response after seeing the early screeners of Beef. “They [Mazino’s family] watched the whole thing, and then my dad called,” the actor told Fallon. “He doesn’t really call me often, and he’s a man of few words. He was like, ‘Young, you’re a good actor.’”
From a definitive decision to pursue his passion to questioning if it was the right choice to landing the Beef role that put him on the map, this has been a window into the path that could take Mazino to his first-ever Emmy nomination. And you can find out on July 12 when this year’s Emmy nominees are announced if Mazino lands a nod for Outstanding Limited Series/TV Movie Supporting Actor.
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