\n<\/p>\n
Set in a video game studio, the sitcom \u201cMythic Quest\u201d is full of eccentric workaholics. But none are more frantic, frenzied or anxious than Poppy Li, played by Charlotte Nicdao.<\/p>\n
A prodigious but petulant engineer, Poppy is given to meltdowns and primal screams, many stemming from a war of wills with her egomaniacal, codependent business partner, Ian Grimm, played by Rob McElhenney. (McElhenney created the show with Charlie Day and Megan Ganz, who also work with him on \u201cIt\u2019s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Over three seasons, Nicdao has viewed her character as everything from a \u201clovable underdog\u201d to an unprintable descriptor. These days she\u2019s looking favorably upon her geeky, gawky enfant terrible thanks to a paradigm shift in the fourth season, which debuted this week on Apple TV+. (Note the premiere episode is entitled \u201cBoundaries.\u201d)<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always this power imbalance between Poppy and Ian \u2014 like, who\u2019s the queen, who\u2019s the king?\u201d Nicdao said. \u201cThis season, Poppy has got more power, there\u2019s no question. But it\u2019s not in the ways that you\u2019d expect.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cMythic Quest\u201d is the first major American series for Nicdao, who grew up and still lives in Australia. Previously a classical pianist, singer and orchestral clarinetist, she started acting in high school productions and began her TV career at 17 on an Australian kids\u2019 show. (Her father, Alfred Nicdao, is a well-known actor in Australia.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Sitcom gigs followed. \u201cOne of the biggest roles that I ever had was a series regular on a show called \u2018Camp,\u2019 which was an NBC show that filmed in Australia,\u201d she said, noting that the experience was what inspired her to pursue roles in the United States.<\/p>\n
When not playing a tortured tech genius over the last few years, Nicdao has voiced characters on animated sitcoms like \u201cSolar Opposites\u201d and \u201cStar Trek: Lower Decks\u201d as well as on the beloved Australian cartoons \u201cBluey\u201d and \u201cThe Strange Chores.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nicdao\u2019s own life, she said, informs some of what happens to her tempestuous alter ego, but she did note one big difference between them: She is an avid cook obsessed with farmers\u2019 markets, while her character is known for subsisting solely off gas station Buffalo chicken pizza. In a video interview from her Melbourne home earlier this month, Nicdao also discussed Poppy\u2019s newfound personal growth and her side project with the first Filipino TV actor she ever idolized \u2014 her father. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
You once described the Mythic Quest employees as \u201ca dysfunctional found family.\u201d In the new season, Poppy finally seems to be stepping away from that dynamic.<\/strong><\/p>\n That is really at the core of Season 4. I would never have predicted Poppy would be the one to say: \u201cYou know what? I\u2019m gonna work on myself. I\u2019m gonna try to figure out how to be a well-balanced, happy person.\u201d One of the biggest conflicts is trying to find a healthy space, and Ian doesn\u2019t know what to do when the relationship isn\u2019t dysfunctional.<\/p>\n As the person who plays Poppy, do you get a say in what happens to her?<\/strong><\/p>\n The producers and writers do include us in the way our characters are growing. Poppy was never written to be Australian; she was never written to be a Filipina. She honestly wasn\u2019t written to be in her 20s either. When I was cast, bit by bit, these parts of who I am started to inform who Poppy is. So this season, the things that were going on with me in my life started to inform what was going on with Poppy.<\/p>\n She\u2019s not wearing exclusively hoodies anymore. For someone like her, blouses are a big leap.<\/strong><\/p>\n In my mind, I was like, \u201cShe will never not wear the same hoodie and jeans.\u201d It\u2019s a uniform, her armor. It\u2019s saying: \u201cDon\u2019t look at me; look at my work. I\u2019m practical. I\u2019m an engineer. It\u2019s all about my brain.\u201d This was the first season that we were like, \u201cLet\u2019s play around.\u201d Poppy\u2019s got a boyfriend. She\u2019s thinking about how she looks outside of work. She\u2019s not just making games anymore; she\u2019s making sculpture and conceptual artworks. She\u2019s saying: \u201cI\u2019m not going to make apologies anymore. I am an artist. I am creative, and I\u2019m going to let that show in the way that I present myself.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s now less about her being a so-called \u201cwoman in tech\u201d and more about her being a woman, full stop.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n I always thought of Poppy as being asexual, and she kind of was. She\u2019s never had time to explore what being a woman might mean. Now she\u2019s discovering, \u201cOh, maybe I am a sexual being.\u201d She\u2019s not turning into Barbie, but she\u2019s finding a different part of herself. In the tech world, like in a lot of industries, there\u2019s a lot of pressure on women, in order to be successful, to basically cosplay masculinity. If you want to be taken seriously as a woman, you have to be as much like a man as possible. It\u2019s cool that she\u2019s leaning into her femininity a little more, and it\u2019s serving her well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Poppy\u2019s not the only one trying new things: You directed an episode this season.<\/strong><\/p>\n Because we are such a well-oiled machine, there\u2019s a lot of space to experiment. A lot of the cast got the opportunity to direct an episode. This is the first Hollywood show I\u2019ve ever done and I was like: \u201cWow! Is this how it\u2019s always done?\u201d \u2026 and I\u2019m told that it is not<\/em>.<\/p>\n You also just put out a <\/strong>short film<\/a><\/strong> you wrote and directed, starring <\/strong>your father<\/a><\/strong>. How did that come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n We made that in 2023, during the actors\u2019 and writers\u2019 strikes. I was back in Australia, itching to do something creative. My dad has been an actor since the \u201970s here. When I was growing up, he would audition here and there. He\u2019d get cast as a restaurateur, a gangster, a doctor \u2014 these very stereotypical Asian roles \u2014 for a scene or an episode, and that would be it. There\u2019s just never really been space for an actor of color to shine until the last decade or so.<\/p>\n He called me with this idea: \u201cI want to make a short film about an actor like me, in his 60s, trying to figure out my place in the industry.\u201d I have a lot of talented friends here in Melbourne, and we got together and were like, \u201cCan we make this in two days with the resources that we have?\u201d It was completely independent.<\/p>\n Now that you\u2019ve gotten a taste of directing, both with the short and \u201cMythic Quest,\u201d do you want to do more in the future?<\/strong><\/p>\n I always thought, \u201cIf I could somehow make a living out of being an actor, I\u2019ll be happy, and I don\u2019t dare ask for more than that.\u201d I really credit Rob for \u2014 right from Season 1 \u2014 starting to have conversations with me about: \u201cWhat else do you want to do? If there\u2019s even a small part of you that\u2019s interested in directing, writing, producing, how can I help?\u201d By the time we got to Season 4 and the opportunity to direct was there, I\u2019d realized directing is a different way to flex this motivation I have to be a storyteller. I\u2019ve been so surprised that the rush that I get from stepping on set as a director is exactly the same as the rush that I get from stepping onstage as an actor. So, yeah, I am hoping that there are more opportunities to do that kind of work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n