We were lucky to catch up with Cristian Duran recently and have shared our conversation below.
Cristian, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
The most meaningful project I’ve ever worked on is Race: The Movie: The Play. My friend and fellow comedian Bret Raybould and I wrote it as a satire of heavy-handed “white savior” Oscar-bait movies, believing that audiences were savvier than Hollywood often gave them credit for.
When we first shopped the screenplay around, we were told repeatedly that while it was funny, the subject was “too touchy.” Instead of shelving it, we adapted it into a play, staged it ourselves, and proved that audiences could handle — and even embrace — the material. The show went on to sell out multiple runs, win awards, and receive critical acclaim.
What made this project so meaningful wasn’t just the external success — it was what it taught me about creative perseverance. In a field full of doubt and second-guessing, this experience reinforced that if you truly believe in your work, you owe it to yourself to push forward, even when others can’t yet see what you see.
It also showed me that dreams often expand beyond what you imagine — I never set out to write, direct, or act in a play, but doing so became one of the most fulfilling creative experiences of my life. It taught me to trust my instincts, to be brave enough to bet on myself, and to have faith that the work you believe in will find its audience.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Cristian Duran. I’m a stand-up comedian, writer, and director.
Originally, my goal was to direct films. In film school, I took a production class where we had to budget a project, and I remember feeling incredibly intimidated — the idea that anyone would ever invest real money into something I made seemed almost impossible.
In the meantime, I took a creative writing class where we wrote personal essays and workshopped them in class. When I would get my essays back, I consistently received notes highlighting the humor in my writing. That gave me an idea: maybe if I could prove I was funny enough, someone would eventually be willing to invest in the creative projects I wanted to make.
I thought I was funny, but I wanted to test it — and what better way than trying to make strangers laugh? That’s how I started performing stand-up, and I quickly fell in love with it.
The thing with stand-up, though, is that you often need other creative pursuits to grow your audience and build a career. So I branched out into writing for film, television, and stage — bringing my original passion for storytelling full circle.
What I love most about what I do is that I get to share the way I see the world, make people laugh, and, ultimately, get paid to be myself. Whether it’s stand-up, a script, or a show, I try to create work that’s honest, funny, and rooted in real passion.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
I think when non-creatives look at what I do, they often come from a world of corporate office jobs, where there’s a clear map for career growth — if you want a raise or promotion, you set a meeting, you ask for it, and there’s usually a structured path to follow.
In creative fields, you never really know where progress is going to come from — or how big or small the steps will be. It’s exciting, but it can also be tenuous and, at times, scary. The nice part is that if you keep doing good work, you usually get to keep working. But the path isn’t always visible from the outside.
One thing that non-creatives might not realize is that if you want to succeed in a creative field, you have to be okay with sometimes looking like a loser to people who don’t understand why you need to pursue what you’re doing. It can make things like Thanksgiving dinners uncomfortable. But you have to keep your focus on the bigger picture — the one only you can see — and trust that the small wins are leading you somewhere real.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
My goal is to give people the same joy that other artists once gave me.
If I’m writing a screenplay, I want to give the reader the feeling I had when I first read Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. If I’m making a cartoon, I want to deliver the kind of belly laughs that The Simpsons and South Park gave me. And if I’m doing stand-up, I want to recreate the feeling I had the first time I saw Dave Chappelle’s special late at night — my mom asleep, my brother and I quietly watching with the volume turned down, trying not to wake anyone up while we laughed.
Ultimately, everything I make is driven by that mission: to create work that makes people feel something real.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://cristiandurancomedy.com
- Instagram: @cristianduranSVP
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristian-duran-5918b83b/
- Twitter: cristianduranduran
