We recently connected with Kenan Heppe and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Kenan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
In 2017, I moved to China to pursue acting work in the Chinese film industry, without knowing a single person there. And I barely spoke Chinese. But, there had been enough signs. Indeed, it was finally time to take a calculated risk, bet on myself, and have the adventure of a lifetime.
Quick rewind.
In 2004/2005, I saw “Hero,” an incredible Chinese film directed by Zhang Yi Mou. It was playing in theaters in Hood River, Oregon, where my family lived at the time. This heartwrenching adventure/war/love story, full of expressions I hadn’t seen in my own culture, displayed through color and music in a way I hadn’t seen in American films, made me curious about China. I knew I wanted to go there one day.
It’s 2012, now. I’m in college, studying Chemistry at Oregon State University. As a member of the Honors College, I was invited to go to China on a trip with a group of engineering students. I had remembered the impression “Hero” left on me, and I went on the trip. Simply put, I had an amazing time, and I wanted to learn Mandarin Chinese. When I got back to the States, I enrolled in First Year Mandarin. But, my chemistry work quickly became too consuming. I stopped studying Chinese, and went about my life.
I graduated top of my class, summa cum laude, with a 4.0 GPA Chemistry degree, and moved to Hollywood to pursue acting. Why Chemistry? Well, I felt I needed experience and talent in something that could earn a high hourly rate (to help support my acting endeavors). Becoming an actor is expensive! In L.A., I became an SAT/ACT tutor, and helped highschool and college students with chemistry, math, physics, and writing. Between 2011 – 2014, I booked a few decent gigs: I was the Lay’s Chips Guy, had a day-player role on Days of Our Lives, played piano on The Ellen Show, etc. But my career wasn’t popping in a way that I felt matched my potential.
In 2014, I saw a Facebook post that showed two absolutely adorable kittens who needed a home (trust me, this all connects). I immediately agreed to take them in. Almost instantly, I was filled with regret, unsure if I was ready to take care of two animals. But, my word is my bond, so I went through with the adoption. The Austrian woman who was fostering the kittens brought them to my house, and told me she was acting (but not in L.A.). Where was she acting? You guessed it: CHINA!
Immediately, my mind filled with my previous dreams. I asked her what it was like to live and work in China, and that something drew me to China before, but I never went through with it. She told me there was plenty of work for foreigners who were willing to live there and learn Chinese. She gave me a phone number in case I ever went.
But, the phone number got shoved in a drawer, and I forgot about it.
Two years later, I was walking through Hollywood, in a plaza called “Crossroads of The World”. In the parking lot, I ran into a friend from acting class, Kenny, who was hired as a reader for a Chinese movie (“Love Is a Broadway Hit”). He told me he was helping them search for actors for a Chinese film, and I recalled a Mandarin Chinese sentence from years before. So, I asked whimsically, “你会说中文吗”? His eyes bugged out, wide! He said, “Kenan! You speak Chinese?!” I told him “Nah! I only took some classes back in college”. However, he assured me my tones were very good, and that I matched the description of the character. After grabbing my arm, and literally dragging me into the casting office, I booked a tape, and booked the role. Before I could blink, I was on a flight to New York to guest star in my first feature film. The director told me they searched the United States for 3 months in order to find a young, decent-looking American actor who could speak Chinese. They just couldn’t find anyone.
And then it hit me. Nearly zero western-trained actors are fluent in Mandarin Chinese. All it takes to be part of this special group is learning Chinese, and that is a factor entirely in a person’s control. Other factors, such as what scripts are being written, what type of people producers want in the film, which stories get distributed, etc., are all outside of an actors control. But, I know myself, and I know I can sit down for hours on end and commit to learning something difficult.
Yes. I could sit down and force myself to learn Mandarin Chinese. And then movies like this would have to consider me, simply due to supply and demand. Additionally, the Chinese film industry was set to soon overtake Hollywood in terms of box office numbers. They might need to appeal to more international audiences as time goes on. If I moved there, and learned Mandarin Chinese, it’s possible I could hit it big.
And this happened at “Crossroads of the World”! I mean, come on! What kind of signal is that?!
Of course, I didn’t know ANYONE in China.
But I had the phone number of the agent from the lady who fostered my cats…
With that, I found a Mandarin Chinese school online, booked an apartment, and moved to China. After landing, I called the number, and said I was a determined American actor, ready to commit to this market.
Two weeks later, I was on my first T.V. show.
I studied Mandarin Chinese for about 6 hours a day, for 8 months. I did nothing else.
1.5 years later, I was performing as the lead in a traveling Broadway musical show called “That Physics Show!” My character, Dr. Why, would perform science experiments on stage, in front of hundreds of people, sometimes thousands, all in Chinese.
My social media following in China ballooned to over 3 million.
I became the first Western actor in over 50 years to have a top-billed role in a Chinese feature film, where I portrayed Edgar Snow in “Red Star Over China” (English name Secret of China).
Later, I played the leading villain in the original “Three Body Problem” (Mike Evans).
Remember the director of “Hero,” Zhang Yi Mou? The visionary who was responsible for planting the seed for me wanting to go to China?
The last movie I shot in China, “Sniper,” was directed by Zhang Yi Mou. I got to tell him the story of how I got there, and he had a smile on his face the whole time.
So many of my creative dreams came true. I was the lead in multiple, multi-million dollar projects. Because of these productions, I was able to see and experience so many different parts of China, Chinese culture, and history. I made incredible friends and connections. And I was able to prove to myself what I was capable of doing.
Since then, I’ve moved back to the States, and I’ve utilized some of my social media skills and Mandarin to create fun, “edutainment” videos, where people can learn Mandarin Chinese in a fun way. I’m also developing a Mandarin Chinese pronunciation course, to help people learn quickly, the way I learned, by first creating a strong foundation of pronunciation and tones. I believe China, and the Chinese language, can provide very valuable opportunities for those who are willing to explore. Mandarin Chinese can be a powerful magnifier of potential, as you’re able to take what you’re already good at, and share it with an enormous group of people.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’ve always been creating short videos, ever since 1996, when my Dad brought home an 8mm camera. It always gave me joy to write and perform, and share my ideas with people through a visual medium. I took a strange route to becoming an actor/writer/producer, because I first got a degree in Chemistry. I believe it was important for many reasons, but two crucial ones: financial stability, and breadth of knowledge. To be an interesting actor or storyteller, you need to have an interesting life/perspective. You only gain such potentially interesting perspectives by experiencing more than just acting itself. Chemistry gave me a deep appreciation for how the world works, for how to do proper research, and I believe it honed my memorization skills. If I can recall that the molar mass of Chlorine is 35.453 au, then I think I can memorize a few lines!
My first viral web series was on Facebook (“Girlfriend Guy”), where I play a hopeless romantic, battered boyfriend, who endlessly attempts to improve his horrible relationship. It’s hilarious. And about 40,000 were following that Facebook series! But my social media videos really began gaining traction in China, after making cross-cultural comedic videos in both Mandarin Chinese and English.
I became a social media video and LIVE expert, (specifically TikTok LIVE sales expert). Over the past couple of years, I’ve helped multiple creators and brands greatly increase their TikTok LIVE revenue. I produced a livestream that crossed $500,000 USD in sales in a single stream, for instance. I also helped an Asian food brand go from $50/hr on livestream to over $1,000/hr, for example.
I’ve produced over a hundred shoppable videos and explainer videos for an international tech brand.
Services:
Acting/Hosting (I can act or host your content, in English or Mandarin Chinese)
TikTok LIVE training (I can help you achieve greater revenue on TikTok LIVE)
Video Production (I know how to make high-converting content for multiple product categories)
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Pivoting is part of the entrepreneurial journey. And, I believe artists are inherently entrepreneurs. Our goal is to make order out of chaos. To sing for our supper. Etc. I’ve had to pivot more than a few times, but most notably was when I learned of my father’s stage-4 cancer diagnosis. I was in ChangBaiShan, filming “Sniper,” toward the end of December 2020. My father called from Oregon, telling me he had trouble keeping his lunch down that day. And, after some tests, it turns out that, despite never smoking and rarely drinking, he had esophageal cancer.
At the time, COVID-19 travel restrictions were in place. Leaving China as a foreigner would mean not getting back in for an indefinite period of time. But, this was my Dad. So, even though I was experiencing the career of my dreams, I immediately knew it was the right thing to toss that work in the fire so I could come home and be with him as much as possible.
The doctors hypothesized that he had about twelve months left. And they were right.
My father was a true Renaissance man: a Princeton scientist, a discerning photographer, a talented pianist, and the most patient and caring father you could ever imagine. He was married to my Mom for over 40 years, and in his absence, my Mom’s life, and all of our lives, were upended. Suddenly, I was the man of the house, and I did my best to help my Mom transition to a way of life that didn’t include my Dad.
It was very difficult, but I had to begin forging business and work here in the United States. I couldn’t rely on work that was so far away (in China), because my family needed me. I would never have been able to accomplish what I did if it hadn’t been for my parents’ support for so many years. They believed in my crazy dream, and believed in me to achieve it. So, it wasn’t just necessary to be there for them. It was right.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
One of my good friends said it best: “On social media, people want 1 of 3 things from you: to look at you, to laugh at you, or to be you”. At the beginning, I thought it a bit reductive, but I now believe there’s a lot of truth to it.
You can gain a large following if you’re incredibly pleasing to look at. However, in terms of longevity and monetization, this may not be the best route.
I don’t think I’m that pleasing to look at, so I knew I had to either make people laugh, or share something people wanted. So, for social media, it’s important to first obtain some kind of skill or knowledge that you know other people want. People either want to watch you in the process of obtaining such a skill, or they’ll want to listen to you once you have something useful to share. If you can save people time and energy such that they benefit from not having to make the mistakes you made, then you begin delivering true value.
So, I thought less about building an audience, and more about “how can I create something that is either super funny, super useful, or both”? In my videos, I try to make sure every single frame contains useful information. For instance, in my Chinese language videos, you can essentially screenshot almost every frame, and have some practice material. I put a lot of effort into translating and color-coding three languages in every piece.
The more your skill is associated with something in the world that has high value, and the better you are at demonstrating that skill, the faster you’ll build an audience.
For instance, I can play Chopin while blindfolded and hula-hooping. I think I may be one of the only people on the planet who can do it. No one will pay me to do that, though, and it’s not watchable for a super long time, because it isn’t very useful in the real world. You can spend years learning how to bounce a ping-pong ball just the right way so it bounces from your desk, to your lamp, off the edge of your trash can, and into a shot glass, but no one will pay you to teach them to do that. There isn’t a repeat market for that.
But, if you actually learn how to write amazing advertising copy, or if you accumulate useful financial advice, or if you learn a tough language that’s associated with worldwide business (like English or Mandarin Chinese), then the “why follow you” question is answered more easily.
The short version of the advice is: learn something the worldwide market has deemed to be useful, or be on the journey toward it. Either share the journey, or share the skill, and people will naturally be interested. Do your best to respect the time of the audiences, making every detail count. The end goal shouldn’t actually be “just have a bigger following”. You should want to be continuously improving yourself and the value you bring to the marketplace. Then, no matter how the platforms change, you’ll always have something to say that’s worth hearing, you’ll always have something going on that’s worth following.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kenanheppe/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GirlfriendGuy/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenanheppe/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/kenanheppe
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/kenanheppe
