Angela Johnson Reyes went viral in 2007 and quickly became one of the most well-known Latina comedians in the country.

But that dream wasn't her actual dream and the path to get there bumpier than you might imagine.

She has put it all into her new book, Who Do I Think I Am?

Chola Wishes and Caviar Dreams. I'm Angela, I wanted to have you on this podcast for so long, so thank you for making the time to do it.

Yeah.

Thank you.

You grew up wanting to be an actress, but you were ashamed to tell anyone.

Yes. Why? Because I grew up in San Jose, California, and where do you see actors in San Jose, California?

You don't. I didn't know anything about acting. It felt so far-fetched to say, like, I might as well say, I want to be a princess.

Like, that's how far-fetched it was.

And it's, like, embarrassing. Like, who says, I want to be a princess when I grew up? Like, nobody says that's embarrassing. That's how I felt about acting. So I was like, let me just tuck this away in my heart and not tell anybody. Except you didn't just tuck it away in your heart. you found a way to express yourself and that was cheerleading.

Sure. I mean, and that was cheerleading.

Sure.

I mean, I grew up cheerleading my whole life, but cheerleading was always separate from being an

actress.

Cheerleading was like, I love stunts and tumbling and all that kind of stuff.

There's a moment you recount where you're auditioning to be an Oakland Raiders cheerleader,

and they call your number number 193, and you say,

oh my God, I'm going to be a cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders.

In that moment, I knew I was going to be an actress.

So you knew.

You knew that they were somehow connected.

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