WEB COMEDY SERIES ON YOUNG, GAY FILIPINO IN U.S.
Trying Hard intimately follows the story of Maki, a gay person of color from the Philippines working and living in Nashville, Tennessee
New comedy series Trying Hard, created by and starring newcomer Maki Bonifacio, debuted on National Coming Out Day, 11 October, on YouTube. Its showing also coinciding with the celebration of LGBT History Month and Filipino- American History Month in the United States, the web series is timely as it tackles issues surrounding queer foreigners in the US such as cultural and language barriers, identity crisis, stereotypes, body image and assimilation.
New episodes of eight-episode series are released on YouTube every Wednesday, 8 p. m., Philippine Standard Time. Trying Hard intimately follows the story of Maki, a gay person of color from the Philippines working and living in Nashville, Tennessee. Over the course of the series, Maki, played by Bonifacio, attempts to navigate dating in the United States, while trying to overcome insecurities and familial pressure amidst the challenges brought about by his sexual orientation and status as a foreign worker.
Set in the South and filmed in Nashville, Trying Hard incorporates the music of both indie and established female, LGBTQ+ and BIPOC ( black, indigenous, and people of color) artists from Nashville, New York City, Montreal, Toronto and Manila.
The series Trying hard launches coinciding with the observation of LGBT History Month, National Coming Out Day and Filipino American History Month.
Trying Hard comes on the heels of the release of the annual “Change the Narrative, Change the World” report by Jose Antonio Vargas’s media advocacy group, Define American and Norman Lear Center at USC ( University of Southern California) Annenberg. The report reveals that the portrayal of immigrants on US television has slightly improved but there’s work to be done for more accurate representation. It showed that 22 percent of immigrant characters are associated with some sort of crime — an overrepresentation — although it is down from 34 percent in 2018. In addition, 63 percent of immigrant-identifying characters were undocumented, while the real-world figure is only 37 percent. Asian and Pacific Islanders immigrants continue to be underrepresented with 12 percent in 2019, while in reality it is 26 percent. Bonifacio, who created, wrote, produced and starred in Trying Hard, was born and raised in the Philippines, Bonifacio worked as a news producer for broadcast company GMA Network Inc. from 2011 to 2014. Their team won a George Foster Peabody Award for their 2013 coverage of supertyphoon Yolanda ( Haiyan). He later moved to the US in 2014 to study M.S. Television Management at Drexel University in Philadelphia. After graduation, Bonifacio relocated to Nashville to work at CMT, a ViacomCBS cable channel, in 2016. To make friends in the Music City, Bonifacio took improv classes at Third Coast Comedy Club where he ended up performing regularly.