Shameless Plug is a series where we turn things over to creatives. In exchange for plugging their project, they have to spill their guilty pleasure, biggest inspiration, personal motto and a few other secrets. Today, Uhyoung Choi shares a line that lodged itself deeply in his brain to the detriment of sleep, sanity, and balance.

Uhyoung Choi is a Korean New Zealander who works as an actor, writer, and game developer. He’s a thespian through and through. He loves watching theatre, writing theatre and acting in theatre. When he’s not in a theatre or rehearsal room, you may find him assembling or painting warhammer figures or writing in a busy cafe.

Uhyoung is here to plug his biggest achievement so far – his play, Genuine and Stable, is being staged by Proudly Asian Theatre in December. “It still feels crazy to me that it’s being staged… with actors… and a set… in front of a human audience,” he says. 

Here’s the emerging playwrights' Shameless Plug:

My personal motto is: Good is the enemy of great. It’s kinda toxic, I know. I read that line in a book when I was twelve, and it lodged itself so firmly in my brain that I never managed to shake it. All through high school and uni I had it plastered on my wall so, anytime I wanted to rest or feel content, I’d look up and get guilt-tripped into studying some more.

What could’ve been a simple motivator to do a little better usually became my justification to push everything to the absolute limit – often at the cost of sleep, sanity, and any semblance of balance. But it also pushed me to keep reaching, keep trying, keep making something more of myself… but look at me now. 

It’s all been worth it… right?

The best advice I’ve received was to read and watch as many plays as possible. Nathan Joe was my first dramaturg during Proudly Asian Theatre’s Fresh Off the Page programme, and he laid the foundations of everything I know about theatre. Whenever I wanted to explore a new idea, a theme, a theater convention – anything – Nathan would have three plays on hand that had already explored it with precision.

It taught me something vital: theatre is always contextual. It exists in conversation with the world around it, and with the stories that came before yours. What has been said, and how it has been said, should inform what you choose to say next.

In Tāmaki Makaurau in 2025, I’m incredibly aware that extraordinary Asian theatre-makers have already laid the groundwork; Tea by Ahi Karunaharan, Scenes From a Yellow Peril by Nathan Joe, and The First Prime-Time Asian Sitcom by Nahyeon Lee, just to name a few. So, as an Asian playwright in Aotearoa, I feel the most important question is: What can I say that pushes the conversation forward, honouring the space these artists have worked so hard to create?

The moment I knew I wanted to be an artist was after spending two months as an extra on the live-action Mulan. I had just graduated with a degree in Law, Politics, and Philosophy, but being on that set reminded me of how much I used to love acting as a kid, and how far I’d drifted from it. It was the first time I realised I needed to give myself a real chance to pursue the arts before closing that door. 

The place I feel most creative is a loud, crowded cafe. I usually write after my full-time job, when I’m already tired and running on fumes. But being in a busy public space keeps me awake because I’m too self-conscious to fall asleep in front of strangers. So that’s my little hack for squeezing out a bit more writing, even on the longest days. I also love a good flat white.

My biggest inspiration is Annie Baker, Neil LaBute, and Andrew Bovell – three playwrights whose work resonated with me on a fundamental level and shaped so much of what I love about theatre. If I had a time machine, I’d go back, hunt them down, steal their plays before they were published, and claim them as my own. Especially these ones:

• The Flick — By Annie Baker
• The Shape of Things — By Neil LaBute
• Speaking in Tongues — By Andrew Bovell

An artwork everyone should experience at least once in their life is Phantom of the Opera. The musical. Live. There’s nothing quite like sitting in a theatre, in that suspenseful silence, anticipation in the air – then suddenly being hit by those grand opening organ chords. In that instant, you know you’re in for one hell of a ride.

My favourite arts space (venue, gallery, theatre, rehearsal space, etc) is Broadway, New York – basic, I know. But if I could, I’d live there. Every day I’d grab a dollar cheese slice, a rush ticket, and disappear into some of the greatest performances in the world.

My all time favourite play is The Flick by Annie Baker. It was one of the first plays I ever read, and oh boy did it do a number on me. It completely blew open my conception of what theatre could be. It reshaped my understanding of dialogue, character, and narrative. It taught me to love naturalism and hyperrealism by showing me how a play could capture the beauty of the mundane in a way nothing else quite can.

My all time favourite album is Les Miserable 25th Anniversary Concert Soundtrack. It’s an absolute banger. (You may have noticed by now that I LOVE musicals.) 

My shameless plug is my play, Genuine and Stable, at the Herald Theatre 9–13 December. It’s my first (and hopefully not last) play to hit the stage, and I am so excited – and oh so very nervous – to see it come to life.