Kulap Vilaysack On Creating the Hilarious ‘Bajillion Dollar Properties’

Actress, comedian, and writer Kulap Vilaysack talks to Awards Daily TV about her acclaimed Seeso streaming series, Bajillion Dollar Propertie$.

Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ is likely one of the funniest television series you won’t find on television. Actually, it’s one of the funniest television series on any network. Currently streaming on NBC Universal’s Seeso, a comedy subscription streaming service, Bajillion Dollar Propertie$: Pocket Listings satirizes those HGTV series you binge such as Million Dollar Listings or Property Brothers. Reminiscent of great series like Reno 911! or The Office, it excels based on the strength of its cast and its brilliant one-liners. Plus, it has crazy great guest starts (Casey Wilson is a comedy goddess). You can thank series creator Kulap Vilaysack for a lot of that.

So, where did this great series originate?

“It came honestly from just the love of bits and comedy and improv and goofing off with a genuine love of real estate and those types of HGTV, home improvement, Million Dollar Listings shows,” Vilaysack explained. The expectations, emotions, hopes, and dreams baked into finding a home via a reality show proved fertile ground.

Vilaysack and team foster an environment where much of the comedy stems from careful improv. It’s a talent she honed in the Los Angeles branch of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.

But behind the comedy of Bajillion Dollar Propertie$: Pocket Listings lives a woman exploring her diverse heritage. The daughter of Laotian immigrants, Vilaysack discovered as a teenager that the man she considered a father was, in fact, not her biological father. She documents her journey to understand her heritage in the documentary Origin Story, targeted for release next year.

I interview several artists throughout Emmy season, but my conversation with Vilaysack emerged as one of the more touching, poignant, and hilarious I’d done all year.

Enjoy this podcast as Kulap Vilaysack and team campaign for Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series.