Alexandria Herring’s Adventures in Producing

MIXED ASIAN MEDIA - APRIL 13, 2022

By Lauren Lola

Alexandria Herring is a familiar face in the world of YouTube. She is the associate producer for The Try Guys — a comedy group known for trying a wide range of experiences — and is also one half of the channel’s food challenge duo, the Food Babies.

Growing up in Los Angeles, Herring could have easily given one of numerous answers if asked what she wanted to be as an adult; from singer, to actor, to dancer, and at one point, astronaut. But for the most part, she aspired to become a writer, specifically in the field of journalism.

However, when it came time for college, Herring found journalism too narrow of a major for her to pursue. She elaborated how, “Journalism's one of those things [like] fashion or production, where if you don't know anyone, it's very difficult to get in. And I don't know anyone in the journalism world. So I ended up majoring in communication and anthropology, and kept it a little more broad.”

Her years spent majoring in communication was at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. While she was originally looking at attending college in New York, things shifted following her parents’ divorce and she wound up attending community college in Los Angeles while she figured things out. It was through meeting and eventually being in a long distant relationship with her now fiancé that UH Hilo came onto her radar.

“I went out to the school and visited, and I loved it,” she explained. “I felt excited. I knew I was going to apply to a university and move somewhere, but that was the first time I was like, I could really see myself living here.”

Compared to the fast paced, traffic-heavy city of Los Angeles, Hilo was a culture shock in terms of its smaller size and slower speed. But Herring, who described herself as a pretty anxious person, grew to embrace it. She liked the small town feel and how everyone knew everyone. Also, as a mixed-race Asian, she liked how she was surrounded by so many people like her for the first time.

“It was just really fun to meet people who had moved there from all over the country and all over the world, but they all had a similar background to me,” she remarked. “So it was cool to be able to relate to people in that way. I looked like a local there, which was cool. I didn’t stand out at all, which sometimes I don't really want to stand out. So it was cool to just kind of feel like I belonged.”

Herring was already used to being around Los Angeles’ multiple cultures and communities. However, as someone who’s Korean on her mother’s side and German, Irish, Dutch, and some Native American on her father’s side, she still felt like a bit of an outsider.

“I think it was much better than growing up in a small town where I was maybe the only Asian person,” she added. “But I do think being mixed, I never [knew] anyone else really who was mixed, and so I felt like there were all these different groups that I wasn't enough of, wanting to be a part of.”

That feeling of standing out also applied to her being a woman in production as well. After moving back to the mainland and entering the entertainment industry, initially as a freelance production assistant for music videos, she often was the only one on set, save for those in makeup and wardrobe. “That was pretty isolating at first. There was a while where I would try to dress down a lot just to make myself look more serious about this position,” she commented.

It also was quite grueling for her, being in work environments with big directors and big artists, where an industry standard 12-hour day could become a 25-30-hour day; depending on circumstances ranging from the director wanting to get another shot to the talent running late. Herring would often struggle not to fall asleep behind the wheel when driving home afterwards.

In one instance, while working as a coordinator on the film, Monolith, she found herself having to be driven to a hospital several hours away from the Utah desert-located set to have her appendix removed, only to force herself back on set the following day, to pay for the out-of-state surgery her insurance wouldn’t cover.

“I [would have] had to drive five or seven hours to Vegas and then I could get on a flight there, and I'm in no shape to go home,” she added. “If I'm going to just be sitting down all day, I might as well sit in a production trailer and get paid for it. And so I just continued on with my work.” 

On the flipside, Herring has learned a lot from being a freelancer and, at one point, the personal assistant to director Kevin Bray. Working with him, as well as wife and costume designer Sophie Carbonell, taught her about what each department does and what she could possibly do.

When working on music videos, she learned a lot really quickly, and in the process, met several cool music artists. Getting to be a part of all that served as motivation for her. “That's something that kept me going. I realized I still wanted to be a part of this industry,” she said.

Herring eventually transitioned to working for Buzzfeed in their branded department, which oversaw all their sponsored videos. Already a fan of their addicting listicles back in college, what started off as a freelance gig eventually led to a full-time position as a production manager.

“When they offered me the job, I was so excited,” she recalled. “I was like, yes, I love everyone here. I want to be here long-term. And it was just a really great place to work, honestly.”

It was while at Buzzfeed that she worked with The Try Guys, then still a part of the company, for the first time, on a series of videos they did to promote the film, The Shallows. It was also her first travel job, as all the videos were shot on location in Florida.

“I was such a big Try Guys fan. I was so excited,” she reminisced. “I remember my first week working there, I was walking around getting a tour of the facilities and I was like, ‘Oh my God, it's Keith [Habersberger]!’

“When we went to Florida with them to shoot that, it was so much fun. I loved travel jobs and I loved doing things on the water and exploring new cities,” she added. “And the guys are so great and so funny. It was really cool to see them in their element and nothing was scripted. We have our day planned out, but all these fun bits they do, it's very on the spot. So it was cool to see how their creative process worked.”

When The Try Guys left Buzzfeed to form an independent company, 2nd Try LLC, in 2018, the timing aligned with Herring being ready to move on. She joined their team that summer; first as their production manager, and later as their associate producer.

Her work nowadays is frequently a collaborative effort with fellow producers Rachel Cole and Nick Rufca, as multiple videos are worked on at once, with each one assigned a producer. Herring also assists on bigger branded videos and travel jobs, as well as office management duties.

If it sounds like a lot, it is, but for Herring, she finds it very fulfilling, as she never oversaw the establishment of a business from the ground up before. She also likes how if she comes up with an idea that she really loves, she gets to see it from beginning to end, as opposed to when she was with Buzzfeed and freelancing when she only oversaw the physical production of projects.

Audiences of the Webby Award-nominated channel have seen Herring in a variety of videos, but most notably in the Food Babies episodes; where she and senior editor, YB Chang, would consume as much of a large serving of food, typically over the course of a speed round, followed by an endurance round. What originally started off as mukbangs — a shared interest between the two co-workers — for The Try Guys Patreon, later transformed into a series for the main channel, starting when their bosses were out on tour. Their first video, which was of them eating chicken nuggets, got 3 million views its first weekend.

“I think we're also very lucky that The Try Guys fans are really welcoming and really encouraging,” she remarked on the video’s response. “I feel like they are friends. They want us to do well. We don't get a lot of haters or anything like that, saying negative things. So I think for the most part, we were very lucky in the way that it happened.”

The sentiment can also go towards her bosses as well. Although three of the four Try Guys are white, that hasn’t stopped them from centering a lot of their videos on the diverse communities that Herring grew up around. Just last year, she co-produced a 70-minute documentary overseen by Eugene Lee Yang, We Need to Talk About Anti-Asian Hate, in response to the hate crimes against the Asian American community that have been happening throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It makes me feel really hopeful and it makes me feel proud to be a part of a company like this,” she said. “I think from the very beginning, they've taken social issues very seriously, and if it's something that they aren't super familiar with, then they do their research and they talk to people in that community and they make sure that they're educated.”

Herring also spoke of how off-camera, she and the rest of the staff would be offered time off if any of them wanted to attend the protests, and that went for both the Stop Asian Hate protests, as well as the year before for Black Lives Matter.

“Every year now we have Juneteenth off as a holiday. That started the summer of 2020,” she added. “And we were encouraged to use that day however we wanted to. So if we wanted to go out and protest, we could. If we wanted to take the day to just learn and reflect, we could. They're very open to learning about new social issues and supporting every community that they can.”

Looking into the future of her career, Herring still has every intent to keep on producing content and to learn as much as she can along the way. In terms of specific content, she’s looking to continue doing Food Babies with Chang.

“In the beginning, I would really freeze up and be anxious. It's kind of terrifying,” she reflected. “But being on camera first with YB is so comfortable. I feel like she really helped me open up and just be myself on camera a little bit more. So I want to continue to grow Food Babies. I want to do bigger and bigger things, not just food challenges, I want to travel the world and find wild foods that I've never tried before and explore new cultures.”

Herring dreams of being a travel producer one day, regardless of whether or not she’s on camera. “I love planning travel videos,” she elaborated. “I love going to different countries and meeting new people and finding new experts for all the little things we do.”

With the years of experience she has had in the industry, Herring wants to see more women working in it; in every department and from different cultures and backgrounds. She hopes that with more women a part of it, the more likely those who are aspiring will be encouraged.

As for advice for anyone interested in pursuing the same career path as her, experience is strongly advised, regardless of whether or not one went to college like her. Also, Facebook groups for freelancers have been really handy for Herring.

“There's so many Facebook production groups that are based in LA, but [also] every city,” she explained, “and there's so many producers on there, that'll say, ‘Hey, I need a PA for this day, or I need a makeup artist, or I need a gaffer, or something like that.’ And so it's a great way to just meet new people. And you can even post on those boards like, ‘Hey guys, I'm brand new. I love PA[-ing]. Here's my rate. I'd love to work with anyone who wants me.’”

Lauren Lola is an author, freelance writer, playwright, and screenwriter from the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the author of the novels, An Absolute Mind and A Moment’s Worth. She has written plays that have been produced both virtually and in-person for theatre groups on the West Coast of the United States, and has penned the short films, “Breath of Writing” and “Interview with an Aswang.” Aside from Mixed Asian Media, Lauren has also had writing featured on The Nerds of Color, CAAMedia, PBS, YOMYOMF, and other outlets and publications.

You can find Lauren on Twitter and Instagram @akolaurenlola and on her website, www.lolabythebay.wordpress.com.