Joel Kim Booster Talks Loot, Love Languages and Letting the Rage Simmer

Mixed Asian Media - December 3, 2025

By Dana Han-Klein

Joel Kim Booster is back as Nicholas in Season 3 of Loot, Apple TV+’s comedy about billionaires behaving badly. While Maya Rudolph’s Molly navigates wealth and self-discovery, Nicholas remains the show’s scene-stealing heart. We caught up with Booster to talk about his role, his identity as a Korean American adoptee, and why revenge and gift-giving are two sides of the same coin.

Let’s talk about Loot. If someone were to make a binder of Joel Kim Booster, what would the highlights be?

Wow. A binder of Joel Kim Booster?

Yeah. What are the need-to-knows? What are the allergies? The absolutely-cannot-haves?

OK, I think, like, you should know: adoption/adopted is a huge part of that. To avoid a lot of uncomfortable questions, you should just know right off the bat that my family is white and I don't speak Korean. I had a girl come up to me and ask what my name was, and then when I told her, she said, “No, your Korean name.”

And this was, of course, a white woman with dreads. I do have a Korean name, by the way. My birth name is Joonmin Kim—Kim Joonmin. I didn’t tell her that, though, and I don’t tell most people that. So that’s a big one.

I think the other big thing you should know about me is that I never forget, rarely forgive, and I am the type of friend that will go hard if you wrong somebody that I love. I will often carry the grudge much longer than the person who was wronged.

Will you remind people if they start to forgive?

No, I generally keep my rage to myself. But I’m a vengeful person, and I find little ways to punish people who are digging themselves out of social debt with me, in plausibly deniable ways. Yeah, I’m very protective and I don’t forget.

So that’s the other big thing you should know about me. I’m also a very friendly person—despite how psycho I just made myself sound. I love meeting people.

I consider myself a journalist. I love asking questions. I love figuring out what makes people tick. My favorite question to ask is—and I preface it by saying you can answer it in any way you want—

But whenever I say, “What do you do?” in L.A. or wherever I am, I always make sure to say, “You can talk about your work if you want, if that’s the most interesting thing about you or if that’s the thing you love the most.”

But I’ve gotten so many interesting answers because I asked the question that way. And, like, you know, people really stop and they think, What do I do? You know, what do I really do? And I love getting their answers.

Recently, I asked a guy, “What do you do?” in New York, and he said, “I garden.” Then we talked about his garden for 30 minutes. That’s way more interesting than finding out someone is a consultant at Deloitte. No offense.

Yeah, if they’re going to work on Wall Street, there’s no other answer … Have you distilled down your answer of what you do?

Yeah. I usually say, “I make people laugh.”

It covers my job, but it also covers my favorite thing to do socially. I’ve been a class clown since I was in high school. I continue to try and—whether it’s on stage or off—make people laugh.

In fact, I think most of my best jokes are too niche to even say on stage. I’ll make someone laugh and they’ll be like, “Oh my God, you have to use that in your set.” And I’m like, “This joke is for 11 people in total, and you are one of them.”

I love it when that happens—specifically because it’s like, yeah, sure, I could write a broad joke that appeals to a wide audience, but knowing someone well enough to make them laugh using something so specific only they will get is one of the greatest joys of my life.

Oh, and that’s the other thing about me! I’m a pro gift-giver. My love language is gifts. And I think it gets a bit of a bad rap because people—they think about materialism and money.

No, it’s the thoughtfulness!

Exactly! It’s that same memory that I use for revenge—I also use it to give gifts.

You contain multitudes.

Yeah. I’m a pro gift-giver. I give gifts to people I love—just out of the blue, to friends. It doesn’t have to be Christmas or a birthday. If I see something that I know will be really meaningful to a person, I’m grabbing it and I’m giving it to them. Why contain gifts to just two days a year? It’s silly.

What is one of the most meaningful gifts you’ve either received or given?

I’ve really blown it out of the water with my partner since we started dating, but I think about three years ago—our first date was at a piano bar in San Francisco called Martuni’s—shoutout.

We both got up and sang a song on our first date, which was pretty ballsy. There’s really not an equivalent to Martuni’s in L.A. We’ve looked, and there’s just not. It’s not the same vibe. It’s not the same energy.

So one year, for his birthday, I rented out a bar that had a piano in it, hired a piano player, closed it down, invited all of our closest friends, flew in a bunch of close friends from San Francisco and from his hometown. He walked in and for that night, we got to have Martuni’s in L.A., and it was—it was really special.

Are you easy to get gifts for? Because I’m like, damn, the thoughtfulness of that gift is so hyper-specific. I would feel intimidated in trying to reciprocate.

Yes, my partner has complained about this many times in the past. I don’t think that’s the way I receive love. The way I show love is definitely in that sort of thoughtfulness. But I don’t expect gifts—ever. It doesn’t bum me out when I don’t get gifts.

And I’m very like, I’ll take what I can get. I think just the act of getting something—somebody went to the trouble of thinking about you at all—is really special. So I think at the end of the day, I am an easy gift recipient because I’ll take anything. But I do know that it stresses my fiancé out a lot.

If someone was to plan a Nicholas-type day for you, what would it entail?

It would entail a breakfast sandwich from Uncle Paulie’s in Studio City. It would include a coffee—a cold brew, rather—from Bolt Coffee in East Hollywood.

I love being out and about, I really do. I think it would include a trip to the beach, for sure.

Then it would include a lot of takeout, a lot of video games, and a lot of time on the couch with my partner. That’s sort of the perfect day for me—and I get to live that day frequently, so I’m pretty lucky.

Who are the Mollys in your life, and who are the Nicholases?

Oh, wow. I think the Mollys in my life … my partner is definitely one of them, but my partner is also the Nicholas, too. It’s weird—we’re verse like that. We switch off.

I am kind of like Nicholas for everybody. Nicholas also has a deep well of resentment and revenge—a vengeful streak in him, too. Like him, I’m ride or die. If you’re my friend, you’re my friend for life. We could know each other for three months or we could know each other for 13 years, and it’s going to be the same amount of attention. But I would say my partner is probably the big one that I can think of off the top of my head.

How do you define personal success now, and how has that changed from earlier in your life?

It’s funny, because the goalposts have moved massively. I’m sort of constantly floored because I’ve achieved way more than I ever expected for myself. So I sort of have to reorient myself a little bit.

For a while, it was paying off my student loans. Then it was buying a house. Now it’s sort of about being a good husband, I think, and a good partner.

So much of what I used to consider success was oriented around my career. Now, so much of what I consider success is oriented around my partner—and maintaining the health of that relationship.

Catch Joel Kim Booster in Season 3 of Loot, now streaming on Apple TV+.