Exclusive Interview: Jennie Kwan Talks ‘California Dreams’ Reunion, the Show’s Impact, Her Trailblazing Career, and More

Jennie Kwan is a dynamic storyteller, celebrated for her portrayal of iconic and richly layered characters in beloved projects like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and When They Cry. However, she is perhaps most fondly recognized for her groundbreaking role as Samantha Woo in California Dreams, a series that has not only stood the test of time but has also earned a well-deserved spot as a cult classic.

Crafted by writers Brett Dewey and Ronald B. Solomon, and brought to life under the executive production of Peter Engel, this coming-of-age series introduces a tight-knit group of friends and bandmates navigating the complexities of adulthood against the backdrop of an unforgettable soundtrack, gracing households for a remarkable five seasons.

Nearly three decades since the series wrapped, the cast of California Dreams recently came together in New York City to commemorate the show’s impact, celebrate their enduring friendship, and, of course, express their gratitude to the devoted fans.

Pop Culturalist was fortunate enough to have a conversation with Jennie about this much-talked-about reunion, what she and her character meant to so many, and more.

PC: First off, I wanted to extend a personal thank you to you and the creators of California Dreams. Having grown up on this series, it’s the first time that I saw someone who looked like me on screen and celebrated our culture in mainstream television. I don’t think I appreciated it as much back then as I do now. You’ve been such a trailblazer for this community. Have you had a chance to reflect on the impact that you’ve had on audiences and continue to have? How often do you get stopped about Samantha and her rendition of “Mama Said” and The Year of Woo?
Jennie: Thank you so much for that. I’ll backtrack to when the show was happening, and we started getting fan mail. People would tell me, “Hey, you’re someone who looks like me, and I’ve never seen that.” I didn’t really know how to take it in at the time. I just thought I was this young actor who got this great break and really wanted to belong. Here’s the thing; we all want to belong to some place or somewhere.

At the time, I didn’t really want to stick out. My character was already this “foreign exchange student” who moved to the U.S., and that already made me feel a certain way. But when people started saying, “It’s really made a difference for me; it really touched me,” years later, here we are, I am really able to take that in a lot more than I was able to when I was pretty much a kid because it is a lot of responsibility. I was like, “What do you mean?” But again, it’s a process. It’s a lot of responsibility that I didn’t know being placed in that position would turn into that. It feels very full circle now that I’m a full-grown adult and I can really understand the impact of that. Not that I didn’t then, but it hits me all the way through now that I really understand what that means.

PC: You’ve been a pioneer for our community. This series has stood the test of time. Was there a moment when you were filming it that you realized you were creating something special?
Jennie: As an actor, you go to work and hope that you get a season’s worth of shows and that people still want to watch something, listen to something, or be a part of that creation. All of the cast felt how special our chemistry was, and it still lasts to this day. It was quite fascinating because that doesn’t always happen. But when you’re on a show, you don’t know what’s going to be a hit. You don’t know what is going to be a huge success or a flop. You can feel like it’s something special, but until you see the ratings or come back for another season, then you’re like, “Okay, great, we made it to the next season. We have something here.” Regardless of that, we always felt that we had something special together, despite whether we got picked up or not. There still was something very, very unique about what we brought together.

PC: So often with shows, you’ll hear afterwards how the cast didn’t get along or they’ve lost touch throughout the years. But you’ve all remained such a tight-knit group. Why do you think this friendship has grown with time and how did you all initially build that bond?
Jennie: It takes a certain type of person to stay in a relationship for so many years. Did we know that was going to happen? I don’t think so. But I will say, in my own personal experience, when I met Kelly [Packard], I definitely felt a connection to her. We both auditioned for the role of Tiffany Smith. So when I didn’t get it, I was genuinely happy for her. I mean, she completely fit for the role, right? Obviously, she booked it. But yeah, I just felt this instant connection.

Then when I got on the show, we all had so much fun together. We were devastated when we found out that we weren’t coming back for another season because they had fulfilled their requirement for syndication. So we were really sad. That was a real feeling. They had to tell us, “Please don’t be as emotional on tape. We have to get through it.” We were like, “What do you mean?” [laughs] That was real. To this day, because we’ve become so close, some of us just kept in touch.

Kelly and I were in each other’s weddings. Michael [Cade] doesn’t live too far from me. I’m actually going to William [James Jones]’s office today because I have some things for him that I need him to go over. Then for those of us who are now in different cities and countries, we’ve been able to stay in touch through social media, which we didn’t have before, and that’s been incredible. Since we’ve done the reunion, we’ve been able to be in even more contact, which has been so fun.

PC: It’s funny how things work out in life. As you said, you auditioned for the role of Tiffany, which ended up going to Kelly. What was it like getting that call from Peter about joining the second season? How did he initially pitch Samantha to you?
Jennie: [laughs] Well, I was doing a musical theater tour, and I got this call from Peter. He’s like, “Hi, Jennie, it’s Peter Engel.” I said, “Oh, hi.” He was like, “Do you want to come home and do a TV show?” I was like, “What do you mean?” He said, “Well, we have someone who’s leaving the show, and we wrote this character for you.” Then he explained it to me. I was like, “Okay.” He said, “A lot is riding on this, Jennie; we have to make it work.” [laughs] I was like, “Oh, okay.” That was a funny phone call.

It felt like it came out of the blue. But I felt so very, very fortunate that he remembered me and that something that I did left an impact on him and the NBC execs to be able to trust Peter to basically hire this young girl who was on tour and who didn’t get another part. But they were like, “This has to work.” That, again, was a lot of different pressure that I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into, but I just followed it and here we are today.

PC: What’s meant to be yours will be yours. We’ve spoken to a few of your castmates, and they’ve sung your praise for bringing this reunion together in New York City, which I imagine is a huge undertaking and there are so many unique components to it. How did this all come together?
Jennie: Originally, we did another concert in Los Angeles that Kelly and I produced. The funny story behind that is we were at another concert for this group, who will remain nameless, and she leaned over and said, “Why can’t we do this?” I said, “Well, we can, but we have to do it ourselves.”

So, cut to Los Angeles in April 2019. We put up our first reunion concert hosted by our friend Derek Berry, who does all the pop-ups around the country; the Barbie cafe, the Golden Girls, Saved by the Max, Good Burger. We ventured into that concert with him, and he helped us produce this beautiful reunion. We sold out in twenty minutes. It was insane!

Then, cut to 2023. I was doing a photoshoot for Wingman Magazine, and through that conversation, the main editor, Andrew Cristi, said, “Jennie, why aren’t you guys doing this still?” I said, “It’s funny you say that because we’re thinking about doing this again.” So I said to myself if I’m still thinking about it a week later after this photoshoot, then it means that we have to do this.

So, a week later, I called Kelly. We talked about it. Are we doing this? From that point forward, it was about getting the cast back together, and we thought, “How fun would it be if all of us could be there?” And that’s basically what happened. It was definitely a huge undertaking, but an undertaking filled with so much love for our fans, I don’t even want to say show because California Dreams is its own entity at this point, and our love for each other. We just love hanging out, and that was one of the main components that brought us together because we wanted to see each other and give back to our fans who have given so much to us throughout the years. It truly was a fantastic, magical evening.

PC: It felt like such a celebration of the fans. You shared on social media that it took a few days for you to take everything in. What will you remember most from that event? What were some of the highlights?
Jennie: Oh my gosh, it makes me emotional. There were so many highlights from beginning to end, and considering how we’ve remained close, it was special. I thought some of us were getting there at separate times, right? So the majority of us got together in New York City on Wednesday evening. As soon as all of us were landing, we were like, “Where are you? What are you doing? We’re at the pizza place next door. Well, come next door.” All of us who landed on Wednesday, whether we were tired or in sweats or on the other side of town, came together at the pizza place next door. It was the most fun reunion.

It felt like no time had passed, including cast members who hadn’t met each other. It was like, once they met each other, it was like they’ve known each other for so many years. That was it. That’s what Diana [Uribe] was saying about Brentley [Gore]. It was like, “Wait a minute, we haven’t met before, but I feel like I already know you.” So again, there’s something about California Dreams where our chemistry just speaks for itself.

Let’s be real for a minute. We’re a big, crazy family. We fight like brothers and sisters and go through it, but it really is this big dysfunctional family, which is a fun thing. We always have each other’s backs.

PC: Yeah, when we talked with Jay [Anthony Franke], he said he would find any excuse to get together with all of you. This has been one of the most talked-about reunions of 2023. Have there been any early conversations about potentially doing another one?
Jennie: We’ll have to see. You never know. We might end up in a town near you. What was so sweet was a lot of people came up to me and said, “Jennie, we don’t get a lot of things like this here.” I asked, “What do you mean?” They said, “We don’t get a lot of things like this here.” So the way that I interpreted that is New York City is known for entertainment, but typically there are large-scale projects that may be going on at the Garden or on Broadway or even off-Broadway that people have inklings about, but a sort of mid-sized tour that comes through the city is something that has not been experienced by a lot of the locals. We’re so appreciative of all the locals who came out and even the locals who are in the tri-state area who drove in or came from Jersey or Connecticut or somewhere else that maybe is somewhat close. But it was really interesting to learn that. So to be able to bring the event to New York City in that capacity felt very, very special.

PC: Throughout your career, you’ve been a part of so many popular IPs with such dedicated fan bases. What is your process like deciding what project you want to go after? You’ve created such an impact on so many.
Jennie: Wow, I appreciate that. Thank you so much. For a long time, it has been that you go out for everything. But at this point in my career because it has been so busy with traveling for different events and comic cons, and I’m still doing my voiceover work every day, I do have to be a little more particular in what I expend my energy on. Only because I have to be able to have enough energy to do these projects and to be able to have the opportunity to produce a large-scale show like we just did in New York or to show up to voice Chun-Li in Street Fighter 6, which takes a lot of energy. If I’m recording for a couple of weeks or a few days, it still takes a tremendous amount of energy. Plus, when I’m not in the studio or producing, after I’m done in the studio, I’m doing auditions in the booth. These days, I’m really, not that I’d exclude an opportunity, but I’m really looking at the scheduling, at the project, and making sure I have the energy to take this on and devote all the time and passion that I have into whatever is next.

PC: There’s a lot of physicality in voiceover work that people don’t realize.
Jennie: Oh yeah. The more physical you are, the more grounded it becomes. If you ever watch any voiceover artists in their booths, it’s crazy when you’re watching people because it’s a physical approach which makes it more real because you can’t be seen.

PC: You’ve played so many strong female characters throughout your career. Who were the women in your own life who shaped the storyteller that you are today?
Jennie: Wow. I’ve been very fortunate that I do have so many strong, amazing women in my life. It makes me a little emotional. Aside from my mother, who is an immigrant to this country, all my close girlfriends have been role models for me and have been sisters to me. I always think of my close circle. There are like seven girlfriends in my circle, and Kelly is one of them. It’s like I go to her even if it’s two in the morning. I would go to her for an emergency, and she’s been there, even if there’s been so much time that’s passed. That’s the type of relationship that I hold with so many of my strong girlfriends who are such inspirations and pioneers in what they do, how they carve out their lives, and how they go about approaching life.

I can’t say enough about my girlfriends in my life because I wouldn’t be the person I am without them. I’ve learned from them and have had their support. It makes me very emotional. I probably could not have gone through and produced the concert without any of them, to be quite honest, because it’s really tough when you’re in the trenches. Sometimes you’re in the trenches and you’re like, “Wait a minute, what’s the next right step?” To be able to have amazing eyes and support, Kelly just happened to call at all the right times to be able to get us to the next point, which I think every person needs that person and that amazing support group to go through life. It does take a village to be a successful person, and I feel so lucky that I have these women in my life.

To keep up with Jennie, follow her on Instagram.