Exclusive Interview: Nikki McKenzie Talks ‘A Vineyard Christmas,’ Celebrating the Filipino Culture in a Holiday Rom-Com, and More

Nikki McKenzie is a versatile storyteller who is best known for her comedic and dramatic roles in projects, including The Joe Schmo Show, The Full Bounty, and Prank Encounters.

This December, she leads the extraordinary cast of A Vineyard Christmas. Heather Marques (McKenzie), host of Tannin TV’s popular show: Read Between the Vines, is determined to create the perfect Christmas episode by featuring a unique winery from her hometown in Vermont the specialists in Ice Wine. The only thing standing in her way? Rudy Knobloch (Victor Zinck Jr.), the attractive, stubborn owner of the winery.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Nikki about A Vineyard Christmas, how she collaborated with the creative team to celebrate the Filipino culture in an authentic way, and more.

PC: How did you discover your passion for storytelling and the arts?
Nikki: Well, I’m Filipino. Storytelling is part of our community. I’ve been singing karaoke and doing plays for my family, forcing them to watch me since I was three. I’ve always been an entertainer. It’s something that’s always been a part of our family’s lives. We do karaoke at Christmas. We do karaoke at birthday parties. We do karaoke all the time. My Lola really wanted me to do America’s Got Talent. It started from a young age.

But, growing up, there weren’t a lot of Filipino actresses who were making it. It didn’t seem like a profession that I could pursue. It was always something that I did because I loved it. It was fun. So I did plays in high school and did that for fun. My family immigrated from the Philippines; they were very much like, “You need a stable job. You need to support yourself.” We didn’t have any expanders back then. We have Jo Koy now, which is wonderful, and Vanessa Hudgens, Shay Mitchell….there are a lot of people that are coming out now who are very successful. But when I was growing up, we didn’t have that.

I went against the grain when I decided to be an actor. My family wasn’t supportive of it. I went to college, and my dad was like, “You need to pick a major that’s sustainable.” I was like, “F- you and I majored in English.” [laughs] But I continued to take drama classes. The head of that department was like, “Nikki, what are you doing? You have enough to double degree. You belong here. What is going on?”

Then I made the leap. In 2010, I did the ABC Diversity Showcase, which is what started me on my career in the sense that I started believing that I could actually do this. It’s been a long journey. I did that showcase in 2010. Then I did the CBS Showcase in 2019. It was nine years of hard work and grind. With ABC, I did more drama. With CBS, I found more of my comedic voice. That opened a ton of doors for me. So I’ve been really busting the pavement since 2010. Thank God, it’s starting to pay off, which is amazing.

PC: Now, you’re blazing that trail for the community. When you look at your career, who or what has had the biggest influence on you, either personally or professionally?
Nikki: That’s such a good question. I’m a huge self-help person, so honestly, Oprah. If I ever felt sad or down, it was Super Soul Sunday that really pulled me through, in terms of believing that you’re worthy of what you want and knowing that you can have it and the idea of resilience.

In Asian culture, it’s very much that you take care of your parents. You follow the rules. I followed that for so long because I wanted to be a good daughter. I think it was a lot of the self-help books that I was reading. Everything in my body was like, “You love acting. What are you doing? You don’t want to be a nurse.”

It was also Tony Robbins and a lot of that stuff that opened my mind that you can achieve your goals, even if it seems impossible because no one else around you has.

PC: You’ve had a lot of success already. When you look back, is there a pinch-me moment?
Nikki: It’s probably the Christmas movie that I’m promoting right now, which is A Vineyard Christmas. It was a pinch-me moment because I have never seen a Filipino girl in a Christmas movie like this. I mean, we have Vanessa Hudgens who’s starred in rom-coms. This was huge for me. This was the role that I dreamed of when I was six, seven, eight, nine, ten, when I was making all the plays for my family and forcing them to watch me. I wanted to be this girl.

How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days was one of my favorite movies of all time. I’ve always been a rom-com girl. So that moment of getting on set and having my character rewritten to be a Filipina for me, and having my father (Vincent Ross) being another Filipino was awesome. I haven’t been on a set with another Pinoy. I usually play the token friend or the one Asian person. It was so exciting to see how our industry is changing, and also getting to fall in love.

It was important that I was Filipino in the film, but I was also American. I think that’s so important for representation because our culture is important, but we’re also American, so it’s great. Normalizing diverse faces in entertainment is so important.

PC: You got to collaborate with the writer to bring your own authentic experience and traditions to this project. For many, it’ll be the first time that they see the Filipino culture celebrated in this way and in a film like this. What were some of the early conversations that you had with her about incorporating that into the script? How much more special is this project given that?
Nikki: It means so much to me. I’ve truly never had this experience in any of the work that I’ve done. Reel One was the production company. Katie Wilbert was the writer. They basically were like, “We want to make this movie Filipina now that you’ve booked the role.” I am getting goosebumps because I remember being like, “Really?”

Katie sent me an email. She was like, “Would you be comfortable hopping on the phone and sending me your story?” She wanted to know about my family’s traditions, the food that we ate, words in Tagalog, and I was like, “Yes!”

Another example of that is Midnight Mass, which is a big Filipino thing. Our family celebrates on December 24th, so we start opening gifts on that day, and then we go to Mass. This project was so personal to me in terms of incorporating my traditions and my family. It meant so much to me, especially because my grandmother’s passed. My Lola is gone. It was really nice to keep her alive. She was the rock of our family. We are still very close and hang out, but she was the matriarch that brought us from the Philippines here, which is a really beautiful story. It was cool to keep that alive.

Katie was awesome. She would see what I said. She would ask more questions, and she’d incorporate it into the film. She even changed the last name of my character to be Filipino. Everything was so authentic. Anything that she added to the script, she would ask, “Is this something that your family would do? Are these the traditions that you want to reflect in your culture?”

She’s also super funny. She comes from a comedy background. Katie and I hit it off right away as friends. That was really cool because she let me improv a lot. So did the director Ana Valine which is huge because you don’t always get to do that, especially in this genre. You don’t always get to do a lot of comedy or play. But I love the comedic aspects of it.

Katie and I both come from a UBC world, improv world. That was great. We would do takes on set with Ana, and she’d be like, “Okay, you did what’s in the script. Now you can do one for you.” That was really fun because I loved working with this cast, Victor Zinck Jr., Brittany Clough, Lucas Penner, and Vincent. They were all so wonderful, and we got to play with each other because we had that freedom. Once we’ve done a version with what was written, they would keep the camera going and we could improvise and go off each other. I fell in love with all of them.

PC: What I love about this is how relatable your character is from her struggles to finding that work-life balance to the grief that she’s experiencing when you lose somebody. You brought so much nuance and depth to her journey. For you as an actor, how did you create the space for yourself to dive into that vulnerability?
Nikki: Thank you. That means a lot. When I do my imagination work, I always imagine that it’s happening to me. I’m very close to my mom. Even thinking about something happening to her makes me want to cry. She was a single mom until I was ten. So in that sense, it was very easy to slip into a world where my mom wasn’t there.

It goes back to my childhood and being able to play. I used to act out The Sound of Music and pretend that I was one of the von Trapp kids. It’s very easy for me to believe in imaginary circumstances. In that sense, it was easy to access.

It was also the chemistry with the cast. That was very special because that doesn’t always happen. I’ve been lucky that I’ve had that with the last fews that I’ve done, but we had such great chemistry that it didn’t feel like we were acting.

We can all relate to losing someone important to us, whether we’ve actually lost someone or the idea. That was really tender because playing with the cast was just fun. It’s great when you get to play opposite someone like Victor who’s wonderful. We’re still friends. We had an instant chemistry. The same with Brittany and Lucas. It was truly like no acting was required. We all really enjoyed each other. Those relationships felt real in that way.

PC: This is a rom-com, but that relationship between your character and her father is so special. You were saying earlier that it’s rare to see one Asian, let alone two Asians in one project. What was it like getting to collaborate with Vincent and build that dynamic?
Nikki: It was wonderful. Vincent is so wonderful. He’s so cool. It was very easy because Vince has this fatherly energy. He has younger daughters. Having that feeling of two Filipinos on set was huge. We would be cracking jokes in Tagalog. We taught some of the cast how to talk with accents. We talked about the food. It was such an easy relationship between us. He’s such a lovely human being.

What’s cool is that we had worked together before. I did another rom-com that’s out in Canada right now, and he did a role in that. We had met prior and got to speak Tagalog in The Wedding Contest. In that movie, he played a famous florist. We already had a special friendship. It was easy because he’s such a great dad.

Even when we had time off, we’d be listening to *NSYNC and dancing around. Vince would be there with us. He would be dancing and killing it. He knew all the moves. He was so loving and receptive. It was so easy to be like, “This is my dad, and I love my dad.”

PC: Like you were saying earlier, this is your first lead role in a Christmas movie. Did anything surprise you about the overall experience? What was the biggest takeaway?
Nikki: The biggest takeaway is that it really felt like a team. That’s definitely how I love to work and want to lead future opportunities. It’s not about who’s number one or who’s number ten. It’s really a team effort. When you come onto set with the mentality that this is a family, this is a team, and we’re doing our best, from the grips to the camera department to makeup and hair, that’s when you come at it as a community. Everyone cares and then it’s fun because we’re so lucky to do what we do. I want to have as much fun as I can doing these dream parts.

Sometimes being on set is great but doesn’t always feel that magical. If I can cultivate that magic as much as I can, I will. The key to that is really building a family with all the departments. It’s not just the actors’ world. We’re doing this together. That’s the storytelling part of it. I got so close to the crew that it got to the point where they were reacting to the scene. They’d be like, “Kiss him already! What’s going on?” [laughs]

PC: Your character is known for finding the perfect pairing. What is the perfect wine pairing to watch this movie?
Nikki: Ice wine, of course. I had my first ice wine in Canada when we were shooting. It’s very sweet. It tastes like chocolate. It’s a sugary wine. It’s delicious. I had no idea that it existed, but it’s apparently very big in the community if you’re into dessert wines. It’s like eating ice cream in a cup of red grapes. [laughs]

I’d say that and cheese. But cheese is such an expected pairing. Maybe Bianca which is a Filipino pastry. Or the German cookies. Katie put her actual oma’s recipe into the film. Those were delicious.

PC: You’re such an exciting voice in this industry. What’s next for you? What’s left on your bucket list?
Nikki: There’s so much that I want to do. I would love to do more rom-coms. This is such a fun genre for me. But I would love to book a series regular and do something in the sci-fi world. I love Marvel. Loki is my favorite show. It’s so well done. Eugene Cordero is on it and he’s another wonderful Filipino actor. So something where I get to play with the comedy and the drama in the sci-fi world.

To keep up with Nikki, follow her on Twitter and Instagram. Watch A Vineyard Christmas on Freevee today.

Photo Credit: Marlow Photography