Tatler Singapore had the opportunity to sit down with Kreider during his recent trip to our city, where we discussed what Alls Production has in the works, Asian representation, inclusivity in media and more.

What does Asian representation in entertainment mean to you?
I think representation is humanising Asian characters and actors. It’s normalising seeing a Singaporean or a Filipino in a lead role, just because it’s a great role. Something that other production companies such as CJ Entertainment and A24 have been doing so well is bringing Asians together to create amazing films and series that have almost nothing to do with being Asian. They’re just living their lives as Asians. So we need more of that.

What is the mission behind Alls Productions?
Hollywood, even Asian Hollywood storytellers and producers, try to control and tell people where they fit in. Like I’ve heard “You’re not Korean enough, you don’t speak the language at all” or “You don’t do martial arts at all?”. Why don’t they allow Asian talents to rise up [beyond this]? I don’t want to tell the stories of being different and not fitting in anymore, being bullied and picked on or being an immigrant. These stories have been told so much it’s like beating a dead horse now. So that’s why Devon and I created Alls Productions. We want to create better opportunities for ourselves and for other people like us.

How is Alls Productions amplifying Asian voices in Hollywood?
I’ve always wanted a cool platform to showcase Asian actors, ones that I think are super cool, super hot, sexy and talented—very three-dimensional characters that will properly represent us in the media. Because I’ve seen how television shows and films shape the narrative and world views of the people around us.

Now that there are non-Asians consuming our content, which is awesome, it’s a time for us to really show the world who we are. Something that’s away from the old stereotypes that we were forced to tell because there were people who were not Asian telling these stories for us. It’s time to go beyond just where someone comes from, we want to be able to control how our stories are told.

How is Alls Production advocating for greater representation?
We’re totally championing Asian representation. There are so many other cultures besides just Asian, there’s Chinese and Korean and all of that. What I would love to do for representation is to bring all of that into our storytelling and filmmaking, while making sure we are all properly represented. Not stereotypical narratives like martial arts or mystical magic or kung fu, and making us seem like foreigners all the time.

What are some projects that Alls Productions has been working on, and what can we expect?
I would love to see more Southeast Asians and Asian Americans coming together, and telling stories that go beyond race. Our company’s mission is to produce and tell Asian-lead love stories. That’s how I see love stories—going beyond just the topic of race. And I love this idea because Asians don’t have the screen time that I believe we deserve. We currently have over 15, maybe 20 projects. Five are definitely ready to go, while others are still in development and we hope to find our champions for them.

What have you learned from your time in reality television, and what’s next for Kevin Kreider?
I just knew when we were filming Bling Empire that it was something special. It was Netflix’s big bet on Asian-American content and we had big shoes to fill. There was a lot of social pressure to succeed, and thankfully we did. It permitted the higher-ups to realise we [Asians] were bankable. It showed them that people want to watch us and it could be a growing market in Asia and America.

I’m really proud of what I’ve done in my career and I did what I wanted to do. But now it’s time to move on. Maybe it’s behind the camera a little more, maybe it’s producing, or writing and developing like for Alls Productions. And that’s just what it is right now.

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