Joel Kim Booster

Joel Alexander Kim Booster (born Kim Joonmin [ 김준민]; February 29, 1988) is an American actor, comedian, producer, and writer. He co-produced and wrote for Big Mouth and The Other Two and as an actor has appeared on Shrill, Search Party, and Sunnyside. In 2022, he wrote, produced, and starred in the Hulu romantic comedy Fire Island, a modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice with a main cast of Asian American actors.

Early and personal life
Born Kim Joonmin in Jeju Island, South Korea, Booster was adopted by an American couple as an infant. He was raised in Plainfield, Illinois, in a "conservative, white, Evangelical Christian family" and was initially homeschooled. He went to public school for the first time when he was 16, which he described as his "first time being around non-religious people." He studied theater at Millikin University for his bachelor's degree.

Booster is gay and often talks about his sexuality in his stand-up. He explained he knew he was gay from childhood ("before I knew I was Asian") but kept it a secret. During his senior year of high school, his parents found out his orientation by reading his diary where he had described his sexual encounters with other boys. Booster moved out and began to couchsurf until he stayed with a family friend.

On July 21, 2020, Booster publicly shared that he has bipolar disorder.

He is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Career
Living in Chicago, Booster took a job as a copywriter and began to perform in theater and write jokes after work. His stand-up career began in an unconventional fashion by opening up for plays in Chicago's theater scene. He moved to New York in 2014 to pursue a career in comedy. He performed a set on Conan in 2016. He then appeared in his own Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents special in 2017. Booster has also written for the shows Billy on the Street, Big Mouth, and The Other Two.

On November 3, 2018, he released his debut stand-up album, Model Minority. The material covers racism in the gay community, growing up Asian in a white community, and his own non-adherence to stereotypes about Asian Americans.

Booster acted with Susan Sarandon in the YouTube original film Viper Club; on Netflix's The Week Of and on Hulu's Shrill starring Aidy Bryant. He co-starred as Jun Ho in the NBC comedy series Sunnyside, which ran for one season. In 2019, he co-hosted a digital series called Unsend with Patti Harrison on Comedy Central. He is a regular panelist on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! on NPR. In 2019, he started the podcast Urgent Care with Joel Kim Booster + Mitra Jouhari with comedian Mitra Jouhari under Earwolf. Booster appeared on the December 8, 2020 episode of The George Lucas Talk Show with fellow guest Eliza Skinner.

Booster wrote and starred in the 2022 romantic comedy film Fire Island, streaming on Hulu and inspired by Pride and Prejudice. It is one of few mainstream gay films with a predominantly Asian American cast, and co-stars Margaret Cho, Bowen Yang, and Conrad Ricamora. The film received positive reception and was noted for its cinematography, faithfulness to Pride and Prejudice, and depiction of a loving friendship between Howie and Noah (played by Yang and Booster).

In 2022, he released a stand-up special on Netflix called Joel Kim Booster: Psychosexual. Abbey White of The Hollywood Reporter described the special positively: "...Psychosexual offers a hilariously biting deconstruction and reconstruction of Booster’s identity onstage; a repudiation not only of himself as a representative or “role model” for his various communities, but an affirmation that as a comedian, his only job is to tell jokes — regardless of whether that speaks to any community at all."

Accolades
Booster was called a Comic to Watch by Variety and one of Vulture's 20 Comedians You Should and Will Know, and was named a Forbes ' 30 Under 30 in Hollywood & Entertainment.

Discography

 * 2018: Model Minority