BEEF’s confluence of artistic risk-taking, ingenious casting, and a skilled cohort of below-the-line craftspeople have earned the series a whopping 13 Emmy nominations, including for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. Among the nominations are acting nods for Yeun and Wong in the leading actor categories as well as for Maria Bello, Young Mazino, and Joseph Lee in the supporting actor categories. Unsurprisingly, Lee is nominated for his writing and directing alongside Jake Schreier (directing), Helen Huang and team (costumes), Nat Fuller and Laura Zempel (editing), and Penny Harold and team (sound mixing). 

Here we’ve gathered quotes from BEEF’s cast and crew highlighting the magic Yeun, Wong, and Lee (lovingly referred to by his nickname, Sonny, below) created onscreen.

“Steven has such a great intuition for truth. He has a very precise radar for any dialogue or beats that might feel false, which is great for me as a writer because it’s like having someone that can point out mistakes I’ve made.” — Lee Sung Jin, series creator, showrunner

“The squad was stacked. Steven Yeun is somebody I’ve always looked up to. Because he’s been kind of just winging it and killing it at the same time. He’s going into uncharted territory as an underrepresented Korean American actor. I had been watching him since The Walking Dead and then seeing how he navigated his career afterwards, how he eventually went to Mayhem, and then Sorry to Bother You, which was really interesting and I got to talk to him about that at length. And then he started working with Bong Joon-ho, Lee Chang-dong, so bridging the gap between Korean American and Korean filmmaking, which is really dope to see.” –— Young Mazino, who plays Paul Cho

“Performing this character felt personal to me in a lot of ways. Danny is someone who’s trying to do a good job and do what he thinks he’s supposed to do, but from his eyes, it just seems like the world is out to take him down, and I can relate to that. I think everybody has a Danny in them. Everybody has a shadow part of themselves, something they repress. And I think playing Danny was an exploration of some of the impulses we all have when we’re in a constant state of fear, or living with a constant sense of insecurity. That type of consciousness was really hilarious, painful, beautiful, and cringey to explore, but I wanted to explore it in truth and in totality.” — Steven Yeun, who plays Danny Cho

“The characters were very much shaped by Steven and Ali. I think the joy of having them on as executive producers early is I was able to just talk about everything with them as I was developing the characters. Being friends first helps a lot because on a lot of other projects, there’s a more clearly defined line between professional and private, and on this show, between us there really wasn’t. So I could call them at any hour any day and just be like, ‘Hey, I’m stuck on this and what do you think?’” — Lee Sung Jin, series creator, showrunner

“Ali is Ali. She is tremendous. She holds so much power, so much presence. The cool part is, as we go on this ride, putting this show out and talking about it and experiencing it together, I’m getting to know her more and I’m really enamored by how gracious she is.” — Steven Yeun, who plays Danny Cho

“I think what really resonated with me was the rage that these two characters feel, especially for Amy, whose life is so seemingly perfect. You just never know what’s going on in someone’s head and in someone’s personal life. It’s definitely a big departure from what I’ve done in the past, and I really do believe it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. Something I’ve said to Sonny from the beginning is that this show provides an opportunity for me to talk about and express all the things that I haven’t been able to say on stage in my stand-up. And I’m only able to do that because of this world that Sonny created. For whatever reason, it’s been the best way for me to express how it feels to be angry, yet seemingly together. It’s been a beautiful journey and at times a really hard one.” — Ali Wong, who plays Amy Lau

“It was a real joy to watch her display such a wide range. We obviously know her and her comedic sensibility and her stand-up. But having worked with her on Tuca & Bertie, I knew she could hit deeper moments. She came fully prepared. By take two, the waterworks were happening and we were all floored. So it was really fun to watch her show a range that people haven’t seen before.” — Lee Sung Jin, series creator, showrunner

“She’s just so dope. Playing against her was really fun. Each time we did, there was always this excitement, where after we finish that particular scene, we’re like, ‘Ooh, this is really fun. There’s something here.’ I couldn’t have asked for a better partner to do this with. It was really, really incredible.” — Steven Yeun, who plays Danny Cho

“Both [Ali and Steven] have a very good intuition and radar for what’s truthful, and so I’ll talk to Ali about even Fumi’s character and she would talk to me about some of her ex-boyfriend’s mothers, and I would be like, ‘That story’s really good. Let me try and steal a couple things from that,’ and Steven would share things about just brother dynamics he’s observed or just people that he knows, and all of that very much influenced both characters from the beginning and I think that just makes this whole process easy. I’m never showing up on set and showing them something that they’re surprised by. They’re very much part of the whole process.” — Lee Sung Jin, series creator, showrunner

“I think Sonny and I share a commonality of a particular experience, which is Korean immigrant church life, which I think isn’t monolithic, but at the same time is very specific. And so we had a lot of similar stories, a lot of similar feelings. We just kind of talked about it and developed Danny through these conversations. — Steven Yeun, who plays Danny Cho

Working with Sonny has been an absolute dream come true. I don’t think he appreciates being called a genius, but that’s what he is. Coming from stand-up, it can be very scary to jump into film and television because you’re so used to working on your own, and collaborating with other people can sometimes be a big risk and a nightmare. Collaborating with Sonny has been incredible. I was just blown away when I read the pilot. Every single thing I read, I had to stop whatever I was doing. I remember — this might be too graphic — but I remember starting the scripts on the toilet and just staying there for 20 minutes at a time. My children would start knocking at the door and I’d be like, ‘hold on, hold on,’ because they were so engaging. Usually it’s really hard for me to memorize lines, but because Sonny knew me so well and we talked about this character so much, it was pretty easy to memorize all the dialogue. He really knew how to write to all of our strengths.” — Ali Wong, who plays Amy Lau

“The thing that was clear from when Sonny and I first started talking about it is how much perspective was going to be an important part of the show. What’s interesting about the way he wrote it is that Amy and Danny really aren’t in a lot of scenes together until much later in the show; they kind of exist in their own separate worlds. And something that was really important about that is that they feel apart from their own world until they’re thrust together through the inciting incident when they meet each other.” — Jake Schreier, director

“When I recognize someone that’s really good at what they do, it’s in their intention and focus and throughout the episodes. I mean, there are so many elements that all tie together and that means that every take, every set, every setup, he’s watching, he’s there. Sonny will pop in and throw out, ‘Hey, what do you say to this or how about this,’ and kind of throw out little things in there and then also allow me to have space to just act and to improvise. It was a wonderful climate to be an actor in.” — Young Mazino, who plays Paul Cho

All interviews included in this piece were completed prior to July 14, 2023.