Ify Nwadiwe is a multifaceted talent; he is the host of Dropout’s Um, Actually, he’s an actor, a master TTRPG player, a stand up comedian, improv aficionado, a writer for a whole slew of TV shows and games, including Twisted Metal and Borderlands 4 and so much more! As he puts it, he’s “a professional nerd.”
Shantelle Santos spoke to Ify Nwadiwe at PAX Australia 2025, about his career, the current discourse around TTRPG, and what it means to find your voice as a creative.
Shantelle Santos: How’s it going! Is this your first time in Australia?
Ify Nwadiwe: Yeah, first time! I was super stoked!
SS: How are you finding it? How’s the coffee?
IN: Everyone’s been talking about the coffee, and it’s been great! I’m down in LA, but I go up to Portland and Seattle often, and those are the coffee capitals in America. And Sam, Sam Winkler, who is a lead narrative on Borderlands 4 at Gearbox, lives up there. So we’ve been doing coffee hunts. And I have like, a meta who works at a coffee shop and sent all the coffee recs to me. So I’m tasting the coffee! The coffee’s good! I’m super stoked!
SS: Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying your time in Australia so far! I just want to say that you are like a D20 of skills. You host Um, Actually on Dropout, you act, do comedy, improv, you play a lot of TTRPG’s, and so much more. How do you describe what you do to people who don’t know who you are?
IN: I’ve been using “comedian, actor, and professional nerd”, because I think that covers everything in the blanket. Especially, you know, it’s like a funny, very like persnickety thing I love to do, but it always starts with comedy first. That just was the first love – making people laugh – and that’s kind of what blossomed everything. I started doing improv in high school, and I was doing this thing called Comedy Sports. They’re out of Chicago, then they expanded, and they started doing a high school league of short form comedy games, where people go to different schools. I just immediately fell in love because I was always a fan of Who’s Line. Then from there, when I moved to LA I always was like, “I’m coming to do improv and figure that out”, because I couldn’t figure out at the time that improv was acting. It was an event that I was at where it was this veteran improviser who’s been in the game, she knew I moved to, at the time, outside of LA, and she was like, “well, you know, what are you doing? Have you ever tried to do commercials? Are you auditioning for this?” And I was like, “well I’m not much of an actor.” Then she kind of looked and she’s like, “what do you think you’re doing when you’re on stage? You’re just acting without a script”. And I was like, oh yeah, oh yeah! So then everything kind of folded into itself. But at first, I really was focused on doing standup, improv, and acting, and I thought the thing that’s going to make me really good at this is focusing solely on this, is just giving my all to this. And ironically, it was when I kind of got pulled into the nerdy stuff and started injecting that into what I do that everything really started to click. I think when you first go into an artistic field, every person’s first folly is trying to make what they think people want to see, because it makes sense, right? Because the other side of our art is some sort of business, but we don’t go to business school, we all are like, well, supply and demand. So people are demanding this thing, so that’s what I should do. But with art, it’s different because if there’s already supply, then there’s no real demand. The real demand is things that haven’t been seen. But how do you make something that hasn’t been seen? Well, inject yourself into it because there’s only one you, and no one else can be you, you know? So you really don’t start to stand out in your art until you kind of really do that. But then there’s a lot of steps that come to that, right? Because you have to be comfortable with who you are. You have to be comfortable with what you’re into because you can be you and try to inject yourself and hit this weird stopgap and don’t know why. But it’s because you aren’t fully comfortable as yourself; where it’s one thing being yourself and it’s another thing putting it out on display to be perceived. So I think that that kind of lesson was done by doing a series of nerdy things and being reinforced and finding my people and my audience and people who are into what I’m doing, which allows me to be more myself. I remember hitting this point where I thought to myself, “oh, I used to kind of do what I want, and now I’m trying to do what I think is successful, and I feel like it’s not working.” Then the things that I’m making I’m not that passionate about. Then I’m going to go back to doing what I want because at the very least, if this blows up and fails, I know I did what I want. One of those lessons, The Big Team, my improv group, we had the special on Dropout and we sold a pilot for a TV show and it was our first thing we sold. And of course, you’re this young group, it’s the first thing you sell and you get notes back and you’re like, “well, we want to make sure we do it.” But we would get the notes and we were like, “we don’t agree with these notes, but we got to make what they want because we want to make this show. Then after that, we can do it.” Then they’re giving us more notes, more notes that just kept feeling like not the story we were trying to tell, not the voice of the show, not that. And we get the last draft and the network passes and goes, “yeah, this doesn’t feel like a show that would be on our network”. And we were kind of upset for two reasons. One, it was like, well, these were your notes; so why are you giving us notes for a show that wouldn’t be on your network? And two, we were left with a show that we didn’t care about or wanted to make. So ever that happened, we were like, “we’re always going to make the show we want to make, and if there’s notes we don’t agree with, we’ll find the real note and still make it true to ourselves”. So that at the very least, the thing that gets shut down is something we wanted to make. It feels bad when you submit something, they’re like, we don’t like this, and we’re like, well, neither do we. So who do we make this for? But on the flip of that, after having that lesson, I kind of sold an animated thing, and it was someone who got it. And it’s everything I want it to be, it’s all the elements that I’m loving, and Hollywood business stuff happens and they don’t have enough money to make it. So they’re like, “well, we’re going to give you the rights back, you can still do it”. So then I’m still passionate about it. I mentioned it in a meeting with a different production company, and they’re like, we like it, and now we’re still back on it. And it’s like, “oh, I still have this drive to make this thing because it’s something I care about. It’s something I like!” Then I carry that into pitches, and they like it! And you find your people! I think back to the show that was dropped and we tried to take it somewhere else and it kind of fell through. But we didn’t care because it was a show we didn’t care about – We made a thing we didn’t care about. Where this show that I allowed myself to be passionate and injected, I’m fighting for it. I was like, “well, if this doesn’t go now, if we go and it gets passed, I’m going to just make it a comic. You know, like, it’s because it’s a story I want to tell.” I feel like I got so off track [laughs].
SS: No but people can feel your passion, especially with creative stuff. Then they’re more drawn to you if you feel that passion!
IN: Well, because that’s who you want to listen to, right? I feel like there’s an element to where if someone’s like “you should do this”, and they’re like, [shrugs] “okay”. And you’re like, wow, okay, so you didn’t really have a thought there. I think to kind of answer the question of like, all these things that I do, I personally think that, and I think we see it often, that whenever someone’s creative, it isn’t limited to one thing. I think to Donald Glover, right? Who’s doing music, he’s making his own shows, he’s doing comedy, drama. And you got like Ryan Coogler, who’s making Black Panther and Sinners, directing all of these things. That’s how I look at it there, where I just want to create things. I just want to add to the things that I would want to see and find those people. Like the Rebecca Sugars, right? Where it’s just so unique and it’s so her, and that’s what draws you to it is because you’re like, “oh this is me!” There was even a film that came out last year, which was one of my favorite films called Didi.
SS: I haven’t seen that yet – but it looks amazing!
IN: Run to it! But it’s about like this Asian immigrant in, I think it’s Fremont, California, who’s like a skater. He’s a child of Chinese immigrants, and I’m a child of Nigerian immigrants. But there is generalness in specificity. Even though it was so specific to him, it connected with me more because there’s so much shared experiences across cultures. So when you try and make it for everyone, and then you try and make anyone fit into the story, people are like, “I don’t really see the vision.” But when it’s so specific, it mirrors a lot of other people’s experience. You get sucked in.
SS: Yeah absolutely! And going back to growing up with immigrant parents, I know that when I first got into the creative field, it was a hard conversation to have with my parents because I wanted to go into film. And then they were like, what about a doctor? Don’t you want to be a doctor or a nurse? And mum’s a nurse so she’s like, don’t you want to follow my footsteps? Did you have a similar kind of experience with your parents?
IN: Oh, yeah, of course!. My dad was so against it at first. And now I’m old enough to kind of understand it wasn’t anything other than the fact of, your parents only want you to do something they know they can help you with, right? So it’s your mum’s a nurse, she knows everything about being a nurse. So if you have any problems, your mum knows “I can help you out of any pickle because I understand this world.” The moment you step out of a world that they understand, it gets scary for them because they’re like, “you’re kind of on your own, I don’t know how I can help you. And it’s not that I think you would fail, but if you run into any issues, there’s no way that I as a parent can help you and that’s scary for me.” So now it’s very funny to look back on, but I was very, you know, resentful at the time. It was a huge fight, but I had to stand my ground. But what really happened was my dad got me this great government job, and had me interview at an entry level. And if I wanted to by now, I would probably be making six figures or close to it in this humdrum desk job working for the government. But because you meet so many different people in those spaces, you meet people who have just been there their whole life – You meet people from all walks of life. And I was like, I would rather go and chase this dream and see it and fail and know that I did try it and came back here, than to be sitting here 20 years from now wondering what would have happened if I actually gave it a shot. I wouldn’t ever be able to live with that regret. And that’s what I first told my mum and she was like, “all right, go for it.” Then I went to my dad and he was like, “what?” Because he’s from Nigeria and you go for the sure thing because you just need to make sure. And I was like, “no, I got to give it a shot.” Then as soon as he saw me succeeding in it, then finally he was like, “okay, I see it now.” Now we’re at the point where it’s revisionist history. And he’s like, “yes, I remember I told Ify that he must always follow his dreams.” I was like, “you did not, that was not a thing you ever said! You were not a fan of my dreams!” [laughs]
SS: I’m going to go off on a bit of a tangent. I actually saw you in July doing Smosh: We’re All Gonna Die, playing Blake Blades. I was in LA, and Smosh posted it on the last week of my trip. And I was like, I have to buy tickets to this! I have to say that it was probably the most electric energy I’ve ever felt in a room and it was such a cool space to be in. How was that for you performing with some of your friends and performing in front of a more intimate and really passionate audience?
IN: It’s such a joy anytime you get to see tabletop or any type of gaming paired with storytelling. With improv, with writing, with acting, you’re in full control of the story. You and your scene partner, you and the writing processor, you know what’s going to happen, you’re in absolute control. The moment you add dice or Jenga, it changes everything and it adds a level of stakes. It adds a level of real stakes where it can’t be faked because I don’t know if this is going to lead to my death, so there’s no need to play it up because there are real stakes that are out of my control. I feel the same way with D&D; you roll the dice and the dice can completely alter the story that you’re trying to tell. It’s almost fun to let go and let that story lead instead of trying to tell this overt story and allowing this shift to be like real life where shit happens. So you just move forward and you allow it to let you tell a more full complex story.
SS: TTRPG has also started to become so popular in mainstream media. Has it been exciting to see that come up more in popular media? Because I know for me, growing up I didn’t really see too much of that stuff. To really get into it, you already had to be in the know and grow up around it to be exposed to it.
IN: When I started out, none of this existed. When I started at Geek & Sundry, when I was hosting for their Twitch, Zack, the producer, was walking me around, saying like, “you’re going to host with Hector Navarro, Becca Scott, and Stef Woodburn. Y’all are going to be the main hosts. And then on Thursdays, we have these voice actors that are playing D&D – they’re going to come do a D&D game.” We’re like, okay, cool! Then over that year, it just grew. As someone who likes D&D, I understood the power of the storytelling that can happen at the table. But it’s just one of those things, where before Critical Role, I remember it was this ongoing joke in like the D&D subreddits, or of the person who’s always telling you what happened at his home game, and how yeah, it sounds cool to you, but you’re telling me third party what happened. When it turned into narrative media, – before that, it was The Adventure Zone, Acquisition Incorporated, and I think Nerd Poker as well. But it was in the podcast form, and that made sense, right? Because you can sit down and do a long podcast. Then Dimension 20 comes out and that’s a whole nother level because that’s all pre-shot. So then they’re able to do a little bit more with the figures and the battles and then you just see this kind of elevation of the art form. Just kind of watching it happen out of thin air was wild. When I came to do Escape from Bloodkeep, by that time I’d guested it on Critical Role twice. And I was like, “yeah, we’ll do this and I think it’s going to be fun to do like a whole season of this, but we’ll see.” Even then I didn’t realise how much it grew and the power in it and seeing like the art of Marcus and the way people are celebrating these moments. It blew me away and it’s like very cool because it is a way to flex all your muscles, your acting muscles, your writing muscles, as you’re kind of coming up with stuff to say, the collaborative storytelling, your improv muscles. But it’s very fun, and I’m so curious to see where it goes. And now we have all these wonderful live performances and Time and New York Times and all these major publications have been talking about it. And I wonder how many people are going to come into the space, witness it just out of sheer curiosity, and what happens when it grows even more.
SS: Definitely! I know when I was a teen, speaking about D&D and any of those games, it was like a really nerdy thing. But now I have friends who aren’t necessarily nerdy but are keen to do a D&D game. And I’m like, where was this a couple of years ago? It’s just kind of grown so much and it’s huge. And I saw Critical Role at San Diego Comic-Con and it was incredible, like they were so cool.
IN: I know! There’s just like the interesting energy too of the timing of it and having like Stranger Things come out. So it made D&D popular in the mainstream and then you had the D&D movie come out and people were like, oh wow! It feels like every which way it’s growing and it’s pulling in people. Boulder’s Gate 3 brought in a new swath of people who are passionate about the world and the game. So it really does have me kind of sitting back wondering like, “what is like the next evolution?”
SS: Speaking back on your improv and comedy, does that help with building these characters? You’ve done so much! Do you ever run out of ideas for characters or is it a good thing to work your acting and improv muscles?
IN: Improv definitely helps! I don’t think I will ever run out of characters. I start with a need or desire and go from there, and I think that that’s just an endless well because it can be like, do you want fame? Do you want money? Are you looking for a family? Do you want a regular life? Revenge? Is there someone you’re trying to impress? Is there a lofty dream of becoming a king one day? Are you just a traveling merchant? There’s so many different wants and needs to start and just build off of it. Even within one where you have someone who wants to be a king, what type of king do they want to be? What type of life did they live? What’s their background? It just gets even more segmented as you split off. So I can do for the next five actual plays: does this person want money? And then it’ll be a different person. I actually did that with Ulfgar Fireforge, with the charity stream! That’s what I based Marcus off of. I was like, “I want someone else who wants money.” And those are like two very different people who have the same desire. Then when I did Battle for Beyond, I wanted to go against that. I was like, “I want someone who doesn’t want money”, and that’s like the third beat of these people whose desire is money. Once you start with a desire, everything you build from there is immediately going to make it completely different.
SS: Last question, how often do you get people coming up to you and saying Um, Actually?
IN: Not as many as you would think! Mostly the “Um, Actually’s” come from online. If I say something slightly wrong or they think I say something wrong. It’s a lot of people thinking I said something wrong. And then I have to be like, that is incorrect because of this.
Thank you to the team at Rocket Comms for organising the interview, and Ify Nwadiwe for taking the time out of his busy schedule to have a chat!
