Caleb Hearon — comedian, actor, podcast host, and Rolling Stone's sixth most-influential social creator of 2025 (ahead of Mr. Beast, who took issue with the ranking) — insists he's just some guy. “It's a bizarre thing to get attention,” Hearon tells Teen Vogue. “It's funny that my job is, like, so many people looking at me and commenting on me and watching my stuff.”
That's not to say Hearon hates the fame; actually, he loves the way people are drawn to his art. He has been building this career for over a decade now, while also building his life and community. They're all intertwined. Take, for example, the way he brings a gay historian to talk about the importance of our queer elders on his podcast, So True With Caleb Hearon; or how his first standup special, Model Comedian, seamlessly weaves in jokes about the death of his father and his experiences as a fat gay kid in Missouri.
Hearon is currently on an extensive press run for Model Comedian, while also working on upcoming films like The Devil Wears Prada sequel, and Little Brother, starring John Cena. When I ask about his favorite recent interview, he quips: “This one will be the best if you don't ask me about Mr. Beast, I'll tell you that. Good God, am I tired of talking about that.”
Below, we speak with Caleb Hearon for Teen Vogue's New Hollywood Class of 2025.
Caleb Hearon: Oh, I've never once in my life tried to please everyone, which is good because you're so right — you just can't. For me, it's not even really about pleasing anybody; it's about trying to tell the truth as I see it. I'm like, "Look, this is how I feel about the world and my life right now." The good news about our fractured media system and there being no monoculture anymore is, if you don't like me, you can turn the f*cking channel and there's something else.
CH: Well, one thing I've been thinking is, I don't know how people do this. I'm in Kansas City now, trying to relax a little before my next thing, and I was telling my friend at dinner the other night, I was like, "Man, every single week this year has been, 'Oh, next month I'm going to relax.'” It's been so much great work and so many cool opportunities, and it's nothing you want to say no to because it's all so exciting and you feel so grateful that you get to be doing anything — especially right now, when it feels like that's more and more rare.
I want to direct more. I want to act more. I want to eventually be producing stuff. My buddy [is] shooting a DIY music video next weekend, and I want to be in it.
The overwhelming thought is just, How do I sustainably remain a person who has a real life that isn't just about getting attention at my job? I'm trying to balance making a couple cool things every year and then the rest of the time just being a person.
CH: It is, and I love it! I'm better than everybody now, and I'm just excited to switch up on everyone who's been there since the beginning. No dude, it's a funny process to try and mitigate. I'm glad that people care about my work; it's better than doing the work and no one caring about it. But I don't worry about fame changing me because I don't like to think of myself as famous.
I also have a lot of systems in place and a lot of old friends and a lot of love in my life that allows me to, just as soon as I'm not working, slip on back to Kansas City and remember who I actually am.
CH: Sometimes, and sometimes no. I miss big life events because I can't change the filming schedule of The Devil Wears Prada to come to someone's bachelor party. I do my best, and I'm lucky to have very gracious people in my life.
The way to stay sane in all of this is to not only stay connected to people who don't treat you like you're this precious object, but then also, I'm constantly reminding everyone on my team and in my life that telling me no is a really good thing. That's hard, because being told no sucks, and being told yes is amazing.
CH: I watched the original Devil Wears Prada when I was a closeted 11-year-old gay kid in Missouri. It meant the world to me. Even as I was auditioning, I was like, Hey, you're not going to get this, and that's okay. To actually get to work with all these crazy-cool people, it was a total dream come true.
CH: Having confidence in your choices and showing up and doing what you think is the right thing to do. I've always loved being directed. I've always loved working with scene partners, but particularly, I watch Anne Hathaway work, and the way she moves around a set and how gracious and warm she is to every single person she interacts with. There was literally a moment during filming when I was like, "Man, how do you have this much energy?" And she's like, "You just tell yourself that you do, and you do."
CH: I'm really trying to be part of funny things. I want to have a good time. I'm starting to work on my own projects as well.
It seems like we might actually get this movie about my dad made that I wrote forever ago. I co-wrote that with my friend Ruby Caster, and we began that process in the months following my dad's death in 2022. It was really emotional to write. At the heart of it is going home to deal with the death of a person you had a very complicated relationship with….
I think grieving somebody is just a new way to love them, and I have definitely felt a lot of love toward my dad during this process, and also a lot of frustration.
CH: I've been a part of so many cool things, but [the HBO special] is the first thing that I got to make. It came from my mind. It came from my work. I got to hire people. I got to decide what it looked like and what it was. This is the first time I've ever felt 100% solely responsible for something that it's like, if I don't like this, it's my own fault. If I love it, I get to have this feeling of, like, Wow, everybody did such a good job on this, and I get to share the victory.
CH: Part of the work of anything happening for a sustained amount of time is remembering the joy and why you got into it. It is supposed to be fun. We make sh*t up for a living. Getting to play pretend and f*ck around for a living is such a massive privilege. Any of us who write or act or do creative jobs, we're living one of the best lives of any person who's ever existed on Earth. At the end of the day, people work in coal mines.
CH: You know what? If Jason and Travis want to have me on their podcast, if they want to bump Leo DiCaprio and make some time for me, I'll come over there.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
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