Matt Rogers is having a moment, and he is meeting it with the humour, self-awareness, and a delightfully chaotic Christmas spirit that has made him one of pop culture’s most reliable sources of joy. When we connect over Zoom, the actor, comedian, singer and co-host of the hugely popular Las Culturistas podcast is in Los Angeles, preparing for the latest run of his holiday tour, Christmas in December, which stops in Toronto on December 17th. As a longtime listener and proud Las Culturistas “reader,” I already know the show lives in its own cheeky universe, but hearing Rogers describe it in real time only underscores how deftly he balances being a true pop-culture obsessive with becoming a cultural force in his own right.
Over the course of our conversation, he recalls the childhood drama that convinced him Christmas was for him, the slow-burn rise of Las Culturistas with best friend and SNL star Bowen Yang, and the ascent of their “Las Culturistas Culture Awards,” which recently secured a new broadcast deal with Bravo for 2026. Rogers also reflected on creative ambition, the intensity of devoted fans, and a full-circle Mariah Carey moment that still leaves him a little stunned.
Caitlin: You’re blessing us with an appearance in Toronto this year — what can we expect from your show?
Matt: Well, you can expect I’m performing my whole album, Have You Heard of Christmas? And I can ring the bell now. It’s time to listen to it. It is now November. It is acceptable to stream the album, Have You Heard of Christmas? Or watch the special, Have You Heard of Christmas? And let me take a deep breath. Showtime with Paramount+. So yeah, I’m gonna do the whole album. I’m gonna do a couple of covers. Last year I had a section in the show called the red green section, which is when I honor the colors of Christmas. I do one song inspired by red, one song inspired by green. Last year I did “Red Wine Supernova” by Chappell Rhone and “The Wizard and I” from Wicked. And this year I am doing something you’ll have to come see for yourself. But if ask yourself what in culture was red this year and what in culture will be green this year, you might be able to figure it out.
Caitlin: Is there a specific piece of Christmas culture that made you say Christmas is for you?
Matt: Yeah, I would say that for me, it was the suspense around the reality of Santa. I think that the tension of him being real or not played an important part in my attachment to the holiday. I was one of those kids that stayed up late to see if he was coming. I definitely was checking to see the cookies, if they were there the next morning, et cetera. I never actually caught my parents in the act, spoiler alert to all the kids reading this, Santa’s not real. I never caught them in the act, but I will say that I started to catch on when I realized that the Santa that would come for me and my cousins was a lot like my dad. The Santa really seemed like my dad; I felt like this was my dad. And I feel like the reason why everyone was so excited and having so much fun wasn’t because this was Santa, but because we “don’t know” that this was my father… I knew.
Caitlin: Do you remember a specific toy that you really wanted at Christmas as a kid?
Matt: Oh yeah. I was one of those video game children, so the year that PlayStation 2 came out, it was huge news that it was really hard to get and very expensive. And so I was told by my parents: you are not getting this. “Just so you know, like, you’re not getting a PlayStation 2. So don’t expect it.” And so I remember I woke up in the morning. I was gullible enough to believe them as I opened gifts, and I was getting a lot of PlayStation 2 games. They kept saying that this is for when I would get the system later. I totally bought into it, thinking one day I’ll get the system and I’ll be able to play these games, and I was okay with that. And then the last gift that they had hidden far away so that I wouldn’t see it was, of course, the PlayStation 2. And so that was major.
Caitlin: They really played into the drama.
Matt: Yeah, my family LOVES drama, 100%. Always, always. One of the other great gifts that I got — which actually connects actually to another piece of Christmas culture and made me connect with it so strongly — was tickets to my very first concert at 10 years old. They gave it to me for Christmas, but we were gonna go on my birthday. It was Mariah Carey at Madison Square Garden. It was the rainbow tour and we had horrible seats. Funny enough, I saw Sabrina Carpenter last week at Madison Square Garden from that same seat. I had looked up where our seats were, and I had a little bit of a moment. I was like, wow, my first concert was here. It’s such an iconic venue. And my first concert was there and now here I am, 25 years later, seeing someone else.
I’ve seen many shows there over the years, but for some reason I was choosing then to have a nostalgic moment. I sat all the way up there and saw Mariah who would become… Well, she already was my favourite, but she’s just been so lasting. One of my prize possessions is right here. When she came on the podcast, she signed this cassette. This is a one sweet day cassette tape. This is Mariah and Boyz II Men. This is her longest running number one hit single. And I brought it to the studio the day that she was on our podcast last year and she signed it. And I got to tell her how much she meant to me and how formative she’s been on everything I do. So yeah.
Caitlin: That’s what I was going to say, like the full circle moment is: you’re at the Sabrina Carpenter concert looking back at the seats that you sat in when you were a kid, but also kind of the full circle moment is you’ve had Mariah Carey on the show. That’s so impressive, and I have to acknowledge that in March 2026, Las Culturistas will have been around for 10 years. I work on a podcast (like it’s a much smaller podcast, here in Canada) and I’ve always loved podcasting, and you guys were some of the founding fathers of the genre. Anytime anything happens in pop culture world, I’m so excited to hear you guys discuss it. When you and Bowen started the show, did you ever think to yourself, ‘We’re going to have Mariah Carey on one day?’
Matt: No, no, no, no. I remember when we started the show, it was like something we were kind of half-doing. It was an excuse for Bowen and I to have a play date once a week. In the very beginning, if you look at our release dates, we would take like six weeks off between, I remember a common refrain we would say was, “oh, we owe them an episode, let’s go in”. And so it was this incredibly slow burn in the beginning. And then we did a live show, we did, Don’t Think So Honey Live, which was in like 2017, I think?
The podcast started in March, 2016. And that’s when we realized like, oh, like there’s people here that are kind of really diehard about it. And then at our next live show it started to really pick up. And we realized like, oh, maybe the podcast is the thing. Because before that we had just been having fun with it, which maybe is why it was successful. We weren’t trying very hard.
I do think that starting a podcast now is so different because it’s so saturated and so crowded. And now you’re competing with some of the most famous people in the world, who are starting podcasts and even they aren’t guaranteed success. So I’m really proud because I think Las Culturistas is one of the only top podcasts that started truly, truly indie, and really had no help. It was totally word of mouth. I mean, the podcast had been a thing for at least two years before Bowen got Saturday Night Live as a writer, and I started working, and the podcast has really grown with us and our listenership has grown with us and it’s crazy to think that it’s 10 years. It’s crazy.
Caitlin: Do you think you’re going to do anything big to celebrate in March?
Matt: Certainly we will, because I think that our 10-year anniversary will coincide with our 500th episode. Plus, we also just signed a new contract, so listeners can expect at least three more years of Las Cultch. I think we will absolutely do some sort of dumb, ridiculous, event-turned-episode. It feels like we always figure something out; we’ve done it for 200th, 300th, and 400th so far. We know what we’re going to do. I don’t know if I should say it yet, and it’s probably something Bowen and I should say together. But yeah, it’ll be 10 years of lost culture.
“The number one most important thing going forward, and I am listening to our fans, is that they want this to be a stupid fucking fun time with me and Bowen. And if people can get involved in that and do that, then it’s a really fun episode for everyone.”Matt Rogers
Caitlin: I also think part of it is, kind of the lexicon that you guys create, and how you create this serial content; it’s genius. And you do it so naturally. The “I don’t think so, honey” to wrap up episodes and to have guests do it… It set the bar pretty high for a lot of podcasts, which is great. We need that in the podcasting space because it is so heavily saturated. And now you guys have the culture awards.
The Las Culturisa’s Culture Awards are, dare I say it, making award shows fun again. It was so cool to see the red carpet event and the big celebrities there, but everyone’s having laughs, and everyone is in on the jokes. It’s some of the smartest, best people Hollywood. It felt very capital C cool. Do you guys think you’ll do it again this year? Do you feel a lot of pressure now that it’s kind of this big thing that’s on Peacock and Bravo? How do you feel about it?
Matt: I would say that I am so excited to do it again in whatever form that is. And if we get the opportunity to do it on Bravo again in 2026, I am really excited because now we have like a great proof of concept for the show. it’s gonna be even more exciting to get people on board because we can get them on board earlier because there’s an understanding of what it is. It’s kind of hard to tell people what that show is because it’s a comedy special disguised as an award show. And this town (Los Angeles), well, in all entertainment towns, they take award shows very seriously. So now I think we’ve been able to get across exactly what this is, and people know it’s fun, and that they’ll have a good time. So whether it’s on TV or it’s live again, I’m so excited to do it again because we will do it either way.
Caitlin: I heard Paige DeSorbo talking about it on Giggly Squad, and have heard other people who were there publicly talking about it and just how it fun and cool and different it was. And I just think about also the way that celebrities now sort of clamour to be on your show. It’s the reverse of how a lot of people start a podcast where you reach out to your friends, people you know, they come on, and it’s great. But now Jennifer Lawrence is doing her current press run and she’s specifically requesting to come on Las Cultch. I feel like in the world of non-conventional kind of PR, it’s like you guys and like hot ones. Is that weird? Do you guys feel like you’re inundated with these requests now or, you can kind of be choosy about who you want?
Matt: We get requests from everybody and it’s not a typical press request either because we only do one episode a week and we do 90 minutes with that guest. So Bowen and I are very specific and very intentional about who is invited on the show.
And sometimes it has nothing to do with whether or not we’re interested. It’s just that we only have so many episodes. And we also are committed to finding a balance between, having these incredible people on the show that have, in some cases, defined pop culture. I mean, you’re talking about like Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lawrence. You’re talking about Lady Gaga, He’s Witherspoon. You know what I mean? Like, and this is just, that’s just a sampling.
Caitlin: Reese Witherspoon, my gosh.
Matt: Of what it’s been and what it will be. But Bowen and I are also really focused on maintaining the spirit of what the show has always been, which is really about our friendship and our dynamic and the way that we can bring people into that. And so sometimes I do think that we have the option to make this a podcast where it’s really just a PR stop for everybody. But that is something we’re so not interested in.
You know what I mean? If I had my druthers, I wouldn’t talk about the upcoming projects or the list of things that a publicist gives me to talk to. I just want to talk to people and jam out. And you have to feel that out with every guest. With someone like Jennifer Lawrence, it’s easy because we knew she was a diehard fan of the podcast. She’s a self-identified Katie and she’s an incredibly easy person to talk to. Other people, you have to do a bit more work getting them on board; not everyone at that level necessarily knows what the podcast is. It’s just a place they’re being told to go by their publicist because it’s a great platform, which I’m so grateful people think that.
The number one most important thing going forward, and I am listening to our fans, is that they want this to be a stupid fucking fun time with me and Bowen. And if people can get involved in that and do that, then it’s a really fun episode for everyone. And it’s just about learning how to balance it with this new element of the podcast — which we never saw coming — which is being able to talk to these huge figures in pop culture that we have talked about as separately, and exploring that space with them directly. It’s a really exciting new element of the podcast that’s just another ball we’re juggling. You know, sometimes it’s our stupid guests that are our friends. Sometimes it’s just me and Bowen making a crazy list.
“In pop culture right now, it’s a really interesting time because I think that people feel so politically hopeless and so politically depressed that a lot of people are like transferring very intense feelings onto this more trivial discourse.”Matt Rogers
Caitlin: I was doing some research for this interview, and your Reddit following is crazy. Is it weird though for you guys — as fans of pop culture and celebrity — to have fans yourselves?
Matt: You know, Jimmy Fallon did an interview not long ago where he said something like, ‘I wasn’t prepared to be disliked.’ And it was really interesting to hear him say that because when you have fans, you also have people who feel very strongly — especially on a show where you’re giving takes. Like, yes, they’re comedic takes, and oftentimes they’re meant to just get a reaction out of myself or Bowen. But sometimes there are genuine takes and you know, in pop culture right now, it’s a really interesting time because people feel so politically hopeless, and so politically depressed that a lot of people are transferring very intense feelings into this more trivial discourse. Sometimes when I have a weak moment and I do look online to see what people are saying, I can feel a little hurt. But people are entitled to go online and have a space to talk about this thing. You know what I mean? Really has nothing to do with me. And so in terms of the fandom of the podcast, I’m so grateful for it when it’s going really well and I feel super held, but also in times when I feel like we’re getting a little bit of a harder time it goes both ways, and you have to learn how to calibrate your emotions so that you don’t get derailed by some of this stuff. I probably just shouldn’t look online at all and I think that my close friends would agree.
Caitlin: I just know because I’m such a fan of the podcast and I listen all the time. And then when I’m looking online, I see a lot of overwhelmingly positive things and I see so many people who know all of the terms, they listen every single week. So yeah, to your point, even if they’re saying things that are at times are slightly critical, they’re there, and they’re *invested*. I mean, someone not liking one episode sometimes just means that they’re passionately listening ,and they have their favourites of it. But it must be a weird line to straddle.
“You see certain things that do well and get greenlit and you kind of get the sense that they weren’t put on television because they were good. You know what I mean? They were put on television for other reasons.”
Matt Rogers
Matt: We’ve got people who really, really listen week in and week out, and they really have been doing so for years. That is something I don’t take for granted, so I think when things can feel a little reactionary online, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Like, God, did we mess up? People didn’t like this one, or people love this one; maybe we should do that again? I think it’s just truly following our instincts week in and week out. It has served us well, and I think it will continue to serve us well.
And in the new year, I think that Bowen and I are really dedicated to refocusing it on comedy and on us. So that is something that I can say is that in the coming months, we always get busy at the end of the year, but in the new year I think we’re going to see a lot more of me and Bowen again, especially coming up to our 10 year and our 500th, and whatever happens with the cultural awards next year. And then we’re going to hopefully, you know, just keep jamming.
Caitlin: Part of what makes it so enjoyable to watch you guys, on the culture awards, on the podcast, and certainly on your Christmas tour is that you are always having fun. That really comes across to the audience. Like that’s what you want, especially in 2025. You want to watch people who are having fun together. And I think that that’s definitely what I mostly take away from all of your content.
Matt: Thank you for that. And I feel like another thing is that we’re not in a thriving industry. We’re not. I think I’ve had a handful of auditions this entire year. You know what I mean? I think I rarely hear about things in production.
Matt: You see certain things that do well and get green-lit and you kind of get the sense that they weren’t put on television because they were good. That’s just sort of the reality of the business right now. We’re in a Tik-Tok-ified, extremely fragmented business where no one really knows what’s going to work. So you gotta just take it back if you can.
Caitlin: You have an upcoming, so I hear, role in the next season of Palm Royale, and the little tiny bit of research that I did shows you with one heck of a moustache. I feel like you should almost just have a moustache permanently. What, moustache aside, you… What can you say about that role, if anything?
Matt: So what I can say is that, so I just got a new apartment in New York, and I am making a gallery wall, and I had to choose 15 photos for my entire life to just put on this gallery wall, and a picture of me and Kristen Wiig on set was a no-brainer. I mean, not only because it’s a photo of me and one of my comedy heroes like in this sort of period look, plus the sets are just insane. But it was just reflective of what an amazing experience it all was. I get to do like hijinks with Kristen Wiig, and it doesn’t get any better than that. I can also mention that my episode is coming out on Christmas Eve.
Caitlin: Fitting.
Matt: Yeah, right? And it would be very hard for me to complain about anything ever again when I, for the rest of my life, will be able to see myself on Celluloid doing comedy with Kristen Wiig. Just the experience of going back and forth with her, talking about what would work and just her wanting my opinion about what I thought was funny, and her being so kind, and now I get to call her a friend. It’s beyond. Add it to the list of things that make me so fortunate.
Caitlin: So back to the Christmas of it all. You’ll be here in Toronto on December 17th on tour. I am so excited for the show. What will you be doing this year for Christmas? Other than watching, of course, your episode on Palm Royale.
Matt: I’ll finish the tour up in Orlando because my sister lives in St. Pete and my parents do the whole snowbird thing there, so my whole family will come down. I think we’re going to spend a few days in central Florida and just have Christmas there. Then right before New Year’s I go to San Francisco because my dear friend, Joel Kim Booster is getting married, I’m at the wedding party, and Bowen and I have to write a joint toast.
Caitlin: You have homework.
Matt: I have homework to do! I’m touring all over Christmas, and then I have work to do. It never stops. Luckily I have my partner in crime who always makes everything better, and that makes me less nervous, but it’s true, it’s just nonstop. I think doing speeches at those types of things — like I officiated my sister’s wedding a couple of years ago — make me more nervous than being in front of like 2,000 people performing. It’s a way more intimate, meaningful thing because you know people are going to remember it.
Caitlin: The stakes always feel higher because everyone’s expecting you to be hilarious, and they know that you and Bowen are *the duo*. Best of luck with that, and thank you so much for speaking with me today. I honestly cannot wait for your Christmas show, for more Las Culturistas, and for Palm Royale. It’s been a pleasure.
Matt: Thank you so much. This is so great. I always love meeting a reader, and I’ll see you in Toronto!
Learn more about the Matt Rogers Christmas In December tour here.
