Today we’d like to introduce you to Darrion Nguyen.
Hi Darrion, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Of course! So I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2017, where I received my Bachelor of Science and Arts in Biochemistry and Bachelor of Arts in Theatre & Dance. After graduating, I worked as a research technician at Baylor College of Medicine for several years. During that time, I found myself working in the lab during late hours. Perhaps it was during these hours where a lot of my creative ideas marinated. As a result, I would make short silly videos and various memes of me just fooling around in the lab. I would post these videos to several Facebook Meme pages and eventually to other social media platforms, where I adopted the name, “Lab Shenanigans.” Once I gained a larger following, I decided to steer my content in a more educational direction, where I explain biology and other science concepts through memes and short skits.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Surprisingly, the road has been mostly smooth. I’m very fortunate to have very supportive family, friends, and former lab colleagues, who I believed I could make a difference while also making a career out of this. I’ve had a handful of people say that I’m putting science in a bad light because of my silly videos, but it only encouraged me to continue making them.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
In the past couple of years, I’ve made several videos to make specific biochemistry concepts more digestible and tackled some topics of Covid-19 misinformation. With my background in theatre, I’ve been slowly inching my way towards television. I’ve had the opportunity to be featured on Kal Penn Approves This Message, where I talk about climate change, and on a recent commercial for Pfizer, where I debunk certain Covid-19 myths. I guess because of my work in the past couple of years, people often know me as the content creator who makes science entertaining and funny.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
As cliché as it might sound, I highly advise those who are starting out to just have fun and stay true to yourself. It can be very tempting to cater your content to the audience, but always important to remember that your audience initially followed you because they’re interested in your authentic personality.
Contact Info:
- Email: darrion.nguyen@gmail.com
- Website: http://labshenanigans.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lab_shenanigans/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lab.shenanigans
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lab_shenanigans
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/labshenanigans
- Other: https://labshenanigansmerch.com/
Image Credits:
Darrion Nguyen
