[EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW] Kevin Kreider Talks Bling Empire, SANS, ALLS, & more

Actor, speaker, and CEO of Sans by Taejin Beverage Inc. and Taejin Entertainment LLC, Kevin Kreider sat down to speak to us at The Shops at Skyview in NYC. Kevin Kreider signed with one of the most prominent modeling agencies in New York City before entering the fitness sector. Moving to LA, he received an invitation to appear in the first-ever all-Asian and all-Asian American reality series on Netflix, “Bling Empire,” a worldwide hit. Even more recently, Kreider started ALLS Productions [Asian Lead Love Stories] with Devon Diep.

The actor distributed SANS beverages to guests and the mall gifted guests with Pepero and a Sephora panel for Singles’ Day.

Kevin Kreider and Bling Empire

We asked him about what it was like being a part of the reality TV show, Bling Empire. The show aims to break stereotypes and showcase the diversity within Asian American so it’s definitely important to the community. Kreider states that he only chose to be on Bling Empire on Netflix for two main reasons: “one, it’s never been done before, and two, I got to be myself and not betray something that another person wanted to see me as. So many things that I’ve done in my life (modeling, acting, producing) has always been about changing perception for the better. So when I saw this opportunity for a Netflix show, I decided, ‘Hey, I should definitely take part in this,’ because I think it could be helpful to the Asian community and portray us in a certain light that was totally different than the world was used to seeing us.”

Connections within Bling Empire

We also ask about the friendships and connections that were formed with cast members during the filming of Bling Empire. Kreider mentions that during the filming of season 1, the cast became really close as a lot of things happened. “I think what ended up happening for Season Two and Three is that the fame starts to change people and get in people’s heads a little bit. You start to believe the hype a little bit too much and then it disperses us because most of the time, despite what people say about a lot of the cast-mates, it was our first time experiencing any type of success — any type of spotlight — and I think a lot of us were just not equipped to handle it so quickly. I think a lot of times people just start to make bad decisions and relationships, business, friendships, all that kind of stuff. It just, you know, breaks people apart.” Bling Empire definitely caused many of the cast to sky rocket in fame.

Kevin Kreider and Asian Persuasion

The upcoming movie Asian Persuasion is set to be released very soon! The film is about an underachiever. He comes up with an outlandish plan to avoid alimony obligations to his fashion executive ex-wife. The movie features Dante Basco, KC Concepcion, Kevin Kreider, and more. The movie is by 3-time Tony & Grammy Award winning producer, Jhett Tolentino & screenwriter, Mike Ang. This time Kreider also joins them as an Executive Producer.

Kreider on the film: “It’s a romantic comedy…[and] what I love about it is that it’s Filipinos and me finding love in New York City and then trying to get out of a bad alimony thing happening. (It’s Dante who’s trying to get out of it. Mickey is his character). We’re releasing in the Philippines late November, November 29th nationwide. It’s my first acting debut. What I really love about this film opportunity is that so many people want to just pigeonhole me into just being a reality TV guy. But my background comes from acting. And so this is going to be the first film where I get to actually just show that I can act as well as be on reality TV.”

Kevin Kreider and ALLS

We took a moment to ask about his new endeavor ALLS [Asian Lead Love Stories]. He began this with co-star Devon Diep. Kreider says “ALLS is a production company that wants to tell Asian lead love stories- that’s the name of it.” He goes on to explain that “We want to always portray leads in a very positive way. Men that aren’t emasculated, and females [women] that aren’t over fetishized, because it’s very important to portray how it really is in America, and we want to bring and break all these stereotypes.”

Kreider knows there are many movies with the stereotypical roles when Asians are featured. “We’re not going to be doing Kung Fu movies or anything like that because there’s plenty of movies out there like that. We want to fill the space of where Asians can be normalized and tell awesome stories. We want to portray it in a cool and sexy way. I think what’s happening right now is there’s a lot of different people being celebrated in the world, but we still don’t have those cool Asian leads that we wanted to see in the world. And we think we can tell those stories.”

Kevin Kreider and SANS by Taejin Beverage

Last but not least, we had to ask about SANS. As the founder of SANS by Taejin Beverage, we wanted to delve into the inspiration behind starting this company. Also, to talk about the mission he built it on. Kreider says, “The reason why I started SANS is [that there] was a little bit of a chip on my shoulder. I’ve been sober for almost 7 years. When I first started, and none of the non alcoholic beverages that were trying to claim the sober space were actually sober. And I was like, “Man, you can’t just say that. Where’s the authenticity?” Right? So I just created my own [beverage].”

Starting your own company is never easy! It looks like this one was one of the hardest that he decided to choose. “Little did I listen to all the warnings from people. They said one of the hardest CPG brands you can get into is beverage.”

SANS Mission

He continues to explain his mission behind the company. “I created a beverage company myself because I wanted sobriety to be sexy and cool. It’s kind of related it to my production company and me being an actor. I wanted Asians to be seen as sexy and cool, [which] wasn’t very stereotypical, because most Asians and media and TV and film in America have been portrayed as the opposite. [That] doesn’t mean Hong Kong and all those other movies aren’t. They don’t follow the Asian American [model], the American stereotypes of Asians. [Similarly] I wanted to break those stereotypes of sobriety, like people who are sober are cool. Actually, we’re probably cooler, because we can actually think straight, and we can remember things. A lot of times, people who are single and drinking a lot and dating, they can’t even remember their date because it all is the same: “Ohh I got loaded. I got drunk and then I don’t see the girl again,” you know? And when you’re sober, you have so many great dating stories because you can remember them.”