"Saturday Night Live" actor Bowen Yang says Colorado high school improv coach helped stars align

CBS News Colorado is excited to celebrate Pride this month, and we're doing so with one of the newest breakthrough stars of "Saturday Night Live." Comedian and cast member Bowen Yang grew up in Colorado and he attended Smoky Hill High School in Aurora. His high school improv coach, Adrian Holguin, is retiring this summer.

Yang says Holguin was key to developing his affinity for comedy.

"Gosh, I really shudder to think about what life would have been like without Mr. Holguin," Yang told CBS News Colorado.

Known for his charisma, comedic genius and fast-growing career in film, the writer, actor and comedian credits his high school improv coach Holguin for helping the stars align for him.

"He really just showed me what was possible," said Yang. "The horizon of what was available to me just kind of completely opened up as soon as I befriended him, as soon as I was part of that team."

The team was "Spontaneous Combustion," the improv group Holguin founded at Smoky Hill.

"The quality and the caliber of performance and comedy that was at that team was so mind-blowing, and it really was a moment where it all sort of snapped into place and he really made me realize that," Yang added.

Remarkably, Yang's classmates voted him "Most Likely to Be on Saturday Night Live."

"Brilliant and inquisitive, great math student," Holguin said of Yang, adding that Yang's success has come from hard work and focus.

"He is so smart, empathetic, he listens, he understands and is playing to make the scene and the people he's in the scene with the best. There is no sense of showboating," Holguin said.

Yang misses the beauty of Colorado and tries to head to the mountains whenever he visits his parents here.

"It was a really special place to grow up," he said.

And for Pride: Yang says everyone wants to peel back parts of themselves.

Yang covers cultural phenomena and his personal life in "Las Culturistas," his podcast with Matt Rogers.

"I feel like self-knowledge is the thing that, like, we all kind of go for in the human experience. It seems so universal and it's especially meaningful during Pride," he said.

Yang and Holguin remain friends and Spontaneous Combustion will go on at Smoky Hill High School, now under the leadership of math teacher Sam Gordon.

Holguin says supporting teachers and the arts is critical; you never know the difference you'll make by cheering on.