Arturo Castro, so far best known for playing drug dealers on the Netflix drama Narcos and Comedy Central’s Broad City, is out to shake up certain Americans’ ideas of what’s Latinx—one ha-ha at a time. “This concept that Latin Americans are prone to laziness—it makes no sense,” says Castro, a transplant from Guatemala City, Guatemala. “I've never seen a harder-working people than immigrants.” Yes, he agrees society could ditch the trope of a man snoring under a sombrero. Quips Castro, “But I just have something against them because my head is not a good one for hats.”

Starting June 18th, Castro gets to start showing off that sly wit in Comedy Central’s Alternatino with Arturo Castro, a weekly sketch-palooza that’s a bigger-budgeted version of his same-titled web hit. Some would say the timing for such a show is overdue, what with the rise in bigotry against people from south of the border. “The TV version of my show just happened to coincide with really hostile political times for people who look like me,” says Castro. “But I’ve found comedy to be an empathy-building tool. Discovering that you and the person next to you laugh at the same thing is unifying.”

This guy is no product of toxic masculinity. His late father was a psychiatrist back home—as is Castro’s aunt. And sis is a therapist (mom: perfumist). Growing up, “I was a pretty soft kid,” the star confides. “I wasn’t really into sports. But my parents taught me that my vulnerability was my strength. Being empathetic was a good thing, you know?”

Castro says his family “didn’t blink” when he took to performing at age four. That’s when he was plucked to perform in a grand production of A Christmas Carol at his country’s premiere theatre, the outdoor Teatro Nacional. “They needed a few kids to come and ring a little bell, but they made the mistake of putting me in a little Tuxedo.” Beat. “I looked adorable!” At 12, he joined a children’s theater group. By 18—between law school classes and studying acting with a Juilliard-trained coach—he was hosting Conexion, basically his country’s version of MTV’s Total Request Live. “We’d show the top five videos and go to concerts to interview people like Shakira.”

Along the way, his acting teacher kept encouraging Castro to give acting a shot in Manhattan. “She was, like, ‘I think you have what it takes to compete in the big leagues.’" In 2008, he dumped law school for New York’s Acting Conservatory and was quickly cast in We Speak NYC, a drama about immigrants in the Big Apple (produced by the city’s immigrant affairs division!). After notching lots of short films, in 2015 he got a bit part on The Good Wife as a dishwasher named Juan . . . the same year, as it happens, that he launched Alternatino. The next year, a bigger break: The role of soldier Mango in Ang Lee’s Iraq war story Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk with Vin Diesel, Chris Tucker and Kristen Ritter. Lee “was such a philosophical and kind director, man,” says Castro. “Making that movie was like a four-month acting lesson with one of the greats.”