Josh, who oozes with masculinity and charm, is introduced as a heartthrob from the very start — he’s a little dim-witted, but a heartthrob nonetheless. Not only is he the highly sought-after love interest of a woman who moves 3,000 miles across the country for him, but he also already has a girlfriend. Born and raised in sunny West Covina, California, he’s the guy from high school who never left home. Perpetually smiling, he has no concept of anxiety — or any sort of negativity, for that matter. A man of action, he hits the gym and plays a slew of sports, genuinely loves his massive Filipino family, and hangs out with his crew of like-minded homies. It’s a role that could’ve easily gone to a non-Asian star, but Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s co-creators Aline Brosh McKenna and Rachel Bloom intended for Josh to be an Asian man since the conception of the show.

“I grew up with a lot of Asian bros. That's a type of person that I grew up with that I've never seen anywhere in the media,” Bloom, who also plays Rebecca, told BuzzFeed News in a phone interview.

She and McKenna found their Josh in Rodriguez, who won the role in part because of a video he sent them, of him rapping and playing guitar to an acoustic rendition of 2Pac’s “Thugz Mansion." “I was rarely brought in for a role that I felt was right for me, specifically, and was so contemporary,” Rodriguez said. On the phone, he read Josh’s character description from his computer aloud: “‘Josh is an athletic-looking Asian bro in his late twenties.’ I’m like, first of all, who wrote this breakdown? I’ve never seen this before.”

Rodriguez, 33, who is of Filipino, Chinese, and Spanish ancestry, was raised in Daly City, a California town that’s not unlike West Covina, where the show is set; he, too, grew up around people like Josh. “They describe Josh's mind as being uncomplicated from being brought up in an unremarkable suburb of loving parents,” Rodriguez said. “He's kind of a simple dude, and he had a lot of support growing up. He doesn't have the same problems as me, but I know who this person is. I grew up with Josh Chan, with Joshes in school.”

Warm, easygoing, and a little dumb, Josh initially seems like a mismatch to the slightly neurotic Ivy League–educated Rebecca, which was an intentional juxtaposition.

"We wanted to have a love story where the decision to move across the country for a boy would clearly be wrong. The opposite guy you would think for Rebecca would be a Southern California bro, someone who's really happy-go-lucky,” Bloom elaborated. It's rare to see an Asian-American portrayed as the epitome of romantic love on television, yet on the show, "Josh represents the kind of undying, unconditional love [Rebecca] never got from her own family, especially not from her mother,” explained Bloom.