Eric Sedeño, known better on TikTok as @RicoTaquito, is unapologetically himself.
Fans know the 27-year-old creator best for his skits about being a poorly-hidden LGTBQ+ teen; “fighting for his life” against gay allegations with a brand of awkward, relatable cringe humor that you can’t help but love.
And then, of course, there’s his infamous wig series, where he walks around with a f**kass bob, for no other reason besides it’s funny.
These unique satirical videos, along with Sedeño’s general sunny demeanor, have garnered the New York-based creator a loyal fanbase of 1 million followers.
How it all started
“Honestly, I was super pent up, and during COVID, I had no outlet for creativity and being silly with my friends like I used to be,” Eric Sedeño said in an interview with Passionfruit. “I’m a very hardcore extrovert. I didn’t expect anything to come from it.”
But what initially started as roughly 20 followers soon swelled into a media empire of 1 million TikTok followers and a 2024 GLAAD Award-nominated podcast, “Gay & Afraid.”
“I had like 20 followers. And I was like, ‘Okay, these 20 people are gonna have the time of their lives!’” he said. “And that’s kind of what got me out of my shell.”
According to Sedeño, he’s always been a storyteller. He tells us he prides himself on being the “exact same person” IRL as you see on the internet.
“I just want to make people smile,” he adds. “And I wasn’t smart enough to become an orthodontist.”
So, these days, Sedeño says he’s content with being a “little bright spot” on the internet. And this small bright spot led to more shine than he could ever have anticipated.
“When I started talking about being gay, I had people come up to me and thank me for being outspoken,” he recalled. But the most memorable moment, he says, was when a female fan came up to him and said that he was the reason she came out during the pandemic.
“That really shocked me,” he explained. “I had no idea that impact could be made from, like, a little sixty-second video.”
Eric Sedeño’s advice for other creators
Like all creators, Sedeño admitted that he deals with hateful comments on his TikTok. But he remains unfazed.
“There’s things that people can say through the screen that don’t affect them, but I’ve allowed it to affect me,” he says. “I think that that was one of the biggest struggles I had starting out. I’m a very open person, but I can be super guarded.”
“Ignorance is bliss when it comes to that stuff,” he added. “Because I don’t need to know what people are saying if it’s gonna be hateful.”
For other aspiring creators, Eric Sedeño had some simple advice. Put yourself out there, and don’t be afraid to be cheesy.
“Like sometimes, you’re gonna make something, and it’s cheesy, and you’re gonna look back at it and be like, ‘God, that was so cheesy.’ But it’s part of the process. You got to be cheesy to grow.”
But Sedeño wants to reach one person more than most: his younger self.
“Comedy, for me, it’s like a tool of healing,” he explained. “Finding the humor in like, in like a human truth of a gay experience is just like, to me, really healing.”
“I think I had a lot of fear growing up about who I was,” Sedeño said. “But I’d tell myself to be less afraid.”
