On the UPN sitcom, now in its fourth season, Mapa, 40, plays Adam Benet, gossipy assistant to Mona (Rachel True), a record executive, who shares an apartment building in San Francisco with her law-school student half sister Dee Dee (Essence Atkins).

”Adam is an out, gay Asian secretary at a record company, who has no social graces,” he explained. “He is completely self-centered and unashamed. I think he is who I’d be if I didn’t care about other people’s feelings. But it is liberating to play someone who doesn’t care what other people think.”

Originally cast as the “funny ethnic character,” Mapa turned a three episode deal into a regular stint on the series, where over the past three years, his one-dimensional, witty raconteur-caricature of a character has transformed into a more fully realized one.

“I was originally there as a device,” he said. “But it’s been an evolution, an expansion of my character beyond a person who doesn’t get people’s messages. By now you’ve started to see me outside of the office. I now have friends. Next week you’ll see where I live.”

To the Bay Area native, an all-embracing view of all kinds of people is only normal. “Growing up in San Francisco in the 70's was like watching the last 10 minutes of the Roman Empire,” he said. “I had a schizophrenic upbringing, coming from a conservative Filipino Catholic family, yet we’d go to the Castro Street Fair. I loved growing up there, because the diversity was so great in the seven by seven miles. It makes you less fearful of other people and cultures.“

Getting his start in show business 14 years ago, when he starred in the Broadway production of the Tony Award-winning play M. Butterfly, Mapa eventually moved to the small screen, since appearing on over 30 television series, including Seinfeld, Roseanne, NYPD Blue and Friends.

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