Idaho doctor featured in commercial with two ‘Saturday Night Live’ cast members
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MERIDIAN – An Idaho doctor with 2.4 million followers on TikTok was recently featured in a commercial alongside two “Saturday Night Live” cast members.
Dr. Dustin Portela, a board certified dermatologist in Treasure Valley, traveled to New York City to film a commercial for SNL’s 50th Anniversary celebration. It premiered on February 16 and features Bowen Yang and Sarah Sherman, SNL cast members since 2018 and 2021 respectively.
“It was a very different experience from seeing patients in the clinic, but it allowed me to continue to flex those creative muscles. Once you see the final product, you’re just kind of blown away how it all comes together,” Portela said.
Portela’s background
While Portella’s practice is in Meridian, his roots go back to eastern Idaho. Before leaving to go to Idaho State University, he grew up in Firth.
For anyone from that area or familiar with it, they might recognize the name Portela as belonging to a science teacher at Firth High School named Stuart Portela. That teacher, who inspired a love of science in him, is his father.
“I was very fortunate to have a great science teacher in high school,” Portela said. “The way that he taught with passion and excitement … at an early age, kind of instilled this love for science in me that really drove me to want to do something in the medical field.”
After getting his bachelors at ISU, he completed medical school at Des Moines University, and then did his residency through Michigan State University in Detroit. But as he worked to complete his schooling, he maintained a desire to return to Idaho.
“My wife is from here as well, so it just made sense,” said Portela.
He opened his own practice after moving back to the Gem State and turned to social media to advertise.
He didn’t anticipate posting videos on TikTok would bring him such a large following.
“I wanted people in my local area to see the videos, and hopefully they would come in and see me as their doctor,” Portela said.
Once the pandemic began, more and more people who were stuck at home started to view Portela’s videos. Five years later, Portela has 2.4 million followers, with his page receiving a cumulative 68.3 million likes on his videos.
Portela also has a Youtube channel with around 81,700 subscribers, and about 451,000 followers on Instagram.
Portela posts a variety of things, ranging from reaction videos to comedic skits to videos that just offer advice on how to best take care of your skin.
While the recognition he was getting online helped grow Treasure Valley Dermatology, it also brought new opportunities for Portela’s individual career.
“What started as just a way to get patients in the door turned into its own thing,” Portela said.
CeraVe, a prominent skincare company, contracted Portela a number of times to shoot videos from his office before they asked him to be in a commercial alongside a Youtuber named Zach King.
“We did a project where I was flying through the air ‘Mission Impossible’ style. CeraVe really liked the way that I worked,” Portela explained.
In 2024, he filmed another commercial with Xochitl Gomez, who played America Chavez in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”
That led to the commercial shoot on the SNL set. Yang and Sherman played heavy metal musicians with a bad case of dandruff. Portela, who plays the band’s drummer, plugs CeraVe Anti-Dandruff Hydrating Shampoo to resolve an argument. Watch it in the video above.
Shooting the ad
Twelve hours of work went into making the 60-second ad a reality.
The day started out with crew members applying make-up to Portela, selecting his wardrobe and fitting him for a wig. After passing “iconic memorabilia” from past SNL sketches, he walked onto the soundstage, which had been set up like a garage.
Before shooting the video, a music coach worked with Yang and Sherman on their guitar playing. The production team didn’t know if Portela had any experience with playing the drums, but found that he did from his time in middle school band.
“And then they start shooting. They shoot all of these lines multiple times, and then they reset the cameras and they film them from different angles … to get all the shots they needed,” Portela said.
Portela got the chance to talk with Yang and Sherman during downtime.
“I was so excited to meet them because of what they do … but the funny thing was, them and everybody on the set, were so excited to have access to a dermatologist. I was fielding questions from dozens of people on their skincare, what they should be using, and afterwards, ended up sending a bunch of skincare products to Bowen and Sarah,” Portela recounted.
Portela is now a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild, which could bring him further opportunities.
But what Portela is most excited for is to continue providing care for people in the Boise area. Recently, he started running a mobile clinic that provides free care for clients.
“We’re just trying to go out and do good things here. As I keep putting out material onto the social media universe, I think good things will keep happening with that,” Portela said.
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