By day Chev-Vaughn Lum is a soft-spoken digital specialist for Hawaii.com. At night, and when he’s playing weekend matinees, Lum is an actor. The Kaimuki High School grad traces his interest in acting to 2008, when he saw Dwayne Sakaguchi dancing in white platform boots in Saint Louis High School’s production of “Rent.” Watching Sakaguchi’s show-stopping performance got him hooked on theater. Lum got started when he was a freshman and was an active participant in the high school’s Performing Arts Center theater program until he graduated. He then earned a bachelor’s degree in media at the University of San Francisco, returned to Hawaii “for a number of reasons” and became involved in community theater. (Hawaii.com is a website owned by Oahu Publications Inc., the parent company of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.)

Lum, 24, is making his debut as a leading man, starring as Princeton opposite Jody Bill as Kate Monster, in Manoa Valley Theatre’s production of “Avenue Q,” which runs through Feb. 10.

One of the best-known scenes in “Avenue Q” is the one where Princeton, the puppet you voice and animate, has sex with Kate Monster, the puppet voiced and animated by Jody Bill. The puppet figures are naked in that scene but they only exist from the waist up, so there is actually nothing to see going on “down there.” How do you handle the logistics of making it look like there is?

It took us two or three rehearsals to get over the laughs and the awkwardness of fumbling — we call it “banging elbows” — but Jody is insanely talented and it works. We haven’t had anyone walk out (during that scene) yet, but I’ve heard that in the last (Manoa Valley Theatre) production some people did. It’s not my favorite scene, but it’s one of my fun scenes that I do. It’s wild and it’s a good time.

OK, so what is your favorite scene?

At the end, where I sing “Everything in life is only for now.” It’s a very poignant line and I think it wraps the show up very well. It also puts a very real-life feeling to the chaos and the hilarity throughout the show. My favorite number in the show is “There Is Life Outside Your Apartment” because it’s so fun and we’re running around and interacting with each other.

Your job as a digital programmer sounds like the polar opposite of what you do onstage. How does a guy who loves acting get into a career working with computers and coding?

I’ve always had a knack for taking things apart and putting them back together, so I’ve always liked that logic aspect of how things worked. Working with computers is the next best thing in my life that I’m good at after acting. For Hawaii.com I handle all the ins and outs, and I enjoy doing it.

What do you enjoy doing for relaxation?

I take dance classes with John Rampage at Diamond Head Theatre, and some other dance classes. After theater and computers, my third passion is dance and movement.

Is there something you know now that you wish you had known when you were 15?

Don’t care about what other people think. If you know your own capabilities, just do it.

What would you like to be doing 10 years from now?

I want to be onstage and doing it professionally — maybe in New York.

Looking short-term, what’s your next big project?

There are a couple of things I’m looking at, but I don’t want to jinx them by talking about them before they happen.