I am black, and there's no getting around that, but being black doesn't define every aspect of my life.
— Aisha Tyler
I try to do more intelligent roles, unusual roles, and stronger women, and that's helped me a little bit with my casting opportunities.
I love New Orleans. I did a movie there right before Katrina.
If you have an embarrassing story, and it's a source of shame, keeping it in just compounds the shame and turns the story into something poisonous. And if someone knows about it, then it can be used against you.
I think people assume that because I talk the way that I talk that I grew up with money, and then I've had to say, 'No, I grew up poor.' And then I was like, 'Why do I have to play this game where the only black experience that's authentic is the one where you grew up in poverty?' I mean, it's ridiculous.
I am constantly re-evaluating my goals and trying to strike items from my to-do list that aren't critical.
I didn't mind being in a school with a small African-American population. The African-American-community was very tight, and that was great. But I also wanted to interact with other types of folks.
I'm surrounded by geniuses, which is really not good for my own personal self-esteem!
I remember leaving the first 'Matrix' movie feeling completely radicalized, completely changed. I think we all, from our ordinary lives, like to think about putting ourselves into these extraordinary situations and wonder how we'd respond.
The only way I was going to be funny was if I was myself, and either you liked it, or you didn't. Either you got on my train, or you didn't. Freeing myself of this idea that I had to fit a certain mold was when I was able to be my funniest.
I'd like to provide an SAT word in everything I do.
I acted out a lot. I was very nerdy. I was very isolated, which I made up for by kind of talking and trying to entertain people and get them to like me, so I did theatre and improv in high school and college, but always as a hobby.
I grew up on the back of a motorcycle - my dad didn't have a car until I was a teenager.
I won't apologize for choosing my career over kids.
I feel if you believe in equality, you have to believe in it for everybody. And that's the way I've always lived my life.
Marriage is a blood sport. Marriage is jousting. It's disembowelment. It's just terrible, terrible visceral injuries. It's not for everybody.
My husband and I met when I was a teenager, and I've been with him for more than half of my adult life.
I married my husband because I loved him, and I don't feel like there's anybody missing from our marriage, but when you think about this person that you love, and you think about what a wonderful thing it would be to bring another person like that into this world, I think that's the hardest part about all of it.
I can't say that there's been some big change during my career where all of a sudden everything's totally colorblind.
Success is not the absence of failure; it's the persistence through failure.
If you have a secret, and it's embarrassing to you, when you tell that story - you own it. It becomes yours, and no one can use it against you.
Standup comedy is inordinately difficult. If doing something else for a living will make you equally happy, choose that instead. I'm serious. Comedy is punishing.
I tell jokes, chat with people, and make stuff.
Dartmouth is a small school with high-caliber teaching. Our classes were all taught by professors, not teaching assistants. I felt like that was a school where I could make a big splash. The opportunities would be grander and more robust for me there than at a school with 40,000 students.
Chris Parnell's a genius, so he'd be amazing on 'Who's Line.'
It's always been the genres that fascinated me. I think great action movies and great thrillers are transformative.
If you look at shows like 'Def Comedy Jam' in its heyday, there were so many really funny, talented black comics that never would have gotten on that show because they just weren't doing comedy that fit that mold.
Not only was I the only black kid and the only poor kid, but my parents were transcendental meditation devotees, and I live in an ashram for a good portion of my childhood.
I was always a theatrical kid.
Sunday is like this entertainment scrum for me, because I've only got a day, one day of fun. So I want to have brunch, and I want to see a movie, and I want to watch 'Game of Thrones,' and I'm trying to watch 'The Sopranos' from the beginning, and I want to play four hours of video games. So, it's, like, as regimented as my work life.
I wasn't mentally prepared to take care of them, I was focused on my career. And then when I got to be in my 40s and I thought about having kids, I wasn't able to have kids naturally. I don't regret it.
The whole principle of coming out is that everyone knows someone who's gay. The minute someone comes out, no one can be a bigot, because someone they love is gay.
Marriage is hard. I'm not gonna lie.
I'm sure you can imagine it's pretty frustrating to have people talking about your private life who don't know anything about it.
After 40, your chances of getting pregnant are between two and eight percent, and in my particular case, they were less than five percent.
I'd be plenty happy if I could keep playing scientists and cops for the rest of my career.
Everybody has those stories that make them wince when they think about them silently. But as soon as you tell that story, it becomes a little bit less cringe-inducing.
God, I mean I had so many people tell me, 'What you're doing doesn't work.' I used to have to get on stage and apologize for talking the way that I speak.
Pursuit of perfection is futile. Instead, I prioritize and often realize goals or tasks I've been aiming for just aren't that important.
Every culture is very important. Dartmouth has always been dedicated to diversity of culture.
Dartmouth represented a great opportunity. I wanted to go to the best possible school I could go to.
I see the first 'Bourne' movie as really kind of a fulcrum in changing the modern action film, where things are really gritty and really character-driven. Think about how the entire Bond franchise was completely radicalized by Bourne.
One of the first movies my dad took me to see was the original 'Road Warrior.' And I was kind of raised on the action movies of that era: 'The Terminator' and 'Die Hard' and, of course, all of the 'Star Wars' movies.
My hands are delicate and elegant, thank you very much. They're well-kept; my nails are clean.
I've always been an outsider.
I have a lot of good girlfriends that I really love, but you know, most of my close friends are men.
I married my college boyfriend, so I've been with him since I was a kid.
I was with someone at 19, and I was married at 23, and I didn't want kids when I was in my 20s.
One thing about creativity is, when you feel confident and respected, you're more likely to pitch more interesting stuff because you're not as precious with it. You feel like, 'This is going to land, and I'm going to be supported in this.'
It's very hard when you love someone very much to also start to realize that maybe you want different things for your lives.
