Storytelling is always evolving, but if you allow people with new voices and perspectives to come in, you open audiences up to different walks of life.
— Jay Ellis
I love the 'Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.' I love everybody. I loved every single person in the Cosby house, I loved every single person who went to Hillman.
I run the material, always with two people, sometimes three. We all see things so differently, so to get a couple of people's perspectives on what I'm doing and the material itself is insanely helpful for honing in on what to take into the audition room.
I want to create this pool of talent to draw from, and I hope that people get inspired to make more web series and bring them to me to help develop.
Everyone has a role, no matter where you are on the globe.
My dad was in the service, so I went to 12 schools in 13 years.
When you love somebody, you gotta be honest with them even if it'll hurt them.
Where I went to high school at was a predominantly white town, and I definitely got pulled over a number of times for driving in the wrong car on the wrong side of town. As you get older, you start to realize that at any moment, there could be a trigger, and that could be you in that situation.
A lot of what you're seeing these characters go through is something that either is a story one of the actors told in the writers' room or one of the writers themselves told in the writers' room.
I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be, which is both settling and terrifying. The roller coaster is going, and there is no jumping off at this point unless I just go nuclear. It's a really interesting part of the whole journey.
I auditioned for Lamorne Morris' part, Winston, on 'New Girl.' In the scene, the character was eating a mayonnaise sandwich. I thought, 'Nobody else is going to go into the audition eating, and this is how I'm gonna set myself apart.'
I read the script first to get the perspective on the whole story, the writing, and how the character I'm auditioning for is talked about by other people or relates to other people; from there, I go into the sides.
There are tons of talented people out there, and we just don't get a chance to get into this system. I want to be a part of that. I want to help these young, diverse, unique voices tell stories.
I love to study people and pick apart what makes a person or character who they are. I never want to get complacent in that.
I worked for a smoothie company, and that was rough. I also sold women's shoes for a very long time. That was super rough.
It's like one of the best things that can ever happen to you as an actor: to have your story reach people, even if they don't look like you and even though they may not be able to identify with a black male; they can still identify with what's happening to you.
I think we still live in this era of hyper-masculinity.
Dating, to people, can mean completely different things.
Whoopi Goldberg, Lily Tomlin, Julia Louis-Dreyfus - I put Issa Rae in that category of comic genius.
Agents run a business, and their business is their talent; some are more general and broad and can rep a little bit of everything; some are more niche. You have to be specific with who you approach and how.
I had a journalist slap me, and it wasn't anyone that I had ever met before. I was at the airport.
Young women who come to Rise every weekend range from ages 15-19 years if they're in school and 19-24 years if they're out of school. These empowered young women talk about protecting themselves, their friends and communities and how they can educate people to help break the stigma surrounding AIDS.
I like to be fulfilled in telling stories and in creating, but I'm just a curious person.
I'm not a believer in 'what you don't know won't hurt you,' unless it's innocent.
After the success of 'Empire' and 'How to Get Away with Murder' and 'Scandal' and 'Power' and 'Black-ish', which all had characters that were genuine, authentic, and had the language of real people, I found myself coming into pilot season and every network just wanted to have their version of one of those shows.
I'm insanely curious about life and everyone's story and where they come from and how they got to be who they are.
I think our life is a journey, and we make mistakes, and it's how we learn from those mistakes and rebound from those mistakes that sets us on the path that we're meant to be on.
