Ayo Edebiri

“I just had this perception of stand up that was like you're alone on stage, where improv is very collaborative. That's also why I do like writing in writers' rooms because they're just very collaborative processes.”

“I have absolutely zero memory.”

“My goal is to get successful enough that I can get my dad some floor seats for a Celtics game.”

“Ever since I moved to L.A., my dentist - who I love and will die for - is always like, 'When are we getting Invisalign?' And I'm like, 'Girl, they're staying jacked up. You got to keep the shape. We got to keep them au naturale, jagged.'”

“I'm very anxious and kind of dorky and weird, and definitely was that as a kid.”

“Work can be a very intimate thing and a very personal thing and a very emotional thing, and I think when you're also in industries that are creative or creative adjacent, I think there's something that also invokes feelings of passion.”

“I have a theory that Dunkin' Donuts tastes better in Boston. I have nothing to base this off of besides my own emotions. I'll go to a Dunkin' anywhere, but when people say, 'Eh, Dunkin' is okay,' I'm, like, 'You just gotta go to Boston. Let me show you how good it is.'”

“I didn't know how to break into that space at all. My perception of voice acting was Cree Summer and Phil LaMarr for Black people, and then Beyonce and Rihanna come in when people want them.”

“The reality is that we have all these conflicting truths and none of us knows why we are the way we are, unless you've been in therapy for 30 years.”

“I wanted to be a high school English teacher and I looked like how I do now, but I looked even younger, and I was like, um, 10th graders are really mean and I'm too fragile for this.”

“I finished this podcast about the Iraq War that was really good called 'Blowback' - I just really like white people telling me about crime.”

“There's just something cathartic about re-experiencing certain moments of awkwardness and discomfort and pain. We all went through it so let's just laugh because we're on the other side of it now.”

“Because comedy is my bedrock, expressing my opinions is something I'm so used to in my career. Even as a writer, saying your opinions can be beneficial. As an actor... maybe mystery behooves me a little bit.”

“I love Sandy Liang; she's a New York girl. I adore Shush/Tong, Martine Rose and Thom Browne.”

“When you're in a woman in a male-dominated industry, in an industry that's not built for you to have a sustainable life, when your vocation is your passion, then you have to reconcile the thing that you love and then, turning that thing into capital, into money and to rent, how crazy that can all feel.”

“I just felt like, for the kids, teaching shouldn't be a backup plan.”

“All my prom pictures are like the top half of my face is so puffy and also it was so humid that day and my hair is just like exploded because it's so, so humid.”

“I realized you can't take everything personally.”

“In general, I'm a very private person.”

“I think in order to understand what works dramatically, you have to have a sense of humor.”