A biography for Teyonah Parrishasn’t been written yet.
“It's important, as a young person of color, to see yourself reflected in the media.”
“I'm influenced by many things. Simply turning on the television, I feel inundated with images and messages to be a certain way. So I try to limit my influences by being aware of what I allow into my environment. I'm always conscious of what's trying to creep into my subconscious.”
“You have to be resilient to be a black person in America. The thing about being resilient is being able to fall apart and pick yourself up again. And putting yourself back together, that improves on what you were before.”
“I've wanted to be an actress my whole life, and the - none of the women I aspired to be like had natural hair.”
“It's no coincidence that the cities with the highest rates of violence also have the highest rates of unemployment. There are not many opportunities. We have to address that, starting from the government down and the grassroots up.”
“An actor hears 'no' more often than the average person. A black human and a black woman on top of that? That's a lot of no's.”
“When I choose a role, what I'm looking for is the ability is to tell our stories. Me being a black woman, that's just a given. It's going to be a part of any role I do, making sure I tell it truthfully and nuanced and in a way that many people can relate to.”
“I've had the struggling actor experience. At one point in New York, I was holding four jobs, including bottle service girl, while I was trying to break into acting.”
“Whatever it is you do, study it, learn the ins and outs of it, and really work on building your craft.”
“I went straight from filming the second season of 'Survivor's Remorse,' and the creators over there were so supportive in letting me go early so I could film 'Chi-Raq.' And that was an amazing experience.”
“Generally, when I'm going to a new project, I take my own makeup. I'll explain to them what it is that I would like. If they are receptive, we figure it out together. If they're not, I'll be going to back to my trailer and doing my own makeup. And that's the same for hair.”
“The person that inspired me throughout most of my childhood was Angela Bassett.”
“Ever since I was maybe nine or 10 years old, I'd say, 'I'm gonna be an actor, and I'm gonna go to Julliard, and I'm gonna be in movies.' My parents never said, 'What's your backup plan?'”
“I'm like any other girl: I see the Instagram posts and the Tumblr stuff. I'm inspired by what my fellow girls are doing.”
“When you just come into a show that's already established, you feel that they're family, and they have a way of doing things and running things.”
“I think, no matter who you are, at some point in your life you've probably said, 'OK, well, who am I, and where do I fit in?'”
“My dad, bless his heart, always told me I was beautiful, so I was never self-conscious in that way. But when you look at the images on TV, you think you need to look like that in order to be sexy.”
“I think social media is a slippery slope because while you're projecting something out to people, they also project back onto you what they want to see.”
“A show like 'Orange Is the New Black' has every race and ethnicity - and you don't even have to depend on four networks any more. You can go to Amazon or Netflix and be in an award-winning show.”
“Why aren't there films being made that tell ethnically diverse stories? Or why is it so impossible to allow a person of color to add their texture and their essence to a role that is not ethnically specific? I don't know why it's a novel or risky idea to consider making a film look like how our world actually looks today.”