Y'lan Noel

“I know a lot of people who thrive on self-tapes, but for me, it does come down to first impressions. I like to be in the room, I like to talk to the people I'm acting with.”

“I'm not interested in people being interested in me.”

“I just want to tell great stories.”

“One thing I do dislike, are cowards.”

“I'm originally from New York, and I just have a love affair with that place.”

“What's cool about 'Insecure' is it's very realistic and nuanced.”

“I feel like when the people in 'Insecure' are honest, the characters learn the most. This show has grown my cynicism a little a bit about relationships just because the way men and women responded to the fact that Issa was cheating on her boyfriend.”

“I want to see more sci-fi with black people.”

“I just want to continue to do polar opposite type of work. I just want to continue to do things that are unexpected and dynamic, with good stories behind them.”

“I hadn't seen 'The Purge' until I was trying to do the research for it. But it was my friends and my cousins, in particular, who came to me not too long before the audition process and asked me if I had seen it. They were talking about how great it was. I was engaged in the opportunity to do the film because of their intrigue with the franchise.”

“Before I was acting, I was extremely athletic and for a lot of time in my life, I didn't know how to deal with the energy that I had to move and use my body in ways.”

“Winks just don't come off as smooth for me as they seem to for everyone else.”

“Part of being an actor is being susceptible to imaginary circumstances, so as soon as I'm on the set I feel like I'm actually there.”

“What drives me is character driven material.”

“Sometimes I feel like my normal approach to roles has been, 'I want to be more complex, dynamic.'”

“A lot of times, black people were extremely cool, and that's how we've been commodified in TV and film. But now we're starting to see an upswing of material where we're like, 'It's cool to be quirky and weird and smart.'”

“I'm just a monk, I'm like a recluse.”

“Sometimes hiding behind masculinity with your homies can get in the way of having a real dialogue.”

“I get what it feels like to watch some of your peers pass you in a field that you're in.”

“I want to do more roles that require a large level of preparation and that are completely different from who I am.”