Yvonne Orji

“I don't know how often white people look around and think, 'Wow, there's really a lot of white people here; we should fix that.' But I know black people often look around and think, 'Wow, I'm the only one here - why?'”

“I remember, growing up, it wasn't sexy to be African. We got called names.”

“There's random people calling my phone: 'Your mother gave me your number.' My mother has tried to set me up so many times long-distance.”

“As a performer, the thing you want the most is to be your authentic self.”

“I came to America when I was six. In true African form, my parents wanted me to be a doctor or lawyer or engineer.”

“I have immigrant, African parents. They would say, in their Nigerian accents, 'So you want to be a jester?' And I was like, 'I don't want to be a court jester, Ma. I want to be a comedian.'”

“I grew up with three older brothers, so I'm very much a tomboy in real life.”

“I was so focused on advancing in my career that I didn't have enough emotional capacity for dating.”

“You can't say you're an actor if you've never acted, and you can't act if no one gives you an opportunity, but they won't give you an opportunity because you've never acted. You're like, 'What in the world? Someone give me a chance!'”

“I went to an all-girls boarding school in Maryland. I used to laugh at the girls in the theater program - I was pre-med, National Honors Society; I was on that track.”

“I want to do more good work. That's very much my parents' influence in me.”

“It's only in acting where I've heard in auditions, 'Can you black it up a little bit? Can you make her a little bit more urban?' And it's just like, 'What?' I don't even know the word for that.”

“I started comedy in 2006. I didn't even think it was a thing I could do.”

“I've been fortunate that the men I surround myself with in the comedy world are really decent people: men who are very aware, who are very respectful, and understand their place and maybe even some of their privilege.”

“My faith - as well as my Nigerian culture - really gave me the substance and foundation to be who I desire to be in life.”

“I believe in the equal and opposite: If I exist, there is an equal and opposite version of me, and so however long I have to wait, and wherever he happens to be, we'll find it. Sometimes it's like, 'Jesus, where he at?'”

“There's a lot of negative speak about what it means to be an immigrant. I'm like, 'OK, I don't know where that came from.' We do the dirty jobs. We do the good jobs. We get the job done.”

“My actual desire is to be able to comfortably walk out of my house without any makeup on and feel as beautiful as I do when my makeup artist beats my face.”

“I don't know who I'll end up with, but whoever he is must have a strong religious commitment, must be someone who loves God.”

“A lot of people hustle differently, and I was like, 'You know what, let me hustle and create, and let me have something to show,' cuz my hustle led to opportunity.”