I kept hiding my smile in pictures throughout middle school and most of high school until picture day came my senior year.

I'm realizing, you don't need to change anything about yourself. This is who you are, and it's okay. That's daring.

I ran track in high school very competitively, and then ran it D-1 at Boston University. I ran there on an athletic scholarship and chose BU because they had both a good track program and an arts program.

My only want and wish, really, was to tell a good story. I wanted to do good work, tell a good story, and give the character a voice. Those were my only expectations.

I loved Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi. Its about a first-generation African family living in America that has to return home to Nigeria when their estranged father passes away.

I think there's something really thrilling to having to get people laughing about something and then when you have them in that comfort space, you can drop the weight into the texture of the story.

In performance, you dont always feel that sort of family bond right off the top. It sort of develops and grows over time.