I think that's what's so great about 'Jessica James' is you get to sit back and take a moment and realize that this person is black. And some days, this character wakes up and feels black, and some days, she doesn't. That is, for me, a fully black experience.
My parents have always been very supportive.
I live in Brooklyn; I live in Clinton Hill. I love it there.
I feel like acting is sort of like that: You're getting so many 'no's all the time. It's just a bunch of no's and a couple of cool yes's. And especially with comedy, too, when you're up on stage, doing live shows, you get immediate yes's or no's.
I have never been a 'hair person.' Growing up, my mom and my sister, who loved to get their hair done, would always give me a hard time about not getting mine done.
I ended up living in braids. It was the '90s - thin braids were very popular - and my mom took me to a lady's kitchen. I got it done, and I've never stopped.
I'm always thinking about what a black lady would think about what I'm doing, just because I feel like they have such great taste, mostly because as black women, we've spent a lot of time downloading what a white male narrative is, so in my head, I'm like, 'If a black woman likes it, if she responds to it, then it's probably pretty damn great.'
My natural hair is who I am. I have lots of braids, and I have lots of twists, but it's all very low maintenance. I feel like I can get up and go and get out of the house. I just don't have it in me to get my hair done all the time.
I started 'The Daily Show' when I was 22. I was going to class at Long Beach.
Post-'Daily Show' has been so busy, which I've been surprised about. We're basically independent contractors in a way. So you have one gig, and you're worried about never getting another gig again, or at least I do.
'The Daily Show' was amazing because I learned so much.
'The Daily Show' was like my family. We had dogs in the office every day, all day. It was just such a warm, beautiful, sweet experience for me. Choosing to leave the show was so hard because I really, really loved everybody there, and I loved what it gave me and the platform it gave me.
I think we can topple the patriarchy by using our voices to speak out against things that aren't right and that we don't agree with. I think for people who are not people of color or members of the LGBT community, it is being an ally and being an advocate in spaces that people of color or members of the LGBT community can't really get into.
When I wake up in night sweats, that's what I'm thinking about: what if someone grabs me from my past and says, 'I heard you drag me to filth on your podcast.'
I love relationships; they fascinate me.
I feel like now is great time for a rom-com because the genre is sort of being opened up to being told by people that look different from each other or who have different orientations.
I really like when different stories are represented, it's not just the same kind of person, and when there's humor in it, and there's relationships.
Every day when I wake up, I check Instagram.
It's a really nice way to cut your teeth, doing live shows. It's like going to the gym because you do have to think fast. You are constantly under the threat of people not laughing. Instead of getting hit, people could just not laugh, so you really are trying to mine quickly for the funniest thing you could say in that moment.
I check Facebook to see how everybody from high school's doing. I go on Reddit to see what my weirdos are talking about. Then I go on Tumblr to see what my feminists are talking about.
