I've always been a creative person since I was young. I enjoyed art, museums, plays, but it wasn't until I was about 10 that my mother encouraged me to choose a career, and it was acting.
I had an amazing mother. She raised nine kids, practically as a single parent, which is the hardest thing in the world. Nine of us! Day in and day out. She had to make sure we all had an education and that we all felt loved.
When I was younger ,I used to want to be, like, a back-up dancer, and my mom was like, 'Well, you know, you can do that, but you might want to choose another career.'
I have to have my sunscreen. It's so important for wrinkle reduction but also to protect you from the sun. Whatever skin type one might have, whatever age they're at, I think sunscreen is key.
There's a lot of division in politics, and that is why I am grateful to be a part of a show like 'Veep.' It makes light of the daunting aspects of the political world.
When I was younger, I was always willing to tell a joke and play out a scene. I would get sticks and pretend they were light sabers. I think it was just at a young age, I was so willing to jump up and perform a little play at the family picnic.
Ever since I was a little teen, I was told by my great-grandma that you've got to always have a good moisturizer. I use cocoa butter, and I use it for all things needing moisture - face, hair, throw it on those legs at the beach, get them all shiny. Cocoa butter is such a great product.
If you think about 'Person of Interest' with Taraji P. Henson or 'Scandal' with Kerry Washington - any of those black women could have been any race; they just happen to be black. And those are the characters that I'm more attracted to. It's not so much about separation of race, but really, more uniting us.
I'm a pretty active person. I love yoga, crossfit, Zumba, and got to get that occasional hike in at Runyon Canyon when I can. I also love mentoring youth.
I just love acting. Being in theater or being in television or film, I'm really living out my destiny.
A handy pair of tweezers go a long way. You never know when you're going to have to pluck out a few of those eyebrow hairs. Keep the tweezers in the purse!
I used to wait tables at Gladstone's, a seafood restaurant, day in and day out. I made some of my best friends there. I taught dance and acting lessons to kids. It was awesome - an outreach program, Voices Unheard. I was a messenger for a couple of months.
I was born on the west side of Chicago, and there was quite a bit of poverty. My family and I didn't have exactly the best or the most optimal financial situation in my youth, but we turned out well. My mom always made sure that we got a proper education and that we dedicated ourselves to our work.
I really think that studying theater early on really helped me to be able to identify how to get into a character, because it's such a mysterious thing. Learning objective acting in the beginning of my career was the best thing I could have ever done.
A little secret about actors is that we never think we do a great job in auditions. We kind of just go in and do our work and leave sort of hoping for the best. It's an interesting dynamic - acting is such an interesting job. You never quite know how well you do.
I was a telemarketer for exactly one week in 2005. I could not take 'no' one more time. I could not take the rejection.
I'm a woman of lip gloss. Estee Lauder has an amazing lip gloss line. But I even go as far as to use some Wet 'n Wild, you know, old school! It's kind of like whatever works. I find that with lip gloss, there really is no difference in quality there.
I think it is so great right now that we are in an age where there's an African American president in office. I think it is important for our generation to really witness that.
I think Obamacare is one of the greatest moves that will be beneficial for everyone in this country.
Laughter is such a healing thing, and through laughter, we find commonalities with each other. There's a lot of separation in the world, and by creating more things to laugh at, we can create a common ground for open discussion.
