During a recent interview, stand-up comedian Tiffany Haddish shared that she was functionally illiterate for much of her youth, not able to read until her teen years.
What We Know:
- Haddish, 40, was featured on the popular YouTube interview show VLAD TV, created by former DJ, Vladislav Lyubovny. Instead of being interviewed by Vlad, Haddish was actually interviewed by fellow comedian Luenell. Throughout the interview, Haddish spoke about her come-up in California, living in foster homes throughout her childhood, connecting with her Eritrean roots, and eventually finding her comic voice at the Laugh Factory Comedy Camp in Los Angeles.
- During the interview, Luenell mentioned Haddish’s 2017 New York Times Bestseller “The Last Black Unicorn,” which Haddish later narrated in the audio version of the book. The narration then won her a nomination for a 2018 Grammy, which prompted Haddish to share the irony she found behind it. “That was kinda cool to be nominated for a Grammy for reading out loud when I couldn’t read at one point in time in my life when I was in my teens,” Haddish disclosed. She shared that a drama teacher helped her learn to read.
- Haddish said she believed her literacy problems stemmed from a lack of self-esteem based on the messages she received throughout her childhood. “Because I thought I was stupid. Everybody would say to me, ‘You’re stupid, you’re stupid, you so stupid,” Haddish said, saying she took everything literally. She shared that her everyone in her family, including her stepdad, mom, grandma used to say, “You so stupid,” so she began to believe that it was true, convincing herself she couldn’t read or do things because she was stupid.
- The narrative changed for her, she said, when at 18, she worked at the Los Angeles airport and encountered a woman with a different perspective. When the woman said, ‘Girl, you so stupid,’ Haddish said she was ready to fight her until the stranger clarified that she meant stupid as in ‘funny.’ “All these years people been telling me I’m funny, but they didn’t say ‘funny,’ they said ‘you stupid?’ So, I learned a lesson that day.” Haddish said. After that day, Haddish shared she began to look at herself differently.
- Haddish’s breakthrough role in the film industry came with her appearance in Girls Trip alongside Jada Pinkett-Smith. Since then, she has starred in multiple films and television shows, her latest appearance as Lelia in the Netflix limited series Self Made. The star is currently dating rapper Common.
You can watch Haddish’s full interview on VLAD TV with Luenell here.
