Tiffany Haddish
Tiffany Sara Cornilia Haddish is an American actress, comedian, and author. After guest-starring on several television series, Haddish gained prominence with her role as Nekeisha Williams on the NBC sitcom The Carmichael Show. After appearing in the 2016 comedy film Keanu, her breakthrough came in 2017 with her acclaimed role as Dina in the comedy film Girls Trip. In 2017, she published her memoir, The Last Black Unicorn.
Haddish currently stars in the TBS series The Last O.G. and voices Tuca in the Adult Swim animated series Tuca & Bertie.
Early life and education
Haddish was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, California. Her father, Tsihaye Reda Haddish, was a refugee from Eritrea, and was from an Ethiopian Jewish family. Her mother, Leola, was an African American small business owner. After Haddish's father left when she was three years old, her mother remarried and went on to have more children; Haddish has two half-sisters and two half-brothers.In 1988, while her family was living in Colton, California, Haddish's mother Leola suffered severe brain damage in a car wreck. The brain damage was believed to have caused Leola's schizophrenia; Haddish said she became a different person after the crash, becoming quick tempered, abusive, and violent. Haddish — then nine years old and the oldest of five siblings — became the primary caregiver for her family. It was around this time when Haddish discovered her gift for making people laugh, stating: "If I could make her laugh and turn her anger into some joy, I was less likely to get beat. Same thing in school: If I could make the kids laugh, they'd help me with my homework and protect me from other bullies."
According to Haddish, her stepfather later told her that he had tampered with the brakes on her mother's car, that this was the cause of her mother's accident, and that he had intended for the wreck to kill Haddish and her siblings as well as her mother and to collect from life insurance policies, but the children had opted to stay home on the day of the accident, and the accident turned out not to be fatal for her mother either.
When Haddish 12 years old, she and her siblings were put into foster care and temporarily separated from one another. While there, she used comedy as a way to cope with being in situations with new people. When she was fifteen, she and her siblings were reunited under the care of their grandmother.
She attended George Ellery Hale Middle School in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles and graduated from El Camino Real High School, also in Woodland Hills, where she was the school mascot. Haddish said she could not read very well until high school, but improved when she received tutoring from a teacher. She also got in a lot of trouble at school, despite her award-winning participation in drama competition featuring Shakespearean monologues. In 1997, after her social worker gave her an ultimatum to either attend psychiatric therapy or go to the Laugh Factory Comedy Camp, then seventeen-year-old Haddish opted for comedy as outlet for her pain. She has said that the mentorship from many notable comedians — including Richard Pryor, Dane Cook, Charles Fleischer, the Wayans brothers — helped her discover her passion for comedy and it "literally saved her life." She incorporates her past real life experiences in her sets, finding that doing so functions as a sort of "safe space" for her.
In 2008, Haddish stated that at the age of seventeen, she was raped by a police cadet. She has stated that this led to her having an aggressive front when it comes to avoiding unwanted advances from men.
Haddish was accepted to New York University but cited the cost of attendance and her avoidance towards debt as factors for not attending. She later attended Santa Monica College. Before her on-screen success, Haddish held a number of regular jobs, including customer service for Air New Zealand at Los Angeles International Airport and Alaska Airlines. Haddish has said she lived in her car during her 20s while in her early days of comedy.
Career
2005–2016: Early work
Haddish's first break was a spot on the comedy competition Bill Bellamy's Who's Got Jokes? She has made guest appearances on such shows as Chelsea Lately, That's So Raven, My Name Is Earl, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Underground, Nick Cannon's Short Circuitz, @midnight, Just Jordan, In the Motherhood, Def Comedy Jam, Reality Bites Back and New Girl. She has also starred in movies such as Meet the Spartans and Janky Promoters.In 2013, she had a recurring role on Real Husbands of Hollywood. In 2014, Haddish was cast in the Oprah Winfrey Network series If Loving You Is Wrong. She left the soap after the first season for a regular role on the NBC sitcom The Carmichael Show where she starred as Nekeisha, the semi-estranged wife of Bobby Carmichael, for three seasons.
In 2016, she co-starred opposite Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key in the comedy film Keanu in the role of Hi C.
2017–2018: Breakthrough
In 2017, Haddish starred alongside Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Queen Latifah in the comedy film Girls Trip. The film received widely positive reviews from critics, with an approval rating of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and a "generally favorable reviews" score of 71/100 from Metacritic; it was also a box office success, becoming the highest-grossing comedy film of 2017. Haddish garnered critical acclaim for her performance, thus marking her breakthrough, with several critics comparing her rise to stardom to that of Melissa McCarthy. Katie Walsh of the Chicago Tribune wrote, "this is Haddish's movie, and will make her a star. It's clear from the moment she hits the screen."In August 2017, Haddish's comedy special, Tiffany Haddish: She Ready! From the Hood to Hollywood, premiered on Showtime. Reviewing the special for Vox, Caroline Framke wrote, "Tiffany Haddish is just really damn funny, and deserves a recommendation wherever we can give it to her...Haddish unleashes hilarious, filthy, and even moving anecdotes to tell the story of her life to this point, without anything holding her back, at long last." She also co-hosted the BET game show Face Value with Deon Cole.
On November 11, 2017, Haddish became the first African-American female stand-up comedian to host Saturday Night Live, and her performance on the show earned her a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. Haddish's memoir, The Last Black Unicorn, was released in December 2017 by Simon & Schuster; it debuted at number 15 on The New York Times best-seller list. It was ghostwritten with Tucker Max.
As of 2018, Haddish stars opposite Tracy Morgan in the TBS sitcom, The Last O.G., her first lead in a sitcom. Her 2018 film roles include a supporting part in Uncle Drew, and a lead role, opposite Kevin Hart, in the comedy Night School, reuniting with Girls Trip director Malcolm D. Lee. In parallel, she stars in the Tyler Perry's movie Nobody's Fool, alongside Tika Sumpter, Omari Hardwick, Mehcad Brooks, Amber Riley and Whoopi Goldberg. The film received mixed reviews from critics and has grossed over $33 million worldwide. In 2018, Haddish signed a first-look deal with HBO.
2019–present
In 2019, Haddish voiced Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi in , and Tuca on the Netflix animated sitcom Tuca & Bertie, which premiered in May. Also that year, ABC revived Kids Say the Darndest Things with Haddish as host and producer. The show premiered on October 6 as part of a three-hour family-oriented block of programming.In August 2019, Netflix premiered her new comedy special, Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready, featuring Haddish introducing in each episode one of her favorite comedians that she wanted to give some mainstream exposure. The series includes stand-up sets from Chaunté Wayans, April Macie, Tracey Ashley, Aida Rodriguez, Flame Monroe, and Marlo Williams.
In 2020, Haddish starred in Like a Boss, the first studio comedy of the 2020s, for Paramount Pictures.
Personal life
When she was nine years old, her mother was diagnosed with mental illness after a car accident and Haddish had to go into foster care. When she moved from home to home, she kept her belongings in a trash bag, which made her feel worthless. This is why she later partnered with Living Advantage, a nonprofit organization that focuses on the welfare of foster youth, for her Suitcase Drive for Foster Youth, where she collected suitcases in which foster youth can keep their belongings. At one point early in life, she was hospitalized with toxic shock syndrome.For a period, after she graduated from high school, Haddish was homeless, living in her car. Haddish volunteers at the Laugh Factory Comedy Camp, and for homelessness, and other charities.
As described in her memoir, The Last Black Unicorn, Haddish married and divorced William Stewart twice. He helped Haddish locate her once-estranged father who walked her down the aisle at their first wedding, which she described as "one of the happiest days of my life." She filed for divorce in Los Angeles County, California, in 2011 and again in 2013.
She also had a brief experience in Scientology.
Haddish became a naturalized citizen of Eritrea on May 22, 2019, during a visit while taking part in festivities commemorating the 28th anniversary of Eritrean independence from Ethiopia. She had first visited the country in 2018 to bury her Eritrean father who came to the U.S. as a refugee, and also connect with her relatives. In December 2019, Haddish had a Bat Mitzvah ceremony at age 40. Rabbi Susan Silverman, the sister of comedian Sarah Silverman, officiated the ceremony.
In May 2020, Haddish was accused by singer The Bullitts for stealing his aloe vera toilet paper on instagram live. Haddish denied the rumors while being confronted by The Bullitts, also adding that he was suffering from a mental illness. The Bullitts has went on to accuse more celebrities such as Ellen Pompeo, Jesse Williams, and many more.
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Video games
Awards and nominations
BET Awards
The BET Awards were established in 2001 by the Black Entertainment Television network to celebrate African Americans and other minorities in music, acting, sports, and other fields of entertainment over the past year.| Year | Nominated work | Category | Result | |
| 2018 | Girls Trip | Best Actress |
Black Reel Awards
The Black Reel Awards is an annual American awards ceremony hosted by the Foundation for the Augmentation of African-Americans in Film to recognize excellence in African-American, as well as those of African diaspora's cinematic achievements in the around the world film industry as assessed by the Academy's voting membership.| Year | Nominated work | Category | Result | |
| 2018 | Girls Trip | Best Supporting Actress | ||
| 2018 | Girls Trip | Outstanding Breakthrough Performance |
Grammy Awards
A Grammy Award is an award presented by The Recording Academy to recognize achievements in the music industry.| Year | Nominated work | Category | Result | |
| 2019 | The Last Black Unicorn | Best Spoken Word Album |
Primetime Emmy Awards
A Primetime Emmy Award is an American award bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming.| Year | Nominated work | Category | Result | |
| 2018 | Saturday Night Live | Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series |