Brian Tyree Henry

I'm very grateful, first of all, for my friends and my family because they keep me grounded, and they make sure I'm taking care of myself and that I'm keeping my sanity about me.

I think that Atlanta has this huge well of black culture and openness to share all the things that we have made there.

Atlanta's the hub of black culture, and it's OK to be you there - it's the city that really shaped me to be who I am.

On top of trying to find my way in this business and losing my mother and trying to figure out what family meant to me and everything - 2016, there was a lot of anger from me and a lot of anger all around. I think the hardest part was to really realize that all these things, it's worth it.

I have been the hugest HBO fan since I was 3, watching programming that I had no business watching as a child.

I've discovered people in my lifetime who are like, 'I always wanted to sing but... ' It's like, 'Well then, did you try?' My thing was always not caring about failure.

When people ask me, 'Are you a singer?' I say, 'No, I'm not a 'singer' - but I love the craft of singing,' going in and finding out what that means or why the hell I'm singing in the first place. My thing is really the craft of it.

You play the honesty of the characters and show a side of them that people can relate to and want to get to know.

Yale was one of the best moments in my life - also one of the hardest. I learned about community.

The most important thing I feel in the acting profession is to create a community that reflects you back to you.

Acting really started for me because I was in a house full of adults. They never shielded their lives from me. They were adults going through this world doing what they had to do. I used to like to watch them and imitate them. They all have their own distinct personalities; even though they're family, we couldn't be more different people.

Just to say 'woke' is to always be in a constant stream of consciousness where you don't feel like the wool is pulled over your eyes so much. You question your belief that everything should just be presented to you on this beautiful plate. Everything is not as it seems.