Colman Domingo

My first professional job was with Berkeley Repertory Theatre. I started out in an educational touring play and eventually starred on their stages. That was the theatre that nurtured me to expand as an artist.

Part of the responsibility of being a modern storyteller is understanding modern audiences and trusting what they can handle. It's not just settling into what we think they want.

I was nervous about doing 'Scottsboro Boys' because I'm not a trained dancer, and there is a lot of very athletic dancing involved.

Other people can write grown-up, political plays about the troubles in the world. My plays deal with magic and hope.

When I create and write for TV, I build universes that will have arcs lasting seasons, whereas theatre allows me to explore storylines that will open up for two hours or less. Both are wonderfully fulfilling, but they couldn't be more different.

I think a lot of comedians make the best dramatic actresses because they have a facility. They're very vulnerable. They're very open, like clowns.

I am proud being an artist who takes risks, who would walk off a cliff artistically. I won't settle for commercial reasons.

My mother sent me to speech classes, but the other kids still teased me. I was shy. I stooped. Instead of talking, I kept journals. That's where my love of words comes from. I majored in journalism.

I wrote 'A Boy and His Soul' that talks about how my mother had lupus and my dad dying of a heart condition.

My mother was the love of my life.

The first time I read 'Barbecue,' I fell in love with it. I never laughed so hard in my life.

To a certain extent, just like my children, I nurture my writing until the point when it has to get out and face the outside world, where it takes on a life of its own. That is a purpose of any artist and their art.