I like to be at a party and be a quiet observer, be in conversation. I wouldn't say I was a class clown growing up, but I would definitely sit back in class and take snipes at the teacher.

Growing up, one of my cousins was an out gay man.

The most important thing for me as an actor playing a character is to make you laugh. That's my No. 1 goal.

I took a sociology class, and I got an A in it. Then I found out you could get an emphasis in criminal justice. I wanted to be an administrator.

If you have the same drive and passions that everybody else has - for example, if you're trying to do the right thing for your family and do the right thing for people you employ - then you can be forgiven quite a lot.

My mother told me once that she and my father agreed that I would not be brought up Jewish in Chicago. She had me going to a Methodist church.

Between acting jobs, I'd go visit my hometown and college town to see family and friends. But I would also teach acting, dance, singing, and audition techniques in high schools and colleges. I take great pride in all the survival jobs I worked, because I learned so much from them.

My father loved music. He loved Motown and R&B, and my mother loved Journey and Fleetwood Mac, so they were always listening to it and playing it.