Quotes from Natasha Rothwell

I'm a military brat, so I moved around a ton. When you're making friends and you're funny, it makes that easier.

Teaching theater, I felt very lucky. In a world where there's few options for someone who graduates with a theater degree, trying to figure out how to make rent and pay the bills, I always gravitated towards teaching jobs and things like that. I wanted to stay close to my passion as well.

Improv is such a huge part of my background, and a huge part of character discovery is really being inside the character and trying to think through them without the limitations of the script.

The thing about improv that I really love in scripted television is that it really makes a moment authentic.

As a writer, I use improv to write. Exploring characters and stories through improv and sitting at the computer and thinking about what this character would say or do helps me creatively.

When you're a writer, there is a selflessness that has to happen; you have to have equity with how you treat each of the characters and the information you bring into the room.

My social media is riddled with me speaking out on stuff that matters because silence is a petri dish for hate. For me, it's important to speak out.

I'm not going to run or be silent for fear of keeping a fan base.

I hope movies like 'Love, Simon' encourage people to be their authentic selves.

Rom-coms are my jam.

When someone on screen portrays a character that behaves in a way you don't expect, you're subverting ideas. So if there's a Venn diagram between why people are drawn to the characters I play, it may be that. But I'd like to think that the craft of acting and the choices I make as an actor are drawing people on their own merits.

I would just take dolls around the house - there's old VHS footage from my dad, who was an early adapter and had this RCA camera - and it's me taking a Michael Jackson Barbie doll and putting on a show with that.

I remember writing monologues and one-act plays and stuff in high school. I had a project in English that was just a short book of limericks. It was so weird. I enjoyed the challenge and rhyme of it. I was always putting on plays and stuff.

I loved women who weren't afraid to get ugly in their comedy.

I think it's important to make art for a myriad of reasons. The least of which is that I think laughter is medicinal, and I think there is an escapism aspect - an act of self-care.

I'm the biggest nerd.

I have chosen to never take myself out of the running for roles. I will continue to throw myself into projects that I am passionate about and will continue to create opportunities for myself.

I feel like theater in high school seems to be sort of like the safe haven for the outsiders and people who don't necessarily fit in. And it was a come-as-you-are sort of class, and it's a come-as-you-are after-school activity.

I'm drawn to subversive material and material that speaks to communities and people who tend to be marginalized, and telling those stories in ways that subvert expectations. That's always been fun for me to play and always been fun for me to write.

Being authentic is important to me, and I am not going to present this fluff, fake, sanitized version of myself that doesn't reflect who I am or what my passions and interests are.

'Love, Simon' is incredibly dope, but that's one specific experience, and I would love to see more versions of that story being told or other stories that we haven't even seen yet from the LGBTQIA community.

Black women have earned the right to be basic.

As far as being a plus-size woman, I play a plus-size character by default, and for me, the visibility - that, I think, is key.