Quotes from Yvonne Orji

I don't know how often white people look around and think, 'Wow, there's really a lot of white people here; we should fix that.' But I know black people often look around and think, 'Wow, I'm the only one here - why?'

You turn 'Insecure' on, and you see a sea of brown. You see at the core of it a strong friendship between two brown-skinned girls.

My father just instilled in me that either you're going to be No. 1 or nothing at all.

I entered the Miss Nigeria in America pageant - yes, it's a thing that existed. This was when I was getting my masters.

I don't look at God as some boring dude in the sky that tells me what to do all day. I legitimately be like, 'Yo, you know what, G, that's crazy how that happened. That's dope. You know, you the real MVP.'

I believe in being diligent but also cut yourself some slack. It's okay in the grand scheme of life.

A healthy smile has always been important to me.

It's great for people to give out of the kindness of their hearts, but because we're in a consumerist society, it's also great to have the opportunity to give and get.

I grew up in a place called Port Harcourt, Nigeria, the youngest of four. What I remember most about Nigeria was the ease. I would play by the pool, have fun with friends.

I remember talking to old-school African American grandpops, and they're just like, 'When I saw my wife, I looked up from across the street, and I said, 'That girl gon' be my wife someday.' And we've been married 45 years.' Like, what? That's all it took?

Comedy's the ultimate pill that helps the really hard truths and hard facts go down, right?

On 'Insecure,' Molly works at a law firm, and there's scenes where her boss doesn't value her voice and doesn't value her efforts. And we had a lot of women tweeting 'Me too' in that situation. We're saying, 'Hey, no more. Not on our watch.'

When it comes to black female comedians, it's like, if you're not overweight, are you funny? There's rules, like, you can't be skinny and pretty and funny. I'm all three, sorry to break it to you.

As for my role models... you know, I'm an immigrant, so we didn't grow up with too much TV. My parents were like, 'You must read your books.'

New York is a walking city, so you'll be dressed to the nines, and you'll go out, and you feel more special and more pretty because more people acknowledge you.

Any show that speaks to people of color feels the burden to never mess up, never make its characters look bad - to always get it right.

Wanda Sykes and I have had similar career trajectories. We're both from the D.C. area. She spent five years working as a contracting specialist for the NSA, and I got my master's in public health.

I remember, growing up, it wasn't sexy to be African. We got called names.

I think there is this narrative that if you are a black woman, and you are strong, and you are educated, it's like, 'Good luck getting a black man.'

There's not one black narrative. There's not one way to be black.

I would never do something I'm uncomfortable with.

Everyone has met or seen or interacted with a Nigerian in America because we leave Nigeria for here. We're your doctors. We're your lawyers. We're your child's best friend. All of the above.

I have a saying: Nigerians don't fit in second place. Everything we do we go hard.

I say all the time that when you first meet me, you know three things right off the bat: I'm Nigerian, I love to laugh, and I love Jesus.