Teyonah Parris Quotes

Teyonah Parris

Profession : Actress

Birth : September 22, 1987

An actor hears 'no' more often than the average person. A black human and a black woman on top of that? That's a lot of no's.

Teyonah Parris

You look at 'Survivor's Remorse.' Or 'Blackish.' Or Issa Rae's brilliant, funny 'Insecure,' which started out on YouTube but is now on HBO. And you see multifaceted representations of the African-American experience. It's insanely exciting.

Teyonah Parris

I want to continue to strive towards deepening my relationship with God and finding peace in whatever trials or circumstances I may be given.

Teyonah Parris

I'm influenced by many things. Simply turning on the television, I feel inundated with images and messages to be a certain way. So I try to limit my influences by being aware of what I allow into my environment. I'm always conscious of what's trying to creep into my subconscious.

Teyonah Parris

I really feel like the stars have aligned many ways, many times for me. I have been blessed to play some awesome roles and nuanced and meaningful characters.

Teyonah Parris

When I choose a role, what I'm looking for is the ability is to tell our stories. Me being a black woman, that's just a given. It's going to be a part of any role I do, making sure I tell it truthfully and nuanced and in a way that many people can relate to.

Teyonah Parris

I'm like any other girl: I see the Instagram posts and the Tumblr stuff. I'm inspired by what my fellow girls are doing.

Teyonah Parris

It was not hard for me to find guidance and motivation. I'm very blessed, and my parents were always so supportive of myself and my brother. Whatever you wanted to do, you just had to give 110 percent. So whatever that was, they supported it.

Teyonah Parris

In my junior year of high school, I went to a boarding school for the arts: a school called the Governor's School for The Arts and Humanities. It was basically a mini-Juilliard - an intense training conservatory for the arts.

Teyonah Parris

Every time I see my friends on a billboard, I'm so excited. If God can do it for me or them, he can do it for everybody.

Teyonah Parris

It's so important... to have a variety of representation on television.

Teyonah Parris

I love period dramas.

Teyonah Parris

I've had the struggling actor experience. At one point in New York, I was holding four jobs, including bottle service girl, while I was trying to break into acting.

Teyonah Parris

A show like 'Orange Is the New Black' has every race and ethnicity - and you don't even have to depend on four networks any more. You can go to Amazon or Netflix and be in an award-winning show.

Teyonah Parris