Top 99 Quotes & Sayings by Yvonne Orji
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Nigerian actress Yvonne Orji.
Last updated on September 18, 2024.
I went to an all-girls boarding school in Maryland. I used to laugh at the girls in the theater program - I was pre-med, National Honors Society; I was on that track.
As strong as we are, we have our moments. My mama is an African woman who had four kids and was a nurse for 25 years, and she had her moments. I've seen her cry.
There are different types of experiences, and all of them are valid, and all of them deserve to be portrayed in a real way.
My father just instilled in me that either you're going to be No. 1 or nothing at all.
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.'
A healthy smile has always been important to me.
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 want to do more good work. That's very much my parents' influence in me.
My actual desire is to be able to comfortably walk out of my house without any makeup on and feel as beautiful as I do when my makeup artist beats my face.
High school is really when I came into my own.
I love a dark brown blush, like brown on brown.
There's random people calling my phone: 'Your mother gave me your number.' My mother has tried to set me up so many times long-distance.
Over the years, my relationship with God has changed my life for the better - it's grown me up, given me a sense of purpose, and grounded me in my identity.
A lot of times, especially in the black community, where therapy is talked about, it's like, 'Just go to church.'
I'll probably always opt for makeup because I just like the way it feels. You can play with it and create different looks, and I think that's fun. But I also want the option to not need it.
I just love new, beautiful music.
My faith - as well as my Nigerian culture - really gave me the substance and foundation to be who I desire to be in life.
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.
As a performer, the thing you want the most is to be your authentic self.
A lot of people hustle differently, and I was like, 'You know what, let me hustle and create, and let me have something to show,' cuz my hustle led to opportunity.
I'm just gonna talk about being Nigerian-American. I'm gonna talk about being single. I'm gonna talk about what happened to me on the train today. I'm gonna talk about so many other things that, as a comic, you're able to talk about because you see the world in sarcasm.
Sometimes you are the only living, walking, breathing version of the Bible that people will ever see. What long-lasting taste are you going to leave in their mouths? A lot of people have left a bad taste. And it's so unfortunate, because God is the best!
Auto-pay is not for convenience; it's for the gainfully employed.
I'm grounded in who I am.
I can only see what's in front of me, but God can see what's behind, what's ahead of me, what's beside me, and it just makes it so much easier to release control, cuz at the end of the day, if He brought me to it, He's gonna have to bring me through it.
Before 'Insecure,' I was a wedding emcee - a host for weddings. That's a world that a lot of people are not familiar with.
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.
I was so focused on advancing in my career that I didn't have enough emotional capacity for dating.
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?
I started comedy in 2006. I didn't even think it was a thing I could do.
I have a show called 'First Gen' that David Oyelowo is executive producing.
I believe in the equal and opposite: If I exist, there is an equal and opposite version of me, and so however long I have to wait, and wherever he happens to be, we'll find it. Sometimes it's like, 'Jesus, where he at?'
I grew up with three older brothers, so I'm very much a tomboy in real life.
I entered the Miss Nigeria in America pageant - yes, it's a thing that existed. This was when I was getting my masters.
How many shows on TV do you see young black people, both women and men, really embody a full-fledged human being, flaws and all?
I have immigrant, African parents. They would say, in their Nigerian accents, 'So you want to be a jester?' And I was like, 'I don't want to be a court jester, Ma. I want to be a comedian.'
Every time you're on stage, you're acting.
On a man, I love Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille. But I wear Orchid Soleil - I love a sweet smell.
You can't say you're an actor if you've never acted, and you can't act if no one gives you an opportunity, but they won't give you an opportunity because you've never acted. You're like, 'What in the world? Someone give me a chance!'
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.
Sometimes you have to experience things for yourself to learn the lessons that you need to learn.
A lot of people have done things in the name of Christianity and religion and faith in a not-so-nice way.
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.
To not have the wherewithal to give fully to a relationship bothered me.
We didn't grow up with TV as a viable means of supporting yourself.
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.
For me, comedy was deftly terrifying.
I don't even know anyone who hasn't watched 'Sex and the City.' If you didn't, we can't be friends.
I had my masters in public health, and the goal was to be a doctor, and organic chemistry let me know that that was not going to happen, as did my fear of blood.
I was bullied because I have this thick Nigerian accent.
'First Gen' is kind of the ode to my parents and to really all immigrant children who come here with kind of a preemptive expectation placed on them, and then they get there, and they realize the American dream is bigger than, sometimes, what our parents dreamt.
I grew up Catholic, so I had a more traditional relationship with religion.
I want to own a comedy club.
When something is not great, I'm not going to eat it. It's not enough to just get full. It's like, how does this make you feel?
My mom would always say, 'Hair is a woman's beauty.' I cut my hair all off. I was completely bald, and that was, like, 'What in the world?' My mom was like, 'What happened?' She had so many questions.
I always say my Christianity and my virginity don't limit options. I think that they refine my options.
For me, staying ready has always been, like, the preparations: do the behind-the-scenes or do what you think that's not sexy that nobody will see, but when they do see it, it's like, 'Oh, snap... what she's doing on her own, we'll add to that, and it'll blow up.'
The thing about black women and black hair is that you just have to experiment.
People are surprised I do comedy! And I'm like, 'Guys, that's all I have been doing. For, like, forever.'
I believe in being diligent but also cut yourself some slack. It's okay in the grand scheme of life.
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