Tiffany Haddish is an African American comedian and actress who spent years in supporting roles in TV shows and movies before joining the cast of Girls Trip in 2017 and earning critical acclaim, including a prestigious award from the New York Film Critics Circle and an Emmy Award in 2018.
Early Life
Tiffany Sarac Haddish was born in Los Angeles on December 3, 1979. Her father was from Eritrea, Africa, and his ancestors were Ethiopian Jews. Haddish’s mother is of African American descent. Her father abandoned the family when Haddish was a child, and she did not see him again until she was an adult.
Because her mother remarried, Haddish has two half-sisters and two half-brothers. Haddish’s mother was in a vehicle accident when she was 13 and suffered a brain injury. Her mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia after the accident and was no longer able to care for Haddish and her siblings. The kids were placed in foster care and later raised by their grandma.
Haddish claims that her mother’s accident and following unpredictable conduct inspired her to pursue a career in comedy. In interviews, she stated that she learnt that if she could make her mother laugh, her mother would be less likely to smack her.
“You know, when you have a brain injury it’s very hard, and especially if before the injury you were a very intellectual, intelligent person …and then you can’t pull your words anymore and you get frustrated. And she would hit and stuff, and … if I could make her laugh then I probably [wouldn’t] get hit,” Haddish told National Public Radio in 2017.
Haddish also claims that she grew fascinated in show business as a child after watching The Arsenio Hall Show.
Stand Up
Haddish’s success did not come easily. She struggled as a young comic attempting to get into the Los Angeles stand-up comedy scene. She was destitute at one point in her life and lived in her car, which she would park in Beverly Hills.
She attributes her escape from the streets to Kevin Hart, whom she met at L.A.’s Laugh Factory comedy club and who loaned her $300 to secure a hotel room. In the years since, she has offered to repay him on numerous occasions, but he has refused.
Her first big break in comedy came when she appeared on “Bill Bellamy’s Who’s Got Jokes?” She also starred on sketch comedies such Daman Wayans’ The Underground, Nick Cannon’s Short Circuitz, and Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam.
Movies & TV Shows
Before Girls Trip, Haddish appeared in a few films, including Meet the Spartans (2008), Keanu (2016), and others.
Haddish, however, got her start on television. Early credits include cameos on My Name Is Earl, That’s So Raven, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
She went on to have recurring appearances in Tyler Perry’s If Loving You Is Wrong and The Carmichael Show, as well as the reality TV satire Real Husbands of Hollywood (on which Hart was an executive producer and also starred).
‘Girls Trip’ & Memoir
Haddish rose to prominence in 2017 after being cast in Girls Trip, a buddy comedy about four female friends who take a road trip to New Orleans to attend a music festival. Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Regina Hall were among Haddish’s co-stars.
2017 became a milestone year for Haddish as a result of the film. Her memoir, The Last Black Unicorn, was published in December. The term comes from a traumatic period in her childhood when a prominent, tenacious wart on her forehead caused her to be harassed at school and earned her the moniker Unicorn.
In her memoir and elsewhere, Haddish often credits the advice she received from self-help videos and books as one of the keys to her success. “You gotta take care of you before you can take care of anybody else,” Haddish said in one interview, talking about what she has learned from others. “And I never really understood that concept ’til I got a little older and realized, you know, how can I give any kind of love or any kind of joy, if I don’t have any? So I started reading books about it, watching YouTube videos. I feel like YouTube videos are everything in my life. YouTube videos have changed my whole existence.”
New Projects: Co-starring with Tracy Morgan
Haddish was also cast as a co-star in The Last O.G., a new television comedy series starring Tracy Morgan that premiered in the spring of 2018.
Haddish was chosen to host the MTV Movie & TV Awards in June 2018 as a result of her newfound celebrity. It was announced in August that the comic had agreed to her own hour-long stand-up special. In September 2018, she co-starred in the comedy Night School with Kevin Hart.
Making History on ‘Saturday Night Live’ & Emmy Win
In addition to critical acclaim and a prestigious award following the release of Girls Trip, Haddish was invited to guest-host Saturday Night Live in November 2017, making her the first African American female comedian to do so in the show’s 43-year history. The next year, she received her first Emmy for her performance, in the category of Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.
Personal Life
Haddish divorced and remarried William Stewart twice. Stewart was physically abusive, according to her memoir, The Last Black Unicorn, which resulted in her miscarriage. He has since refuted her claims, but court documents show Haddish had previously filed a restraining order against him, citing occurrences in 2010 and 2011, the latter of which resulted in a black eye and bruises all over her body.
Haddish confirmed her relationship with rapper and actor Common in August 2020.