actresses-from-the-united-states

"On China and COVID-19: So our enemy made a virus on purpose that killed tons of people, broke our economy, broke our brains, let's be honest, then culminated in all of us posting on social media to stop Asian hate."

"Once the Cosby thing happened, I was kind of like, anything I hold dear to me truth-wise could be untrue. I'm literally like, yeah, the moon landing, there's something fishy about that. Like yeah, for sure. I don't know if we landed on the moon, but it is funny to me that the moon landing is really what divides us as a country. You know? I don’t know. But my take on the moon thing is actually that—this is a hot take—I just don’t care. Is that weird? Like, it makes no difference to me if they went or not"

"The right is taking books out of schools. Who cares, dude? That’s a states’ rights thing. That is between the parents and the school. Why do you care what books a kid in another state is reading?"

"When you're pregnant, you finally start reading ingredients on food. You start caring about yourself by accident, because, you know, you care about the baby. When I got pregnant, I realized how bad I was to myself, how poorly I treated myself. Once I got pregnant, I was like, “Well, I guess I should put a seatbelt on.” You know, “Where is it? Oh.” Like I'm literally putting a seatbelt on for the—it’s so wild that you start having self-respect and caring about yourself only when you're growing another person inside you."

"On Charlie Kirk: He was as close to not a hypocrite as I've seen in a while. Did he lie about stuff? I don’t know. Was he trying out new personalities and personas for social—I truly don’t know. Did he spread lies? I don't know. And by the way, neither do you, because nobody can prove what a lie is."

"I really try to keep things simple by staying away from a lot of prints and color. Keeping it basic and simple is key. I don’t really like spending too much time on thinking about what to wear. If it looks good and I’m comfortable then that’s about it."

"Wear clothes that make you look and feel good. Plus, don’t waste your money on trendy stuff, you won’t be able to wear them again and again."

"When I’m not acting, I work behind the scenes with a group of talented individuals from Stronghold MNL, which is a production company that I own with a bunch of friends from DLS-CSB. The newest addition to my schedule is that some of my friends and I are about to start a line of lounge sets, room scents, and candles—so watch out for that!"

"Having to pour so much thought into basic survival doesn’t give your brain space to think about, Well, why are we living?"

"I describe my future as being policy-adjacent"

"It’s overwhelming to think about how broken some of these systems are, how imperfect some of our tools for change are"

"we are continuously undoing the works of how media, in particular, has been weaponized against minorities of any kind"

"We are not here to know, we are here to learn"

"Not every attempt of mine would be a surefire success"

"So many times in the conversation, [colorism is used] as a straight up denial of blackness"

"Originality and authenticity are synonymous to me in that, on a spiritual, more emotional level, it’s about staying grounded in who you are"

"My education allowed me to speak more ­confidently about the things that I advocate for in my work"

"I feel like I’m only here because of the people who have come before me"

"The moments when I stop ­worrying about how I’m being perceived are really ­freeing."

"We need every voice. We need every person"

"We cannot rely on the status quo, and we will need to pursue unconventional paths"

"Fashion innovation is hard, but when people come in with their own aesthetic, it’s really inspiring"

"The journey into becoming an actor wasn’t one that was necessarily anchored in this desire to be on screen, but more so anchored in this desire to be a part of storytelling"

"I realized that when my norms did not fit those of the world around me, it was time to change the world norms"

"I'm never going to find myself in positions in which I genuinely regret what I'm doing."

"We want this spectrum of ourselves portrayed in every physical possible spiritual, mental, emotional way that is so much more than saying I am a brown woman, or I am a black woman on TV, but saying, I am a fraction of my community"

"The story of immigration is something that is undoubtedly tied to mine"

"My sense of audacity came from the fact that I felt so well represented in my home, from what I was looking at, from the fact that my parents formed what we call an alternate curriculum of books, folklore, fairytales, where everybody was global, Black, Brown, from every different part of the world"

"At the age of 14, I had a mic in my hand and they were asking me about representation and about topics that I think not many 14-year-olds have a chance to discuss"

"For me, optimism is a belief in self"

"It's OK to not have all the answers"

"Allow yourself the freedom to explore different fields"

"It's OK to have multiple passions and to pursue them in various capacities"

"Finding what fulfills us is the ultimate success"

"My 20s has been a jarring experiment in figuring out how to give myself space to be mediocre at things"

"One of the biggest exercises in being curious has been the first step of self-work, of talking to myself about being bad, and allowing myself to be absolutely an amateur with no goals of being advanced at something"

"I have an unreasonable belief that I should be good immediately, and that's no way to discover new paths"

"Leaving my teens is very intimidating to me."

"On a set, you’re a character. Everything about you is altered. In the tent, the goal is to be yourself."

"Let yourself be bad at things"

"It may look like helicopter parenting, but in Black culture and Iranian culture, that interconnectedness is deeply important"

"Young people rise to the occasion time and time again, especially when we’re faced with things that are of deep concern to us"

"Being Black and Iranian is something that even subconsciously plays into what I bring to a role"

"Education has always been an integral part of my life"

"My parents instilled this idea that learning is a lifelong adventure, whether that's in a classroom or out in the world"

"“It’s not about appearances or needing to seem like I’m good at everything"

"But what I love so much about the collision between time and space that has happened right now is the fact that I am in no way the face of anything, because when I look at so many of my peers, there are people doing the same work, more work, different work than I am"

"The question of why should the audience care is something that we’re always having to answer"

"The best learning happens when we give ourselves permission to fumble through something new"

"I’ve learned that what people call mistakes are simply great discoveries!"