Shahadi Wright Joseph

Award won Role or nomination

1. 2005 age 0

   Born

2. 2019 age 14

   CreditUs

• WDWinston Duke1 title
• SKSlim Khezri1 title
• RJRuth De Jong1 title
• LNLupita Nyong'o1 title
• THTim Heidecker1 title
• YIYahya Abdul-Mateen II1 title
• JBJason Blum1 title
• DLDaniel Lupi1 title
• JPJordan Peele1 title
• MAMichael Abels1 title

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  Photo:ShahadiwrightjosephCC BY-SA 4.0

• When we have time and in between projects, I feel like we should be making our own and really set an example for other people who want to create their own projects as well, she tells ESSENCE. “With this industry, a lot of people are not just going to hand us projects all the time and it can be really, really discouraging.

  Shahadi Wright Joseph, CC BY-SA 4.0

• When I auditioned for Them: Covenant, I heard that it was for an anthology series and I immediately got excited because I started thinking about American Horror Story and stuff around that genre. I found out more about the plot and how it was going to be taking place in the 1950's and supposed to be a horror series about the Jim Crow Era; I thought that was so interesting. That's exactly why I start getting into projects like that. I feel like it's something that I would love to watch, so it's most definitely something that I would love to work on.

  Shahadi Wright Joseph, CC BY-SA 4.0

• My favorite part would be getting the script every single week because the story has so many changes, characters and storylines and it's kind of hard to follow sometimes. It was almost like whenever you would get a new chapter of a really good book. I was always excited and a little bit nervous to see what Ruby was up to in the next week, but it was kind of a crazy process getting to read it because there's a lot of scary stuff.

  Shahadi Wright Joseph, CC BY-SA 4.0

• I never experienced that level of racism before, but the most of the cast was Black. We could all take from some kind of experience to help us with our performance. With Deborah [Ayorinde] actually being from the UK as well with Deborah and us being from all of these different places, we all have different versions of the same experience. That most definitely helped us get into our characters. We would all start getting into character maybe like a half hour before shooting to really get into our roles as the Emory family.

  Shahadi Wright Joseph, CC BY-SA 4.0

• I feel like that’s such a big part of what Gen Z creators are doing today. I feel like it's been very long overdue. We need more representation in media and in our films for people to see us on screen. When I was younger, I never really got to really see myself on screen and I feel like it affects people in ways that we don't even realize. I really love how Gen Z is, I would say, more aware of the effects that film, music, TV and children's books have on us today.

  Shahadi Wright Joseph, CC BY-SA 4.0

• Nobody thought this would [initially] happen... my family didn't think I would make it as far as I have, I certainly didn't think I'd make it as far as I have... and just look at what it's all become!

  Shahadi Wright Joseph, CC BY-SA 4.0