|
|
| photo: Valentina Cy | |
Jay Ellis was born in Sumter, S.C., to a military family. After college, he decided to take his one-man show to Hollywood, where he got his start in a recurring role on BET's The Game. Now an actor, philanthropist, and entrepreneur, Ellis is best known for his role as Lawrence on HBO's Insecure, for which he won an NAACP Image Award. His memoir, Did Everyone Have an Imaginary Friend (or Just Me)? (One World, July 30, 2024), is about growing up with an imaginary best friend that was part Dwayne Wayne from A Different World and part Will Smith from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Handsell readers your book in 30 words or less:
Stories of an only child with an overactive imagination coming of age, through heartaches, road trips, and basketball games with an imaginary friend in the chaotic '80s and '90s.
On your nightstand now:
When Crack Was King by Donovan X. Ramsey--Donovan and I grew up at a similar time in different parts of the country, and I love this exploration of finding understanding in how something so ever-present in the '80s had such different effects on so many people even though we're led to generalize that all people affected by crack were the same.
Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg--I love reading about how and why people communicate the ways we do. From the on the nose to the nuanced, it's fascinating.
Favorite book when you were a child:
NEATE to the Rescue! by Deborah M. Newton Chocolate--It felt like I was reading about my friends and me. And most books I read at that time, primarily through school, didn't have anyone like me in them.
Your top five authors:
Colson Whitehead
Toni Morrison
James Baldwin
Maya Angelou
Paul Beatty
Book you've faked reading:
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. I just couldn't bring myself to do it in school when I was growing up. So I asked my friends what it was about before the pop quiz.
Book you're an evangelist for:
All About Love by bell hooks. As the great Tupac would say, "I'm a sucker for love." All About Love is such a great exploration and understanding of how we love, why we love, why we search for love, and how we find it.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Subway Art by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant--I'm obsessed with graffiti as art and a culture.
Book you hid from your parents:
R.L. Stine's Fear Street books--all of them because my mom didn't want me reading "horror" books that would give me nightmares.
Book that changed your life:
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho--life is about the journey!!!! So simple but at the end I was like, "Damn!"
Favorite line from a book:
"Remember that just because something is, doesn't mean it can't change, and just because you haven't seen something before, that doesn't mean it's impossible." --from Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
I read it recently and that line always floats around in my head as something to remember whenever I'm stuck.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.
Other books that are your favorite reads:
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, and Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss.