Jermaine Fowler

Growing up, I've always made a point to not be placed in a box.

I grew up watching shows like 'Martin' and 'Fresh Prince' and 'Moesha,' and I was inspired by all these shows. When I was growing up, there were so many black people in TV. That's just the world I was around.

I was influenced by a lot of comedy growing up, I had good parents. They were funny, too. My mom was hilarious; my dad was hilarious. I guess being at home around the environment was just a good stage to get started.

We can all agree that the best part of 'Black Panther' was his female army, the Dora Milaje. They made the movie.

I don't know what the secret to doing standup well is, but I do know the goal is to be yourself as much as possible. And working harder than everyone else.

I'm a comic; we get hecklers every night! It's really just part of the job.

I was the black kid in school who'd skate and wrestle, who was really into outer space and botany and kung fu and hip-hop. I was into everything.

Spider-Man is supposed to be 'neighborhood friendly,' but I've never seen that dude at a Black Lives Matter march.

I was always causing trouble in school. Doing impressions of Bart Simpson, interrupting class - I liked the attention and entertaining people.

I've never been the guy to sit back and wait until someone approved something I was passionate about.

I grew up in a very, very diverse neighborhood back home in Maryland. And when I see that on TV shows, it makes me want to watch it, personally. I just gravitate towards that.

I grew up watching people and companies commercialize Black History Month. I watched old McDonald's commercials, and they'd blacken up the commercials for 28 days then go back to normal in March. It got annoying to me.