Tiffany Haddish

Tiffany Haddish (birthname: Tiffany Sara Cornilia Haddish) claims one of contemporary Hollywood’s most dramatic rags-to-riches stories. As a Black female comedian, she represents a vanguard of a new generation of female comics of color who have successfully made the jump from stand-up clubs and TV spots to feature films.

After two decades on the stand-up circuit (some of which she spent living out of her car), guest TV, and supporting credits in TV and film (including Keanu (2016) with Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key), Haddish scored with the scene-stealing role of Dina in Girls Trip (2017) with Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, and Jada Pinkett Smith, with a surprise best-supporting actress prize from the prestigious New York Film Critics Circle. This one award dramatically raised Haddish’s profile overnight, opening the door to grade-A projects that had previously been out of her grasp.

Tiffany Haddish expanded her appeal with such NBA-friendly projects as Uncle Drew (2018), with an All-Star cast including Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Webber, Kyrie Irving, Reggie Miller, and Lisa Leslie. Her star had risen to the level that just her last name was needed above the title of Night School (2018), co-starring fellow comic Kevin Hart. Her name rose to the top of the poster in Tyler Perry’s hit 2018 comedy, Nobody’s Fool, with Tika Sumpter.

Like so many comics of her generation, Haddish—with her distinctive, high-attitude voice–was steadily cast to do vocals for major animation projects, including The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019), The Secret Lives of Pets 2 (2019), The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019), The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run (2020), and Disney’s Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe (2020). 

Perhaps the most interesting shift that Haddish has accomplished—sometimes little observed—is her subtle move into high-end dramas, like the female-powered The Kitchen (2020) with Melissa McCarthy and Elisabeth Moss; Jerrod Carmichael’s Sundance prizewinning On the Count of Three (2021); Billy Crystal’s bittersweet Here Today (2021); and most brilliantly, a savvy gambler in Paul Schrader’s dark The Card Counter (2021) opposite Oscar Isaac.

Haddish’s busy 2022 continued with Chris Spencer’s Back on the Strip, with Wesley Snipes and Kevin Hart, followed in 2023 with Disney’s Haunted Mansion with Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, and LaKeith Stanfield; and Cory Finley’s sci-fi adaptation of M.T. Anderson’s Landscape with Invisible Hand, with Josh Hamilton and Clifton Collins Jr.