Tiffany Haddish

Haddish was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, California.[3] Her father, Tsihaye Reda Haddish, was a refugee from Eritrea, and was from an Ethiopian-Jewish family.[6][7][8][9][10] Her mother, Leola, was an African-American small business owner.[10][11][12][13] After Haddish's father left when she was three years old, her mother remarried and went on to have more children; Haddish has two half-sisters and two half-brothers.[14]

In 1988, while her family was living in Colton, California,[9] Haddish's mother Leola suffered severe brain damage in a car wreck. The brain damage was believed to have caused Leola's schizophrenia; Haddish said she became a different person after the crash, becoming quick tempered, abusive, and violent.[15] Haddish–then nine years old and the oldest of five siblings–became the primary caregiver for her family.[15] It was around this time when Haddish discovered her gift for making people laugh, stating: "If I could make her laugh and turn her anger into some joy, I was less likely to get beat. Same thing in school: If I could make the kids laugh, they'd help me with my homework and protect me from other bullies."[16]

According to Haddish, her stepfather later told her that he had tampered with the brakes on her mother's car, that this was the cause of her mother's accident, and that he had intended for the wreck to kill Haddish and her siblings as well as her mother and to collect from life insurance policies, but the children had opted to stay home on the day of the accident, and the accident turned out not to be fatal for her mother either.[17][15]

At 12 years old, Haddish and her siblings were put into foster care and temporarily separated from each other. While there, she used comedy as a way to cope with being in situations with new people.[18] When she was fifteen, she and her siblings were reunited under the care of their grandmother.

She attended George Ellery Hale Middle School in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles and graduated from El Camino Real High School, also in Woodland Hills, where she was the school mascot.[9] Haddish said she could not read very well until high school, but improved when she received tutoring from a teacher.[13] She also got in a lot of trouble at school, despite her award-winning participation in drama competition featuring Shakespearean monologues. In 1997, after her social worker gave her an ultimatum to either attend psychiatric therapy or go to the Laugh Factory Comedy Camp, then seventeen-year-old Haddish opted for comedy as outlet for her pain.[9][19] She has said that the mentorship from many notable comedians—including Richard Pryor, Dane Cook, Charles Fleischer, the Wayans brothers[20]—helped her discover her passion for comedy and it "literally saved her life."[9] She incorporates her past real life experiences in her sets, finding that doing so functions as a sort of "safe space" for her.[9]

In 2008, Haddish stated that at the age of seventeen, she was raped by a police cadet.[21] She has stated that this led to her having an aggressive front when it comes to avoiding unwanted advances from men.[22]

Haddish was accepted to New York University but cited the cost of attendance and her avoidance towards debt as factors for not attending. She later attended Santa Monica College.[23] Before her on-screen success, Haddish held a number of regular jobs, including customer service for Air New Zealand at Los Angeles International Airport and Alaska Airlines.[24][25] Haddish has said she lived in her car during her 20s while in her early days of comedy.[20]

When she was nine years old, her mother was diagnosed with mental illness after a car accident and Haddish had to go into foster care. When she moved from home to home, she kept her belongings in a trash bag, which made her feel worthless. This is why she later partnered with Living Advantage, a nonprofit organization that focuses on the welfare of foster youth, for her Suitcase Drive for Foster Youth, where she collected suitcases in which foster youth can keep their belongings.[53] At one point early in life, she was hospitalized with toxic shock syndrome.[9]

For a period, after she graduated from high school, Haddish was homeless, living in her car.[54][55] Haddish volunteers at the Laugh Factory Comedy Camp, and for homelessness, and other charities.[9]

As described in her memoir,[15] Haddish married and divorced William Stewart twice. He helped Haddish locate her once-estranged father who walked her down the aisle at their first wedding, which she described as "one of the happiest days of my life."[56] She filed for divorce in Los Angeles County, California, in 2011 and again in 2013.[10][57][58]

She also had a brief experience in Scientology.[10][59]

Haddish became a naturalized citizen of Eritrea on May 22, 2019, during a visit while taking part in festivities commemorating the 28th anniversary of Eritrean independence from Ethiopia.[1] She had first visited the country in 2018 to bury her Eritrean father who came to the U.S. as a refugee, and also connect with her relatives.[1] In December 2019, Haddish had a Bat Mitzvah ceremony at age 40.[60][61] Rabbi Susan Silverman, the sister of comedian Sarah Silverman, officiated the ceremony.[62][63]

• Haddish, Tiffany (December 2017). The Last Black Unicorn. New York: Gallery Books. ISBN 978-1-501-18182-5. OCLC 983640770.

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• Tiffany Haddish at AllMovie