Retta, everyone’s favorite social media diva and television recapper joined Reddit for a predictably awesome AMA on Friday. In a time when some celebrity AMAs have been a little disappointing, Retta delivered on everything you could possibly ever wonder about America’s Goddamn Sweetheart.
Retta shared what drew her to performing:
When I graduated from college, I was supposed to go to med school. But I also wanted to be an actor. I did plays in high school and college. And never thought anything of it, until I graduated and was living alone and watching television and thinking “I could do this. I could do this.” What I really wanted was a sitcom. So I was talking with a friend who was in medical school, and she said “why don’t you do standup? Don’t all those standup comics get their own show?” So being in North Carolina, not knowing any better, we assumed that if you did standup, you’d get your own TV show. So that’s why I started doing standup. I thought I was going to follow in the path of Roseanne, Tim Allen, Drew Carey, Seinfeld, all those standup comics. I thought I was going to do what they did. So I started doing open mics, and did that for a year, and moved to LA and started doing the college circuit. I’d been kicking around in LA long enough that Allison Jones, the original casting director for our show, called me in to audition. And the rest is history.
Med school! You mean we could have had ‘Dr. Retta?’ OMG. She also cited Chris Rock, Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling and (WAT) Lena Dunham among her comedic inspirations. Oh somebody please please please get Retta on Girls. Bring her on and let her live tweet all the shit that comes out of Shoshanna’s mouth.