00:00It's been a year firsts between all the, you know, press events, all the premieres,
00:04films coming out. I'm just extremely grateful and hopefully we can just keep this train going.
00:14I think it's been a blessing to have an introduction year and people resonate with
00:18not only the movies that I've been in but, you know, the personality, the fashion and,
00:23you know, it's nice to have people around me to, you know, keep me grounded and whatnot.
00:27Maybe the friends are necessary to like remind you of like how far you've come.
00:32No, I just think about younger me, young Tyreek, you know, what would he have thought of where I'm at
00:37today? And I think that reminder grounds me holistically and I'm still processing it all.
00:46As a kid, I took school very seriously, not to brag or anything, but I graduated number seven in my
00:52class, 4.63 GPA, 4.0, unweighted GPA, very important. But yeah, I really took school series.
01:00I think that was a route out for me, very sensitive kid, played soccer, a lot of soccer. That was
01:07my
01:07life, soccer, academics. But yeah, I really enjoyed, you know, having friends and hanging out, neighborhood
01:16kid growing up, apartment complex, in and out Chicago. I wanted to be a neurosurgeon because I
01:22watched Grey's Anatomy. So yeah, I realized he's an actor. So that's the switch. You see it. I always
01:30kind of knew I wanted to try it, but it was the Disney Channel games. I used to watch Disney
01:35Channel
01:36games and how do I get there? So that was like the initial like, Mom, Wizards of Waverly Place, how
01:41do we do it?
01:43But you're like in Florida and it's like, how likely will that be to be dropped to Orlando
01:47and audition? But that never happened. So I think a turning point for me was in college.
01:55And I had like kids in the film school, like be in my short film, be in my short film.
02:02And I got the
02:02bug for that there. And I just hated sports at one point. You know, I just felt like a
02:09trap tonight. Need to express this emotion. And so I auditioned for a play and then I was just like,
02:17I wiped my hands clean of sports and I really dove in. It's just self-discovery through plays,
02:24through organizations. I was like a camp counselor for first generation African-American students coming
02:31into college. And that was fun because it felt like a performance of like, hey, welcome to school. And then
02:37you
02:37had to like direct them. And then when COVID hit, that's when it was full time, like trying to figure
02:44it out. You're not really black. You have an entire culture to pull from. I'm blacker than you.
02:50You look like Frankie Muniz. I'm super grateful for Atlanta. I think at the time I didn't understand
02:55the magnitude of like how important that show is to the culture, but also the filmmaking community.
03:01But yeah, it's paramount to where I'm at today. Without that, uh, it'd be very difficult to get to where
03:06I'm at.
03:07So shout out to Donald Glover for directing that episode. Yeah. And it just introduced me to like how to
03:12really lead a project on a studio level, you know, really work with an art tour in terms of telling
03:18a story
03:19that's really meaningful. So what gets you on the field? Definitely my family. They sacrifice a lot for me.
03:26All right. I want you to remember that when you can't push no further.
03:31When I was auditioning for the movie Him, I was in Serbia shooting a movie. So I had to do
03:35everything over Zoom. I did a series of auditions meetings. I filmed a highlight tape of me working
03:40out and throwing a football. And trust me, it is hard as hell to get an American football in Europe.
03:46And so they had like, oh, we have one final call. They're like, we want you to do some improv.
03:50We just want to see if you have the chops and that Justin Tibbins on the call and then all
03:54the
03:54producers. And then they're like, and hi, this is Jordan Peele. We don't know if you know him.
04:00And I'm like, okay, do I know Jordan Peele? And he's like, hey, nice to meet you.
04:04We're just going to go and do some improv and really excited for what's happening. And then I go into
04:10an improv with the director in the middle of the improv. He was like, you got the part.
04:15I'm like, what? What are you talking about? Are we still in it? You know? And I knocked the tripod
04:20over and I had to pick the tripod up. Yeah. And then they were like, oh, don't tell anyone. I
04:27told
04:27my mom. That was great. I didn't think she, she didn't really understand it. She was like, oh, great.
04:33Yeah. So that's changed since then.
04:40I think we're all an accumulation of our past experiences. And I think I have a lot to offer,
04:45whether it's the quiet, yearning, brooding, or whether it's the funny guy who's really hiding
04:51a deep insecurity. So I always had a passion to really tell a plethora, SAT word, of stories.
05:00I really resonated with comedy through like Instagram sketches or YouTube sketches. And I think
05:07that's how I connected with people. The empath in me is like, oh, they're laughing. My day is so much
05:11better. But yeah, I haven't really tapped into that yet with film fully, but stay tuned. We have some
05:17really great things on the horizon. I want to be happy. I want to have a whole life, a full
05:25life.
05:26I think I want to still pour into my creative bag of, you know, being an actor, a storyteller,
05:32if you will. But also, you know, in 10 years, I want to have a little mini me, maybe two,
05:40maybe three, maybe four, and, you know, really pour into a family. I feel like I have a lot of
05:45love
05:45to give. Hopefully, like the family I already have, they're taken care of and sitting on a beach,
05:53sipping a cocktail or two, playing golf. Hopefully, my swing's a little better.
05:59Smoking a cigar, laughing with friends. Hopefully, my rich person laughs, starts to hit.
06:06But rich, not only financially, rich in life, rich in friendship, rich in family, rich in designer bags,
06:13and Birkins, you know.
