GINA YASHERE
“I had come out to friends and family, but I’d never come out publicly in England because I didn’t want to give them something else to box me in with,” comedian, actor, and writer Gina Yashere told The Guardian in 2021. Raised in London by Nigerian parents, Yashere excelled in school and worked as an elevator engineer, but turned to comedy in her mid-twenties. Within months of her career change, she was appearing on television and won runner-up in the 1996 Hackney Empire New Act of the Year competition. Yashere broke out on the American comedy scene in 2007 as a finalist on Last Comic Standing, then permanently relocated stateside. Now living in California with her partner, Nina Rose Fischer, Yashere has four stand-up specials (three of which are available on Netflix) and is an in-demand voice-over artist. She has also published her memoir, Cack-Handed, and plays a supporting role on the CBS sitcom Bob Hearts Abishola, which she co-created with TV giant Chuck Lorre. Yashere attributes her wild U.S. success to finally being out and proud. “The day I came out on stage, my life became like an open book,” she told The Guardian. “I have no fear of being outed. This is who I am, take me or leave me, I don’t give a shit. And my comedy got way better after that.”
