American actress Tiffany Haddish granted Eritrean citizenship
American actress Tiffany Haddish. Her father was born in Eritrea and moved to the United States as a refugee. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
According to Eritrea’s diplomat to the US Hadnet Keleta, Tiffany was granted the citizenship after applying and submitting relevant documents.
Her father, Tsihaye Reda, moved to the United States as a refugee.
Celebrated American actress Tiffany Haddish has been granted citizenship by Eritrea.
Tiffany, who was born of an African-American mother and an Eritrean father, first stepped into the country in 2018 during her late father's emotional send off.
Her father Tsihaye Reda moved to the US as a refugee. According to Eritrea’s diplomat to the US Hadnet Keleta, Tiffany was granted the citizenship after applying and submitting relevant documents.
The actress was born and brought up in Los Angeles, California. She grew up in foster care after her father left and her mother suffered brain damage from a car accident.
In her teenage years, she lived with her maternal grandmother. While in school, she got interested in comedy as she used it as a coping mechanism.
After graduating from high school, she did odd jobs to sustain herself. She began her career as a stand-up comedian and continued to pursue it on several comedy platforms until she landed a role on several notable American films.
WON SEVERAL AWARDS
The artist has won several awards and has been featured on a couple of Hollywood productions with the latest being Tyler Perry’s Nobody’s Fool.
Tiffany shot to stardom with her comic acting in the much watched comedy movie Girls’ Trip where she starred alongside Hollywood stars like Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett.
In 2017, Ms Haddish became the first female African-American comedian to host Saturday Night Live - popularly known as SNL.
This earned her an Emmy Award. Her much discussed memoir Last Black Unicorn has also featured as New York Times bestseller.
The actress is currently in the country for Eritrea's 28th Independence Day celebrations.
Ms Haddish has embraced her Eritrean side on several occasions and the most notable one was during 2018's Oscar red carpet Academy awards.
There, she wore a long cream gown with black and gold embroidery. The dress is traditionally worn by women in both Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Last year, during Emmy’s she paid homage to her Eritrean roots once more by rocking a long rainbow dress which she said was inspired by colours of the country’s flag.
Tiffany announced her travel to Eritrea via her social media accounts while her fans congratulated her, some were quick to advice her to use her platform to “Speak up” about what they termed as a “brutal and dictatorial regime”.
In a video circulating on social media, an excited Tiffany is captured talking about her trip to her father's country of birth for the independence day celebrations.
She said that she couldn't help but get excited about being in the company of her family. The comedian jokingly added that she wouldn't mind finding a partner there.
The Ethiopian Airline Twitter page also made a post acknowledging her presence in their flight "It's our honour to have the renowned Eritrean - American Actress, comedian and Author, Tiffany Haddish on board Ethiopian Airlines on her way to Asmara."
