'Atlanta' Actor Brian Tyree Henry Is A Morehouse Man And Yale Graduate

Brian Tyree Henry a.k.a. Paperboi

Written by Mike Orie of TheConsciousTip.com

In a recent interview with The Root, actor Brian Tyree Henry revealed a lot of things about himself that many of us didn't know.

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You might know Brian Tyree Henry mostly for his role as Paperboi on Atlanta. On the show, he plays a hip-hop artist trying to make it in the underground Atlanta hip hop scene. The show is so complex because it touches on everything from homophobia to cultural appropriation among many other things. Earn, the show's main character played by Donald Glover is a Princeton college dropout finding his way in the city with a daughter and half-hearted relationship. But behind the scenes, there are a lot more about the actors of these roles that we may not know.

In a recent interview with The Root, Henry revealed that he is both a Morehouse Man and Yale graduate. The 34-year old actor attended Morehouse in the early 2000's as a business major and would later earn a Masters degree from the Yale School of Drama. The North Carolina native has been on Broadway and played on the original cast of 'The Book Of Mormon'. "I always wanted to see what it was like to reach people who were in land lock states who don't know I exist."

Pictured, Brian Tyree Henry as Paperboi on Atlanta

In a candid conversation with The Root's Felice Leon, he explains just how Black 'Atlanta' is. "Everybody on the set is Black. It's Black AF everywhere up in there and I love it. From costumes, to crew to hair and make-up. Even the people we were hiring locally."

The Morehouse man goes on to explain the role his father played in his life, and how it shaped him into who he is today. "I found myself, most of my life collecting brothers, cause you know, I had my father, but there were parts of my life that I wasn't with him and then I spent a large part of my life with him." And then there's the important part on Black male masculinity. "There's this thing I feel that's sometime engrained in us as Black men, it's hard to really show emotion sometimes. It's hard to say I'm hurting or that I need hurt." He continues by explaining his reasoning for attending Morehouse. "That was a big reason of why I went to Morehouse, because I had to understand that connection, and what my connection was to other Black men. That looked like me, that were my age, and I met Donald." 

Watch the full interview below. 

Did you know these things about Brian Tyree Henry? What are your thoughts on Atlanta?

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Mike "Orie" Mosley is a freelance writer/photographer and cultural advocate from St. Louis. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Arts, Entertainment & Media Management from Columbia College Chicago and a Masters in Higher Education Administration from LSU. He is also the co-founder of music and culture website http://ift.tt/1QXC23X. In his spare time, he's probably listening to hip hop & neo soul music, hitting up brunch or caught up in deep conversations about Black music. You can follow him on Twitter @mike_orie or on Instagram @mikeorie

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