Tiffany Haddish: From Homeless to Hollywood

Tiffany Sarac Haddish is a 38-year-old comedian and actress. She has been in the headlines a lot this year for her breakthrough role in Girls Trip, but it has not always been that way. About 13 years ago, she was homeless and living out of her car in Beverly Hills. Now she has gone from homeless to Hollywood.

When Kevin Hart found out that Tiffany Haddish was living out of her car, he gave her $300 so she could get a hotel room for a week. That was the only cash he had on him at the time. Haddish credits Hart for helping her get her life together. She calls him her "comedy angel." Now the two comedians are co-starring in a movie.

Haddish didn't want anyone to know she was homeless, but Hart noticed she had personal items in her car and he figured it out. Even though she did not want people to know she was homeless at the time, she posted it on Instagram when things got better.

After Hart gave her money, he took the time to talk to her and advise her how to reset her life. He encouraged her to write down her goals and work toward reaching them.

Even though Kevin gave Tiffany money and advice, she did not make it big right away. She had smaller roles before she got her breakthrough role of Dina in the 2017 blockbuster film Girls Trip.

• From 2005 to 2014, Tiffany was cast in dozens of small roles on television and in films.
• From 2014 to 2015, Haddish gained some recognition as Jackie on the first season of the OWN television drama If Loving You Is Wrong.
• From 2015 to 2017, she starred as Nekeisha Williams on the NBC sitcom The Carmichael Show.
• She appeared in the 2016 comedy film Keanu.

Those roles brought in money for Tiffany, but she was not a household name until 2017 after the release of Girls Trip. The comedian co-starred alongside well-known actresses Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Regina Hall in the box-office hit.

After then, she was the host of Saturday Night Live which gave her more exposure. She was the first black comedienne to host the popular entertainment show.

Apparently, the goal setting exercise Hart gave Haddish is working. She published her memoir entitled The Last Black Unicorn in December 2017.

In 2018, she was included on Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Today Haddish's net worth is $2 million. She has worked her way up from living out of her car in the following ways:

• a very successful movie career
• her memoir “The Last Black Unicorn”
• spokesperson for Groupon
• other endorsement deals

When Tiffany was only three years old, her father left her mother, Leola who remarried and had two more girls and two boys. Tiffany's step-father tampered with brakes on Leola's car, and she suffered severe brain damage. All the siblings were allegedly intended to be harmed in the accident. Fortunately, Tiffany and her half-sisters and half-brothers decided to stay home that day.

Foster Care

Even though she was only nine at the time, Tiffany was in charge of looking out for her younger siblings. By the time she was 12, all five children were separated and put into foster care.

Tiffany coped by using comedy to get through the pain she endured. After three years of being in foster care, Tiffany and her siblings were reunited and went to live with their grandmother.

In School

Tiffany admitted that she did not learn to read until she was in high school when one of her teachers tutored her. She was far from being a model student. After getting into a lot of trouble, she was given a choice to either go for psychiatric therapy or go to the Laugh Factory Comedy Camp. The 17-year-old troubled student chose comedy as an outlet for her pain. Today, the Laugh Factory Comedy Camp is one of her charities and she does volunteer work there.

She said well-known comedians such as Richard Pryor, Dane Cook, Charles Fleischer, and the Wayans brothers literally saved her life.

Tiffany’s performance in Girls Trip was strongly approved by critics. The comedian has received numerous honors, awards, and recognitions for her role as Gina in the box-office hit.

AWARDS

• African-American Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress
• Black Reel Award for Best Supporting Actress
• NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
• New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
  
• American Black Film Festival Rising Icon Award
  

NOMINATIONS

• Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in a Comedy
• Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress
• Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress
• Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress
• Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress

Haddish's role in Girls Trip has helped her get other opportunities. She is starring in a film with Kevin Hart that is scheduled to be released on September 28, 2018.

As of January 2018, Tiffany Haddish’s net worth was estimated to be $2 million. It is probably more by now. Even so, she doesn't splurge. She uses Groupon, and she has worn her $4,000 Alexander McQueen white dress on three occasions. She says she will continue wearing it because it cost more than her mortgage.

• Tiffany Haddish wore the dress to the Girls Trip premiere.
• She hosted Saturday Night Live wearing the same dress.
• She presented awards at the 2018 Oscars wearing the same white dress.

Haddish once invited her Girls Star co-star Jada Pinkett-Smith and her husband Will Smith on a swamp tour in Louisiana. She picked up the famous actors in a $20-a-day rental car and admitted to them that she used Groupon to book the tour.

After telling the story on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! last July, the company heard about it and gave Haddish a spot in its Super Bowl ad and other commercials. Jon Wild, Groupon's head of marketing for North America, told People magazine that Haddish knows their products better than some of Groupon's own employees.

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