Marietta Sangai Sirleaf [ 1 ] [ 2 ] born April 12, , known professionally as Retta , is an American stand-up comedian and actress. Retta was born in Newark, New Jersey. Retta was raised as a member of the New Apostolic Church. In the youth group of her church, her ability to make others laugh was a major talent. When Retta competed in her first TV comedy contest, members from all over the world from the New Apostolic Church voted for her.
This contributed to her winning the contest and helped to further her career. In that contest she mentioned her faith and spiritual upbringing.
After graduating from Duke, Retta worked as a chemist. Don't Tell Me! Retta said she used to get "really nauseated" before a performance, but that the feeling passed with experience. Retta has served as the opening act for such comedians as Shirley Hemphill and Bobby Collins. During a stand-up performance at the University of Illinois at Springfield , Retta said the acting job on the show was stressful because it was unclear how long the show would stay on the air, due to the poor reviews it received during the first season.
Retta also hosted the 3rd Critics' Choice Television Awards in In , Retta was one of the audiobook narrators for Welcome to Night Vale , a novel tie-in to the eponymous podcast series in which she is the voice of Old Woman Josie. On Wait Wait She is a niece by marriage of the former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf [ 4 ]. Despite public confusion, Retta is not the cousin of Ginuwine. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history.
Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. American comedian and actress born For other uses, see Retta disambiguation.
