Channing Dungey Quotes

I wasn't able to relate to anyone on TV growing up, so I wanted to bring my own experiences to the screen.

I've always felt like I was an actor for hire. And almost apologetic for being a woman of color, trying to stifle that voice. But I don't feel that way in Shondaland. I feel like I am accepted into a world where I'm a part of the narrative - I'm a part of it.

It meant something to see people who looked like me in comic books. It was this beautiful place that I felt pop culture should look like.

I grew up watching cinema in my country that wasn't telling stories about us, and we had to find a way to connect, and our references, our role models had nothing to do with us. And I'm so glad that it's changing.

I want to be in everything, but that's because I haven't seen someone who looks like me in everything. I want to play a superhero. I want to be the love interest. I want to write my own stuff and create my own projects. I want to be in French films.

I'm such a firm believer that everyone should see themselves in a character, and everyone should feel represented.

It's hard as a young person of a different ethnicity or background to look at the TV and not see anyone who looks like you. Representation is very important.

Say you have a young black kid, and you come to see a Sondheim show. You love the material, but you look on stage, and you don't see anyone who looks like you. That puts a barrier between the audience and what they're trying to absorb.

When I was growing up, in the '80s and '90s, I just never really saw myself reflected in the things that I had a liking for. It makes a difference.

It's important for Asian American kids to see themselves in stories and to feel seen. They need to know that their stories are universal, too, that they, too, can fall in love in a teen movie. They don't have to be the sidekick; they can be the hero.

For me, like, obviously, I want to see myself onscreen.

'Essence' is political. I grew up on the magazine, looking at the covers. Seeing ourselves on the cover is political.

Of course I want the things I write to reflect well on me or anyone who might feel represented by me, but also, I'm not writing a guidebook on how to be or how my people should be seen. I'm telling very specific stories.

There's something to be said about seeing your face represented. There's just something really important about that. It just draws you in more.

I can't imagine how hard it must be to invest in a community... when you don't feel heard and when you don't feel seen.

Black women come with all sorts of personalities. So it's time for media to wise up and show us in all of our complexity.

I hope to see more Latino stories on television - not just on a personal level, but for us in the industry. We shouldn't just exist when a show is attempting to be diverse. We have good stories, and we are worth it.

When you have filmmakers like Justin Simien, writers, producers, actresses like Lena Waithe, who are people of color, they're creating their own content and saying, 'You know what? We're not going to wait on someone else to tell our story. We're going to do it ourselves. You can be a part of it or not.'

I feel that its important for me to be out there and to represent the face. At the same time, for me as an individual, I think the Asian-American face can be crowded with the American identity.

I'm just really excited to expose people to different identities, different conversations but also to kind of reframe how they think about black women just by being myself.

People love to see themselves on screen in a way that makes sense and seems on point.

It's about how you exist as a person in the world, and the idea that your work is more important than you as a person is a horrible, horrible message. I always think about a little gay boy in Wisconsin or a little lesbian in Arkansas seeing someone like me, and if I cannot be open in my life, how on earth can they?

Audiences want great story telling; it's why white people watch my show 'Black in America.' It's why black people watch 'Latina in America.' All of that is statistically shown and proven but it was because it was good story telling about people who were outsiders.

I want to be able to work on a project that will give people around the world the chance to represent their own people, their own culture, their own stories, rather than just Hollywood - really, you know, dominated Hollywood. And that's a dream of mine.

I know one of the reasons I first started making Youtube videos was because no one looks like me.