I loved school but I was very precocious. My second-grade teacher would 100% agree that I had a very “strong personality”. A distinctive dynamic and a strong personality. She was one of my favourite teachers – we still keep in touch now and have since the second grade. She saw that precociousness and didn’t really try to change me or make me conform.

Orange Is the New Black changed my life. Before, I would walk down the street and nobody knew who I was, and now that’s a different story.

The day I found out I got the role [of Suzanne, aka “Crazy Eyes”], I had a terrible audition for another show, and so I was like, “You’re done. You’re not supposed to do this.” And so I quit. Then 45 minutes later, I got the call that I’d got this job. Never, ever quit on yourself if it’s something you believe in.

I went into this very last-minute. My family were from Nigeria, and so I thought I was going to be a lawyer, like a lot of first-gen kids. When it was introduced to me that you could go to uni for performing arts, that was a code-breaker. You can be transported to different places. You can convey message and craft and narrative through the arts, that is very powerful.

I am an optimist, without being a Pollyanna. I see the world for what it is, but at the same time I choose to believe in its possibilities. I just always think everything’s going to work out. I don’t know how it’s going to work out, but it is. I’ve seen that time and time again in my life.

When I first moved to New York my mom was constantly visiting me as she couldn’t understand my life choice. But she was very supportive. My extended family, less so. A lot of them would still come and be cheerleaders, but could not fully wrap their heads around it: “So we left Nigeria for you to now be poor again. To choose to be poor?” They didn’t really get it.

Actors are 50% ego, 50% insecure. I love the excitement of being able to perform, and funnel that precociousness into a more positive form of, “Look at me, look at me!”

Suzanne had two years where she experienced loss – the loss of Vee, and the loss of Poussey. For myself, Uzo, as a person, I love those women. That was really hard, because you’re saying goodbye to actual people – actors – and their characters.

Walking is a huge catharsis for me. I don’t want to bring characters home. I don’t know how safe, particularly with Suzanne, that might be. I journal a lot as well, and I write a lot.

I can still look in the rear-view mirror of my life and see myself waiting tables. I can remember having my mom come to visit me and having no food in my fridge. I remember it so wholeheartedly. I’m not so far removed from that experience that I can’t feel it still in my skin.

Orange Is the New Black season 5 is available on Netflix now