Christina Anthony — Exclusive Portraits

By:

Elissa Anderson

February 14, 2020 9:43AM EST

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Christina Anthony at HollywoodLife

Christina Anthony at HollywoodLife — Actress Christina Anthony visited HollywoodLife.com to discuss her show mixed-ish on ABC. In the show, Christina stars as Denise, the hilarious, unfiltered aunt to Rainbow Johnson (Arika Himmel) and sister to Alicia Johnson (Tika Sumpter). Christina quickly became a fan-fave with her quick humor and wardrobe that often showcases the most outrageous and fun fashions of the 80s. Coming from the comic scene of Chicago, Christina’s humor is literally award-winning, as she co-wrote three award-nominated sketch revues and performed thousands of shows for Chicago audiences while a part of the famed Second City e.t.c Chicago. Christina’s other on-camera roles have included Key & Peele (Comedy Central), Mash Up (Comedy Central), Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ (Seeso), Take My Wife (Seeso), Bunk’d (Disney), Why Women Kill (CBS All Access), ER (NBC) and The Dilemma (Universal).

Click through our gallery for more EXCLUSIVE photos of Christina Anthony!

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On Telling A Story About A Biracial Family

On Telling A Story About A Biracial Family — “I love that there’s representation of both sides of the family. And I love that we’re able to see the influence that aunt Denise has on the kids is of a female figure who is not a mom. because you have these young kids in the show, and I feel like this is helping other families too and other kids who watch, embrace who they are and their race. Because I hate to say this, but we’re in 2020 and people still don’t want to talk about certain things. It helps other families too.”

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On Black Hair & Identity

On Black Hair & Identity — “Hair is such a touchstone in the black community. And then for mixed race kids who one of their parents is black, it does become a part of the identity. Like figuring out why do people react to me when my hair is a certain way. And then even for me as an actress coming into this job that includes press now… there’s so many kids now that you hear about or people in the workplace that are being discriminated against because their hairstyle was too much or was ‘inappropriate.’ This idea of like your hair doesn’t need to be straight to be right, to be correct, to be appropriate. And so certainly for my work, I love all kinds of hairstyles. Braids are fancy, they’re super special occasions. They’re appropriate. You’re not innapropriate the way you were made.”

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Christina Anthony Portraits

Christina Anthony Portraits — “Working with Mark Paul…. It’s very hard to not be like, “You were on Saved by The Bell.” But I stay cool. I stay as cool as I can. And then Tika Sumpter, we have this running joke because she’s done so many things, so many credits a total vet. But she’s on this show that I’m obsessed with called The Haves and the Have Nots. And she plays this evil villain, Candace, And I will just say, “Oh my gosh. I can see it. I can see Candice in you.”

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On Working With The Kids In ‘mixed-ish’

On Working With The Kids In ‘mixed-ish’ — “I mean, first of all, the children. I love them so much. So the way I relate to my character is, yes I like to wear wigs. And I am also obsessed with my nieces in real life. And I am so obsessed with the children in real life on our show and I know it drives them crazy.”

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On Getting Her First Project At Age 43

On Getting Her First Project At Age 43 — “I’m a person of faith. I believe in divine timing. And so I think this whole time… even if you’re out there working towards a goal and you feel like it’s not happening, there are things happening, right? You are learning more, you’re getting better, you’re getting more skilled. And for me it was… my confidence was building and knowing what I knew what funny was. I knew what my funny was. I knew how to make a joke. Don’t discount the time and the waiting time. That patience is one. And then the power to just hang on. And then even when I was ready to give up, my friends and my family, they pushed me along. Literally my boyfriend at the time, husband now, pushed me to this audition.”

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On Going Back To The ’80s In ‘mixed-ish’

On Going Back To The ’80s In ‘mixed-ish’ — Obviously when I was a child in the ’80s, I didn’t have the words to express some of the things I was feeling and thinking, so to have a chance to relive the ’80s as an adult woman is kind of an awesome chance that people just don’t get. So that’s amazing.”

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On Working With Legend Gary Cole

On Working With Legend Gary Cole — ‘mixed-ish’ Actress Christina Anthony stops by HollywoodLife’s NYC studio.

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