Erika Alexander Is Our Professor Of Joy

The first time I interviewed Erika Alexander, it was on a red carpet. The Living Single star who gave us Maxine Shaw (attorney at law), one of the defining female characters in TV history and one of the few Black women on TV who basically raised me, spoke so powerfully to my face about the legacy of Maxine’s cultural impact that my eyes welled with tears. “Maxine Shaw is an example of Afro-futurism,” she said. “African futurism is about us rising to our potential, unapologetically.” Alexander casually dropped knowledge about our history, future, and legacy like she was standing in front of a class giving a dissertation. Her confidence and the ease at which she commanded our conversation made me emotional. She is the living and breathing embodiment of everything Maxine Shaw had taught me. Earlier this year, when I talked to Alexander at the Sundance Film Festival, she made me cry all over again. She has that effect on people.

Lately, Alexander has been making us cry from laughter on her series The Fall And Rise of Reggie Dinkins. In it, she plays Monica, a razor-sharp, scene-stealing matriarch (opposite Tracy Morgan) whose timing is as impeccable as her instincts. It’s a role that feels both perfectly suited to her and entirely new — a reminder that while Alexander helped define an era of television, she’s never been confined by it. Instead, she’s expanded, evolved, and continued to shape the culture in ways that feel both subtle and seismic.

Off-screen, that same clarity and conviction carries through. Whether she’s talking about storytelling, joy, or the responsibility that comes with visibility, Alexander speaks with the kind of intention that makes you lean in — and, occasionally, reach for tissues. There’s a throughline from Maxine Shaw to now: a refusal to shrink, a commitment to truth, and an insistence on imagining more for Black women on-screen and beyond. In our conversation, Alexander reflects on legacy, comedy as a vehicle for joy, The Fall And Rise of Reggie Dinkins, and whether a Living Single reboot is in the works. 

Erika Alexander: I think that comedy in heavy times is essential. I think that's how human beings make the world not only bearable, but you get your best ideas when you're laughing, when you release the types of stress and frustrations that you might have, if only for a little while. And so I think that it's one of those things that when you have comedy next to drama, that makes a whole life. It's true. And so I'm glad that we have comedies in our past, and especially now, new ones coming to help us be resilient inside of a world that can be really difficult. 

EA: Thank you. I love that. A purveyor of joy. That's actually one of the most beautiful things you could have said about me as a compliment. Thank you. [Joy] is a vibe, and if people are catching that vibe, that means they want to give it back to me too. It's really difficult in a world that can be brutal to stay grounded at the same time, but also fly. And that's what joy is. It's the ability to understand that you need to have enthusiasm about things and really feel silly in your body sometimes. Be all right with not knowing, and have fun. [Joy] is not something you are taught. We're taught to straighten up, sit up. No one teaches you joy. We need joy classes. The class of joy, wouldn't that be great? Oh, can I be the professor of joy? Call me! You may be on to something. [laughs] I love that. 

EA: I'm loving going around talking about this show. I have not been on a network comedy as a series regular in 33 years. That brings me joy. I mean, imagine that! It makes me think about the times it's passed, and what I've done in the meantime, which is I've taught myself different skill sets and I taught myself to appreciate the things that I did have, but also that the wheel turns. I used to have a really close friend of mine — he was actually my ex-husband — who said, “Erica, the wheel turns.” And he's right. You have to stay ready, you have to stay mentally focused, and you have to have something to give, something to offer. And it doesn't matter what you've done before, that'll be in the mix as well. It doesn't go away. But what are you about now? So I get to talk about this show now. That brings me joy.

EA: Tracy had crutches and he still had two network shows. He's the OG. He's been out there really doing it, despite the fact that he had gotten in that accident. He has come back. We need to do a study on Tracy. I actually don't even think that's Tracy anymore. That's some avatar and we're in the matrix. Tracy Morgan is phenomenal, and he's the reason for the season. I tell him all the time that I appreciate that. That brother has been out there for so long, and then during the hard times, rehabilitated himself to not only make a comeback, but to offer that he could be a foundation for other careers to grow. I have nothing but respect for that brother, and he's a loving, good man and funny and odd and mischievous.

I really love him in this, especially with Daniel Radcliffe. What a pairing. Daniel Radcliffe and Tracy Morgan and Erika Alexander and Bobby Moynihan and Tina Fey. Tina Fey is one of our executive producers, but our show runners are Robert Carlock and Sam Means, and they are responsible for this great, delicious, sticky mix, and they did it with this. The chemistry is off the chain. Y'all come and see this because the chemistry is wonderful. But the people you know, our executive producers, really did create a fun adventure.

EA: It was crazy. It made us feel really good. ReLiving single was something that we were doing as a nostalgia piece, partly because we knew that there were many different generations that dug the show. It's always been very popular in syndication. And also there's a different generation that wants to talk about the 90s, and we're here for it, but we wanted to talk about our lives and the industry, what we learned being Black in this industry, doing comedy as women in this industry, and also the changes that we've absorbed or had to navigate. think that that's what I'm most happy about with this podcast. We know that we're TV stars, and so we worked really hard. These things are structured. We structured our time in order to make a show about a show. And so if you dig that show. You're gonna really dig the show that's around that show. And we did get everyone to come back, from [Queen] Latifah onwards. We have a lot of fun, and hopefully we'll do a lot more.

EA: Let me break news here…. Nope! I don't think so. Not yet, at least. Maybe a movie. [sings again] Joy, joy, joy, joy, joy! 

That's all I think about his legacy through the edification of other people, not myself. I do understand that power. If you have power, you're more powerful to help people. You need that. You need a platform to do it. But if you see me doing this work, I'm not even lying. I am doing it for you. I've been really fortunate in this business. Despite any issues or challenges I might have had, I'm more fortunate than most people will ever be, and I still see that there are great challenges that we must take head on. We can't leave them for you to do. We have to do our best and push and plow as far as we can so that you can keep going, and so that's how I feel. I do my best to not only remain accessible, but to use my resources, all of them, to build again.

I'm trying to build as solidly as I can, so that anybody that steps on my shoulders understands that I'm standing on the shoulders of Whoopi Goldberg, Phylicia Rashad and LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Gloria Foster and all these amazing people who helped build me — Cecily Tyson, all of these wonderful people. And so when you stand on it, you feel real sure and say, “Hey, Erika gave us a blueprint,” and her blueprint had their blueprint. Let's go forward. 

EA: Wow, you put me on the spot. You know what I think Black women need to hear? There's been a lot going down that sort of revealed the type of hard times and abuse that we've had to take these past years, and they need to know that they're not alone. They're not crazy, and we are our own best defense. For the future, we have to be together, together, together.