Jordan Peel has made it clear that he will continue to tell stories that wouldn’t have a white person as the lead character. He made this known at a symposium with students at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, Hollywood.
According to the seasoned director, he has nothing against white dudes, he just hasn’t seen the movie in which to fix them yet. His comments come right on the heel of the opening weekend of his newest horror flick “Us.” “Twilight Zone” is also billed to reboot its premiere on CBS All Access next week.
While speaking to the crowd of over 200 students he told them Martin Lawrence and Steve Martin were major influences on his comedy career. He also said he always knew he wanted to be a director right from high school. He attended Sarah Lawrence College, Bonkers instead of NYU to study film. Peele confessed that he thought directing wasn’t his thing when he didn’t get into NYU and after two boring years at Sarah Lawrence he dropped out.
He went on to study improv and sketch comedy before moving to Chicago where he met Keagan-Michael Key at Second City. Both men moved to L.A. together and went on to appear on MADtv before beginning work with Comedy Central in their series “Key and Peele.”