Morris Chestnut has been a successful and talented actor since 1990.  

Before the award-winning actor got into the movie business, he was a bank teller and originally thought the was going to have a career in the finance industry. One day, Chestnut asked his manager for a day off for an audition and his manager was okay with it. 

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A week later, he told his manager he didn’t get the part. She said when he was done with acting, there was a place for him to resume his bank telling role. 

“From that point forward, I just knew I just need to keep it for myself because even though people may have good intentions, they can kind of say some discouraging things,” Chestnut said. 

He has since gone on to star in well-known movies such as Boyz n the Hood, Higher Learning, The Best Man, The Brothers, Two Can Play That Game, Like Mike, The Game Plan, The Perfect Holiday, Think Like a Man and The Best Man Holiday.  

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Now, Chestnut is part of a new TV series called Our Kind of People, which came out on Sept. 21. The show goes into a number of Black cultural themes like status, wealth and colorism. 

“A lot of it is fictionalized because it’s a television show, but I think it’s very important for people to see those images, and hopefully it’s an aspirational type of situation,” he said. 

Our Kind of People airs every Tuesday on FOX at 9 p.m. EST. 

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