This interview was originally broadcast on Oct. 22, 2009.
You’d be forgiven for confusing Tracy Morgan with his character on 30 Rock — which has its series finale on January 31 — Tracy Jordan. Jordan stars in a sketch comedy show on NBC; Morgan starred on Saturday Night Live for seven seasons. In 30 Rock‘s pilot, Jordan is filmed running down a crowded street in his underwear, wielding a plastic light saber; Morgan has appeared on a local talk show reclining on top of a desk with his shirt pulled up over his belly.
Morgan grew up in the Bronx and the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant (which he calls Ghetto, USA), and says that even as a child he knew he wanted a better life. He fled a troubled relationship with his mother, but life with his father, who served in Vietnam and recovered from a heroin addiction, didn’t make him happier.
Read this story now for free
To continue reading, sign up for our newsletter and get unlimited access to WABE.org
You can select your preferences for news and local content. We will never share your email address. Learn how your newsletter sign-up will support WABE and Public Media
