'Insecure' Star Kendrick Sampson On Mental Illness And Owning Black Stories

On the show, Kendrick Sampson plays Nathan, a lovable, attractive, elusive barber from Houston. Now, over a decade later, Sampson’s resume includes a stint in Shonda Rhimes’ “How to Get Away with Murder,” a role in Channing Godfrey Peoples’ “Miss Juneteenth,” and the lovable, attractive, elusive barber Nathan. There’s so many of our stories like that, that I don’t think we get to see, so hopefully it inspires more.” For Sampson, “Insecure” was an organic next chapter for his career. But I came in with proof.” Sampson makes his first appearance as Nathan in the Season 3 premiere, when a skirmish breaks out between him and another passenger in Issa’s “party Lyft.” Later, they run into each other at Worldwide Taco on her lunch break, which morphs into an extended all-day date, with the pair walking around town, divulging bits of their childhood to one another, and revealing their naked selves — literally. What does that look like in building a culture of care as opposed to the oppressive culture that we exude, exemplify and perpetuate through Hollywood pushing hyper-capitalism and anti-Blackness in storytelling?” He continued, “When you watch documentaries like ‘Disclosure’ or ‘13th’ and just think about the portrayals of us, then we think about the people that we know, how much more diverse we are and how much more to the story there is, it usually doesn’t take people much to understand why it’s so important to ultimately have autonomy over our stories and hold the people who are telling our stories accountable.” To outsiders, it may seem futile or disingenuous for an actor to engage in activism.