“It’s cool to be a nerd now,” begins Marcus Scribner, moments after we exchange pleasantries over Zoom. To prove his point, he tells me that he’s currently working his way through The Inheritance Cycle book series, and beams as he holds up his ear-marked copy of Eragon. “But I’ve always been into that stuff even when it was uncool.” Speaking of his love for anime, sci-fi, and high fantasy, he continues, “I’ve watched so much of this content and it’s always really exciting to me, and I’ve always wondered why there aren’t more Black-led stories like this.”
We were gathered, I assumed, to talk about his long career as the intelligent-but-socially-inept Andre Jr. on ABC’s Black-ish (which is currently in its final season), the weight of representation, and growing up on the set of a major television show.
