It’s been a little more than 10 years since comedian Loni Love first came on the scene, but she’s finally getting the fame she deserves thanks to a daily gig co-hosting “The Real” — and with a new game show on deck, as well as a key role in an upcoming major motion picture, it won’t be too long before she becomes a household name.
Love, 44, grew up in Detroit’s tough Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects with her single mother. In high school, while working on an assembly line at General Motors, she discovered an interest in electrical engineering and decided to study the subject in college after smartly earning a scholarship to Prairie View A&M University in Texas. While working on her bachelor’s degree, Love began dabbling in comedy. After graduation, she moved to California where she could work full-time as an engineer (at companies like Xerox) and part-time as a stand-up comedian. She became a finalist on the revived “Star Search” in 2003, and quit her engineering job soon after that to devote all of her energy to being a comic. Appearances on television shows like “Chelsea Lately” and “Comics Unleashed,” and in movies like “Soul Plane” and the “Bad Ass” franchise, led to bigger and better projects.
In the summer of 2013, Love scored a co-hosting spot on new talk show “The Real,” which began with a four-week trial run before entering its first official season in September 2014. The one-hour chat fest features a diverse panel of women — Love, Tamar Braxton, Tamera Mowry-Housley, Jeannie Mai and Adrienne Bailon — discussing hot topics, doling out fashion, beauty and relationship advice and interviewing celebrity guests. Airing during the day on Fox TV stations and in national syndication, and nightly on BET, “The Real” is a more lighthearted, fun and hip alternative to rival shows “The View” and “The Talk.”
Tell me about your role in the 2016 movie “Mother’s Day.”
It was just a great experience! It’s based on four separate stories starring Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, Julia Roberts and Kate Hudson. I am in the story with Jason and Jennifer. I play Kimberly, a mother, that helps Jason get over the loss of his wife. It was directed by Garry Marshall, and you could have never told me in a million years that I’d be directed by the man whose shows I loved growing up. He directed “Pretty Woman!” It was just a dream come true to actually be able to work with him and to have him say I was funny. It was just an amazing time. And, here again, it’s just another side of me that people will see. I call my fans Love Bugs, and they are just so great to me. I just want to be able to entertain them in as many ways as possible. It’s a really heartfelt and heartwarming movie that I think people will enjoy.
Shooting with Creator of Happy Days director Garry Marshall ...learning so much under his direction... #humbled pic.twitter.com/Ginc7EPjjp
— Loni Love (@LoniLove) August 22, 2015
Lastly, what’s going on with your love life?
Like I state on the show, I am a satisfied single. I date, and I believe in multi-dating for single women that are not monogamous. I don’t want to get married or have children, so this is what I do.
For more on Loni Love, visit her official website or connect with her on social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram).
