Yvonne Anuli Orji // ^{ⓘ [1]} (born 2 December 1983) is a Nigerian-American actress and comedian. She is best known for her role in the television series Insecure (2016–2021), for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and three NAACP Image Awards.

Orji was born on 2 December 1983, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria to Igbo parents, and she grew up in Laurel, Maryland, in the United States.^[2][3] She spent her high school years in the small town of Lititz, Pennsylvania, where she attended Linden Hall, the oldest all-girls boarding school in the country. Raised Catholic, Orji is now a devout Protestant and has stated that she will remain a virgin until marriage.^[4]

She earned both a bachelor's degree in liberal arts and a master's degree in public health from George Washington University. Orji's parents expected her to become a doctor, lawyer, pharmacist, or engineer. However, she was inspired to do comedy as a graduate student when she performed stand-up in the talent portion of a beauty pageant.

After graduate school, in 2009, Orji moved to New York City to pursue a career in comedy.^[4] In 2015, she landed the role of Molly on Insecure without an agent or any real acting experience.^[5] In 2021, she began development on a series for Disney+ titled First Gen. The series is based on her personal life and is produced by Oprah Winfrey and David Oyelowo.^[6] Orji is the author of the book Bamboozled by Jesus.^[7]

She gave a speech at TEDxWilmingtonSalon in 2017 titled, "The wait is sexy". In the talk, she explains her reasons for abstaining from sex before marriage.^[8]

She cohosted the 2021 International Emmy Awards.^[9] She also hosted the romantic comedy reality dating series My Mom, Your Dad, which premiered on HBO Max in 2022, which ran for a single season.^[10]

In 2023, Orji voiced Tess, the estranged wife of secret bounty hunter Terry, a recurring character in My Dad the Bounty Hunter.^[11] Also in 2023, Orji had signed a two-year first-look deal with Sony Pictures Television.^[12]

Outside of her creative work, she is dedicated to philanthropy. In 2008 and 2009 she spent six months working in post-conflict Liberia, with Population Services International (PSI), an NGO that utilizes social marketing in the adoption of healthy behaviors. While in Liberia, she worked with a group of talented youth to help build a mentoring program as well as a weekly talk show that helped educate and prevent the spread of teen pregnancy and HIV/AIDS. She currently lends her time and voice as a (RED) Ambassador, a Literacy Champion for Jumpstart, and working with JetBlue for Good.^[13]

Wilson, H. W. (November 2018). "Yvonne Orji". Current Biography. 79 (11): 51–55. ISBN 9781682176412. OCLC 1005191045.