P-Valley's Nicco Annan Talks Playing Uncle Clifford, Cultural Appropriation and More

If you're like me, exciting television shows have been one of the things that have gotten you through this seemingly neverending pandemic. One of the new hit shows of the summer is P-Valley, which aired on Starz in July. One of the shows breakout characters is Uncle Clifford, played by Detroit bred actor Nicco Annan.

We had the opportunity to speak with Nicco about his upbringing, views on cultural appropriation and his role as Uncle Clifford. Throughout the interview, Nicco continued to drop gems and words of inspiration.

On how Nicco got the part of Uncle Clifford, he says "I auditioned like everyone else. Prior to the show being a television show, the creator Katori Hall first started the process it was called P*ssy Valley and it was a play. I was introduced to her through another writer friend. It wasn't even about a production. It was about a group of Black creatives that were getting together in a salon style type of environment to workshop and bounce ideas off of one another. I first read Uncle Clifford then. It was a four pages of the play that she had and it was 2 scenes. Uncle Clifford was in one of those scenes and it developed over time. Then from there, we did a full production of it in 2015 at the Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis where all of the unrest is happening these days."

We started reminicisng on his childhood in Detroit and he stated "I need to call Lena Waithe because this sounds like an episode of The Chi." I suggested that he grab a pen and start writing this down. He mentioned that he has a short film called Brown Sugar that is about his homecoming king story that he shared during our conversation. He then went on to share, "I have been doing this for a very long time even to the point where people weren't passing me scripts because maybe at the time Broadway or Hollywood didn't have roles for people like me, for people like Uncle Clifford or that representation of Black male bodies to be represented on the spectrum of the LGBT community and now there is room. Now people are ready for those truths. People are ready to expand the conversation."

When we talked about his coming out story he said that his grandmother asked him one day and truthfully he responded with a "Yes". She said that she would always love him and proceeded to have a conversation letting him know that he is more than just his sexuality. "Nicco didn't walk around the world saying he was gay. I am a Black Man. I am my mothers child. I am a child of God. There were so many things that came before sexuality. That was a part of my experience. In that, I felt the necessity to be bale to share that sometimes there is not a trauma associated with identity. Sometimes you are just who you are because that is how God created you."

Check out the full interview below and make sure you stay tuned in to P-Valley Sunday nights!