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Money Diaries

He Went from Yale to Food Stamps to Being Paper Boi on "Atlanta"

Brian Tyree Henry — star of FX’s “Atlanta,” the amazing singer guy from “This is Us,” and man on the Hollywood precipice — sits down with filmmaker Errol Morris to tell his money story.

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Wealthsimple is a whole new kind of investing service. This is the latest installment of our recurring series “Money Diaries” where we ask interesting people to open up about the role money has played in their lives.

He came out of Fayetteville, North Carolina. Or, as he calls it: Fayette-nam. He went to Yale School of Drama. But he was also on food stamps in New York City. He found success, but he also lost the person he most wanted to make proud.

In our continuing series of Money Diaries (you can see Errol Morris star in his own video here), the remarkable young actor Brian Tyree Henry has a frank conversation about the long, strange trip that took him to a starring role on the show “Atlanta.” Check out the video below.

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