Niecy Nash Will Work With Her Wife on New FOX Show

Actor Niecy Nash has teamed up with toilet paper brand Charmin to help launch BRB Bot, a "digital, AI-powered twin that swaps your live video feed via Zoom and other similar platforms," so that no one will know you're gone if you have to sneak away for a potty break! 

"The new every day: nature calls, but you’re on a video call," a release from Charmin reads. "That’s why Charmin introduced its newest prototype — BRB Bot — so no one will ever know you stepped away. BRB Bot is the first-ever 'bot' that will keep you logged on by creating a digital twin that swaps your live video feed with an AI-powered version of yourself." 

"While you are on the throne, BRB Bot listens and responds as if you are still on the video call and features a range of realistic human reactions, such as laughing at your boss' terrible jokes, looking thoughtfully into the distance, pretending to search for the unmute button and much more."

Following last winter's surprising news of her marriage to Jessica Betts, we caught up with Nash to chat about the beta BRB Bot application, her welcoming into the LGBTQ+ community, the possibility of a Scream Queens reboot, and her latest gigs in Ryan Murphy's upcoming Jeffrey Dahmer series and FOX's Don't Forget the Lyrics reboot.

PRIDE: Tell me about Charmin's BRB Bot?
Niecy Nash: Well, I thought they came up with such a good idea for the BRB Bot and, you know, because what girls...well, what any person wouldn't want a doppelganger of themselves to be able to stand in the gap while they had to go to the bathroom or do anything while they were on a Zoom or on a call? So being able to have that technology..when I first heard about it, I was like, 'Wait, what? Sign me up!' And then they were like, well it's not for the masses just yet, but the whole way it works, I thought was so super cool that you could excuse yourself from a Zoom, without having to say it, you just replace yourself with yourself, go handle the business and come back.

I thought it was important because I've been in many situations in so many Zooms because now the Zooms are the new normal where you're there and you, we know they roll back to back to back or my kids coming in or something crazy happens. And I would love to be able to just replace myself for a second and step off and then come right back without anybody knowing I was missing.

You have to do some acting to make it believable. Do you have any tips for us non-actors?
Well, you know what? You just do what you would normally do if you were on the call. Nod your head, jot down something random, you can figure out a couple of things to do to replace yourself and make it look like you didn't do it.

So you recently publicly announced your marriage with Jessica Betts, and on Red Table Talk, you spoke a bit about people's shock with you "not fitting into a box" and you said you identified as "free." I wondered if you could speak a little bit more on that as a Black woman. What empowered you to break out of that box? 
Well, I guess I would say the thing that would have empowered me would be wisdom. You know, when you live long enough, you know that your happiness has to come first. So when you know that you make the necessary moves to continue to curate the life that makes you happy. And that's what I did.

Have you received your LGBTQ+ welcome packet yet?
[laughs] Well, let me just say the community has been kind and people have reached out and sent me, you know, different little things and so I'm feeling the love.

What's your favorite part of being in the LGBTQ community so far?
My favorite part is really the love and the acceptance. You know, you never know how it's going to go. It doesn't mean your truth is still not your truth. You know what I mean? Just because you tell it doesn't mean everybody is going to receive it the way you intend for that to happen. So it was such an outpouring of love for Jessica and I. We literally were overwhelmed. I didn't really know that anybody would even care where I laid my head at night. But apparently, they do.

Can you tell us anything about Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story series you're going to be in? 
Well, what I can tell you is that it's extremely well-written and I think you find out things that maybe you did not know because it's a deep dive into the story. It's a limited series. Ryan Murphy is at the helm and everything he touches is delicious. If you asked me my phone rings, he always has me at hello. And it is, it's dark. It's real. It's raw.

Speaking of Ryan Murphy, you were in Scream Queens. Have you heard anything about a reboot or any news about that?
I haven't heard anything about a reboot, but I will put that security guard uniform back on in a hot minute.

What has it been like hosting The Masked Singer? I cackled when Kermit the Frog climbed out of that costume and you started screaming. 
No, I didn't know what was inside of that thing. [laughs] But I had a lot of fun and we just had a good time as a group over there.

That led to Fox coming to me with another job, which was the Don't Forget the Lyrics reboot that I ended up hosting for them. So I just read that as well, which was beautiful because it was so wonderful to give away large sums of money after the pandemic.

That was also something that Jessica and I were able to do together because it has a live band.

A live band?
So she's a musician and a singer.

Aww, how was that working with Jessica on set? How was that?
It's my favorite thing to do, I love it. I love it when our art intersects. For people who have spent the entire pandemic together, and then be like... 'Hey, you want to go to work together?' So we were like, 'Yep!' That's the way we like it.

That's so cute.
Okay. That's my baby.