https://www.wmagazine.com/culture/ashley-nicole-black-a-black-lady-sketch-show-interview

You were in the middle of getting your Ph.D. at Northwestern University when you decided to pursue improv. What made you realize comedy could be your job? I had a couple of really good teachers. One of the first teachers I had was Norm Holly, who taught in the conservatory at The Second City. He very quickly pulled me aside to say, “You’re really good at this,” and convinced me to audition for professional jobs when I was in my first classes. When I started writing, I had a writing teacher. I had written a sketch that should have been funny, but it was really dark and based on something that was going on in my life. It was so dark that it made the teacher cry when she read it. After class she pulled me aside and said, “You’re a writer, you should make people feel something with your words.” No one had really identified to me that I could be a writer. At The Second City, you have to write to get on stage and perform, so I was writing, but I didn’t see writing as its own separate thing that I was good at until someone told me.