I loved 'Ghana Must Go' by Taiye Selasi. It's about a first-generation African family living in America that has to return home to Nigeria when their estranged father passes away.

My family is from Nigeria, and my full name is Uzoamaka, which means 'The road is good.'

I come from Nigeria, and we live by the idea that it takes a village. So my entire team. I live by my team: my friends, my neighbors, my teachers - they're the people who taught me how to be a free actor.

In performance, you don't always feel that sort of family bond right off the top. It sort of develops and grows over time.

My mother is a fighter. After she battled polio and learned to walk again, the doctors told her she would be a cripple her entire life. Instead of accepting defeat, she refused this fate and went on to become the West African Women's Singles tennis champion in college.

My family is more a sports family, and I figure skated for a very long time, so movement and how I relate to movement is very integral to my process.