You’ve had some incredible guests already. I particularly loved your conversations with Regina King, Janelle James, Durand Bernarr, and Keke Palmer because each one revealed a side of them I hadn’t really seen before. Who is currently at the top of your dream guest list?
First of all, you picked some really, really good ones. All of those are some really memorable episodes for sure. I’d also add Andra Day and Diarra Kilpatrick to that list. They were total surprises to me in how they showed up because I just had a totally different idea of who they were, right? If you have not seen those episodes, they are definitely worth revisiting. They're also so early in the House Guest experience that you can really see where the work has been and where we've put the effort into making the show the best we possibly could. But for who I want as a next guest, my cousin Rihanna is definitely on the list, you know what I mean? Whenever cuzzo pops out of the house, I'm like, “Hey, hey, hey.” I saw her on stage at the Jay-Z concert and said, “You got a mic in your hand. We’re almost there. Just come to the house.” So definitely Rihanna. I’d also say Oprah, for what she has done and meant to me in my career, but also in my personal life. The way that she has empowered me to dream a bigger dream than I originally had and to dare to believe in that dream. I want to share that with her. We just had a really cool experience with Jill Scott, where I was able to kind of redo my first meeting with her and really share the significant impact she's had on me through her music, her work, and her art. I’d love to also have Erykah Badu at the house. I just feel like the vibe there would be immaculate. And I'm not gonna try to play like I don't want it. I am not going to try to play like I don't want it…but Beyoncé! Like, what are we doing? Bring Blue Ivy. Bring her! Let's do it! I want that conversation. Don't get me wrong, she has so much that she says and makes clear in her music, but it's been years since we've had a more comprehensive, sit down kind of interaction with Queen Bey. And yeah, I want to experience that. Speaking of queens, Lil’ Kim. I just feel like there's so much there that she hasn’t shared. There's so much there that we don't know, and I'd like to get to know her more.

Moving from the East Coast to the West Coast is almost as much a personality shift as a geographic one. What did that move reveal to you about yourself?
Oh my gosh. Well, I don't know about myself, but it did reveal to me that it can be easier. The life that you choose, the road you choose, the path you choose, can be easier. It's up to you to decide, or to change, the things about your life that aren't working for you. And when you feel like it's time to make a move, it doesn't have to be a huge, drastic move across the country or a major shift in your career. Sometimes it’s just that little bit of action. It’s up to you to take it. Things don't change if you don't change them. Moving from New York to L.A. was a dream for me. I had wanted to live in L.A. since I visited for the first time during my senior year of high school. I got off the plane and was like, “Oh, I'm gonna live here!” I even changed my number to include 90210 because I wanted to have a constant reminder of what the goal was, a consistent reminder of what all of this was pointing to. And I don't know, it's been a beautiful experience. Some of my oldest friends live in Los Angeles with me. Some of my closest family have moved to L.A. and lived with me, and I've had some really, really great professional experiences as well. So, if anything, it opened me up to there being a bigger dream. That Holland Tunnel, that Lincoln Tunnel will wear you out. And I was okay with the decision to trade that in for traffic on the 405, you know? So, yeah, I think if anything, it's let me know that there's way more out here to get after, way more life to experience, and way more sunshine.

If you could appear in any current TV show for a guest role, which show would you choose, and what kind of character would you want to play?
I don't know if this really counts, but I'm gonna say The Traitors or Dancing with the Stars. With Dancing with the Stars, I’ve wanted to be on that show since they announced that show. Working on World of Dance on NBC, I developed such a respect for what dancers put their bodies through in order to tell stories, convey a message, or become moving pieces of art. And ballroom is such a particular, specific kind of dance and such a significant challenge. I want that. You know what I mean? The Traitors just feels like a good time, like a wild game of charades. I don't know if I would do better as a Faithful or a Traitor. I also just want to hear Alan Cumming. I want to see the camp in person. I want to experience the wildness of that dude in person and see how well I do. I think I would do all right. Actually, I think I would kill it on The Traitors!

You spent time in Barbados with Rihanna. What’s one aspect of the island, its culture, or its energy that she revealed to you that has stayed with you?
We’re from neighboring parishes, which is also so wild. The fact that she held her word, that she promised me pre-COVID, as I was figuring out the roots of our own family, “I want to take you back to Barbados. I want to show you your roots. I want to show you where you come from.” She literally did that. She took me to the spaces where my father's family actually comes from, and I got to see firsthand the beautiful, deep brown skin of the people of that island and experience the incredible, deep love of its people. I think what she revealed to me most is how you can belong to a space you've never visited. How a people and a culture can welcome you with such force and energy that you feel like it's home, even though you've never been there before. Visiting Barbados is an experience that will always be special to me. You know what I mean? I'm going back for my 40th birthday with some friends and family to share more of that experience with more people because I just feel like it is one of the most magical places on the planet.

You travel a lot for work. What’s one small ritual that instantly makes any place feel like home?
I'm big on smells, so I take room sprays or pillow mists with me when I travel so that at least where I lay my head feels like home. I drink green tea most nights at the end of the day, so I take actual green tea with me when I'm traveling, especially for long periods of time. I've traveled to other countries and been there for months at a time shooting various shows like Couple to Throuple on Peacock or covering the Olympics for up to a month or so at a time, so being able to create that sense of home is really important to me. Those are the two things I definitely do almost everywhere I go. But I also pick up something from everywhere I go and bring it home. I bring those travels back with me in the form of some kind of token, trinket, piece of art, or something like that. Usually also a pair of sunglasses and a bag. Those things end up being like trophies or cues to memories, reminders of all that you've accomplished and all that you've experienced, brought back into the place you call home.

What’s the most unexpectedly beautiful place you’ve visited?
I visited a church in Barbados where my great-great-great-grandmother, I believe it was my great-great-great-grandmother, was baptized. I saw her name listed on a ledger there, marking the record of her baptism, and I was overwhelmed with emotion. I did not expect to be so emotional about that, but there was something about seeing a part of your family's history in writing, in connection to the trade and enslavement of human beings, that made it incredibly real and tactile, an experience my body was totally unprepared for. I got to visit those church grounds, and the building is still standing. It was a powerful, powerful experience. And the church grounds happened to be stunning. There feels to be this echo, this presence, this spiritual energy there still. I had my head in my hands and I just cried. I cried, and I thanked her and those who came after her for their life, for their death, for my being a part of their legacy, my being a part of their history, and their being a part of mine. You can never really know how you’re going to respond to something like that. I can't imagine that I ever would have said, “Oh yeah, seeing that would have been like, ah, I was moved by it,” as opposed to just being angry. It was one of the most emotional experiences I’ve ever had, and I was able to do that with the help of the Barbados Tourism Board. I was able to experience that with my family, my brothers who share our father, two of my best friends, and my mother, during Crop Over, where the island is already in one of the most energetically explosive times of the year, full of so much history. And even the festival being called Crop Over is about the celebration of the last crop, turning that last crop over and often worked by those who were enslaved. The parallels and intersections of all the things you could possibly feel in one body, I felt it all, man. I was totally overwhelmed by it. It was beautiful and tragic, but beautiful also.

One of my biggest travel pet peeves is when people put suitcases on the bed. What’s your biggest pet peeve when traveling with others?
Full-day itineraries. No, thank you! Give me either sometime in the morning, afternoon, or evening, but full-day itineraries? How do you know what I want to do? And how do you know that we don’t want to change our minds? I get having a plan, but people who have to plan every single moment of the time away on every trip? No thanks! I’ll pass. I’ll see you when I see you. Thank you for all you do, but no, boo boo!

What’s an album you find yourself returning to time and again?
Jill Scott’s Experience: Jill Scott 826+, her live album. Oh my gosh. What she does with “The Way” and “Love Rain”, the moving of jazz and poetry, R&B, soul, and, in the words of KeKe Palmer, “Slave Hymn." You know what I mean? Negro spiritual, church music. I mean, it really is everything that I love about music and live instrumentation on a thousand. It's one of the albums that, if there was one album I could listen to for the rest of my life, that would be the album I would choose.

Guilty pleasure Instagram follow?
Oh my gosh, anytime the tortilla challenge comes up. I know it's been some years since that was a thing, but the outtakes from that are still so funny to me. I will watch it every time it comes up on my feed, and I know I'm going to get a whole bunch of those videos now. I don't know, there’s something about somebody slapping somebody with a tortilla, the sound it makes, how they miss and they go flinging. I don't know, it's just really, very funny to me. Or when they hit the wrong person? It's hilarious! I also love when the couples prank each other, you know, with the balloons filled with shaving cream or jump scares and that kind of stuff. I love it. I love it.

Hosting is an art in itself. Since launching House Guest, what's one thing you've learned about making people feel instantly at ease, and what's one hosting tradition or rule you've always sworn by?
I think they go one and the same. The way that you make people feel instantly at ease in your home is to have something there that is clear in your intention about considering them. It's either their favorite smell, their favorite drink, their favorite thing to munch on, their favorite music, something that lets people know you thought about them specifically when planning this get-together. Even when you're having a dinner party or a party with multiple people at a house, there should be something that makes each person feel like, “You did this for me.” And you don't have to earmark it. You don’t have to walk them around and say, “Do you smell that candle? That was for you.” Usually, people know it. They feel it. They sense it. They experience it. They find it. And it immediately puts people at ease because they know that you want them to be in the space. I think the same thing goes for the show and for hosting in general. If you fill your space with enough intention around the people you've invited into it, it makes for a really special interaction. You know, as opposed to, “Come over, we're gonna be kicking it at three, and this is just going to be some pizza.” Not to say that it doesn't have its place, but when you want to make something very special, it's like, what can you put on that pizza that makes somebody feel like, “You did this for me?” Because I'm gonna tell you right now, if you ever see pineapple on a pizza at my house, I did not do that for me. No shade!

If you could invite any three people—living or dead—to your home for one unforgettable dinner party, who would they be, and what's on the menu?
Ooh, three unforgettable people?! I'm going Prince. I'm going Whitney Houston. And for some reason, I'm like, Trevor Noah. I just feel like he's so interesting, right? The conversation would be on fire. I feel like it would be unforgettable that night. And then what are we eating? Oh my god, everything. Everything! I want southern food. I want gumbo. I want pizza. I want chicken wings. I want it all. A smorgasbord.

Watch all episodes of House Guest and House Guest Game Night on YouTube.