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Tag: Minnie Riperton

  • Maya Rudolph Shocked, Learns Via “Finding Your Roots” She Has Slave Ancestors

    Maya Rudolph appeared on Tuesday’s episode of Finding Your Roots. She hoped to learn more about her heritage. What she learned, however, was in some ways deeply disturbing to the SNL alum.

    “I have this thing where I just feel I can be anyone,” Maya Rudolph told host Henry Louis Gates Jr. of her life as the biracial daughter of the late soul singer Minnie Riperton and music composer and producer Richard Rudolph. “And I think being mixed, too, I kind of, sort of grew up feeling a little orphaned by the idea of my heritage.”

    “I know I’m from ‘peoples,’ but I don’t know who they are. I want to know people’s names, I want to know what they did, I want to know where they lived,” she added. “I want to go as far back as possible.”

    What Maya Rudolph learned was that a maternal ancestor was a freed slave who’d been denied the compensation due him in his owner’s will. In the 1830’s he challenged the slave owner’s grandson and won.

    “How is that even possible?” Rudolph asks. “I can’t imagine what the odds could have been, and then they went in his favor. To me, that’s tremendous courage.”

    Shortly thereafter, Maya Rudolph burst into tears. Shonda Rimes recently had a similar reaction when she learned she had slaves as ancestors.

    “We always have a box of tissues,” Gates says in an interview with People magazine. “Most guests will cry, male and female, and we don’t know when it will happen. There’s no way to predict it. When Shonda sees that she has an ancestor named Matilda who was a slave, she says, ‘I wanted to name my daughter Matilda,’ and she breaks down. You just don’t know where that moment of complete empathy [will happen]. It’s almost as if they are stepping inside the identity of an ancestor.”

    This experience no doubt helped Maya Rudolph find what she was missing from her heritage. It also left an impact that will likely shape who she is from that point forward.

  • Maya Rudolph Channels Beyonce, Oprah Winfrey at Tulane Graduation

    Maya Rudolph was the commencement speaker at Tulane University’s graduation this past weekend, and she ‘brought’ guests with her up onto the stage.

    Rudolph channeled a couple of mega-stars at specific points during her speech, getting huge laughs from the crowd.

    Tulane’s Green Envy a cappella group had a big surprise for Maya Rudolph before she started speaking, however. They serenaded her with their version of ‘Lovin’ You,’ which was her mother, the late Minnie Riperton’s, most famous song.

    “You just blew my mind. I am so honored. You’re going to make me cry, and I’m supposed to be funny,” the actress and Saturday Night Live alum said at the graduation on Saturday. “This is going to be interesting.”

    During her commencement speech she pulled out her best Oprah Winfrey impression.

    “Today, Class of 2015,” she bellowed in Oprah-esque form, “look under your seats because you are all leaving here today with a college diplomaaaaaa! You get a diploma, you get a diploma, you get a diploma and you sir, you get a diploma. We’re all getting diplomaaaaaas!”

    At the end of her speech–and because graduation took place in the Superdome--Maya Rudolph sang the national anthem a la Beyonce.

    Having graduated from UC Santa Cruz doesn’t mean Maya Rudolph didn’t have some hard and fast ties to Tulane University. Her father, Richard Rudolph, graduated from their back in 1968. Her cousin, Sabrina Rudolph, was part of Saturday’s 2015 graduating class. She managed to embarrass her by having her stand up and wave to everyone inside the Superdome.

    It must have been a blast for the graduating class at Tulane to have Maya Rudolph as their commencement speaker. And hearing her over-the-top impressions of both Beyonce and Oprah Winfrey were no doubt the icing on the cake.

  • Maya Rudolph: Name and Sex of Baby Revealed After Almost A Year

    Maya Rudolph gave birth to her most recent baby back in September, but the sex and name of the child has only been revealed in the past couple of weeks. The SNL alum and her longtime partner, director Paul Thomas Anderson, stayed tight-lipped about anything pertaining to this baby–their fourth. It seems TMZ has blown their cover, however, having recently procued a copy of the child’s birth certificate. You see, Maya gave birth at home this time, and the birth certificate paper work had to be filed before this baby turned a year old.

    Anderson and Maya Rudolph have a new (at least she was back in September) little girl, and she was named after Rudolph’s late mother Minnie Riperton. Minnie Ida Anderson joins big sisters Pearl and Lucille, who are eight and four, respectively, as well as brother Jack, who is three.

    Minnie Riperton was a soul and R&B singer who died at the age of 31 back in 1979 of breast cancer. Maya Rudolph was just seven years old when her mom passed away.

    Shortly after giving birth to baby Minnie, Maya Rudolph starred in her own TV variety show. The Maya Rudolph Show debuted in May to excellent ratings and more than seven million viewers.

    “I wanted to continue doing what I love the most, which is sketch comedy mixed with music,” she said during an interview around the time of the show’s premiere. “Or as my stepmother calls it, ‘Being a singing comedian.’ That’s her catch-all name for it, which I like.”

    Although it’s a bit unusual that Maya Rudolph and her partner didn’t release information about Minnie’s birth back in September (they never withheld information about prior births), fans are likely happy to learn of the baby’s name and gender now–and they know why they didn’t learn earlier, too. A large family by today’s standards, it will be interesting to see if Rudolph and Anderson decide to add to their growing brood.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons