Dulcé Sloan, WC ’05, knew early on she wanted to be an actor. She told her mom that was her plan when she was just 6 years old. She wasn’t kidding.
In the decades since, Sloan has become a successful standup comic, film and television actor, podcast host and producer. Most people probably know her as a correspondent for Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”
“If anything,” Sloan said recently with a chuckle, “I’m just tired.”
But Sloan’s story is far from over — and Brenau University is the setting for a couple of chapters.
Sloan was born in Miami but mostly grew up around Atlanta. She set her plans to become a performer in motion early, reading plays in elementary school and taking theater classes in middle and high school. She interned at the Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville in high school, hanging lights, painting sets, working with costumes and staffing the concession stand and box office.
“Because I knew I wanted to be a performer, I did everything I could to make that possible,” Sloan says.
Soon, it was time to apply for college. Sloan’s dream school was the University of Miami, but she worried about the cost of out-of-state tuition. So she applied to Georgia schools instead. Her mom’s advice: “Go with the one that gives you the most money.”
One university happened to be offering Sloan a full ride: Brenau.
She enrolled in The Women’s College and opted to major in theater performance.
I think it was beneficial for me to got to a women’s college… it gives women an opportunity to get positions in student government or to be able to speak up and ask questions in class.
“I think it was beneficial for me to go to a women’s college because 1, I loved boys — love boys — so I would have been distracted,” Sloan says. “But also, when there’s no men, it gives women an opportunity to get positions in student government or to be able to speak up and ask questions in class.”
In fact, she says the only time she interacted with men in class was during the theater program, which was co-ed through a partnership with what was then Gainesville State College. Sloan liked the small class sizes at Brenau. She minored in Spanish and says that one semester, she was the only student in her Spanish class.
“I would read plays in Spanish, and then we would analyze those plays,” Sloan says. “So because of the class, I was able to take my major and mix it with my minor.”
Sloan was a member of the Alpha Psi Omega National Theatre Honor Society, briefly worked in an on-campus computer lab and spent time as a DJ for the campus radio station WBCX, amusing listeners with her commentary.
During her time at Brenau, Sloan says, she was only in two theater shows. But she hustled to ensure she was getting in other performance experience during and after college. After graduating in 2005, Sloan checked online listings for auditions, did work at Stone Mountain Park, acted in silhouette for the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau and was even an extra on Tyler Perry’s “Meet the Browns.”
“I did extra work, I did background work, I did everything that I could,” Sloan says, listing off other gigs, like owning a jewelry business and performing at kids’ parties. “… I’ve always worked, but I always made sure that I could stay in a performance space.”
She started hanging out at comedy clubs, too. Folks would tell her she was funny and ought to try standup, but she was hesitant — wanting to stick to her goal of acting. Sloan had just finished a sketch-writing class at Atlanta’s Sketchworks Theatre in 2009 when local comedian “Big Kenney” Johnson told her she should take his standup class. Johnson felt so strongly about her potential that he offered to waive the $300 fee. Around the same time, Sloan’s mom confided that she’d dreamed the whole world was laughing at her daughter.
“I was like, ‘All right, well, the class is free, and my mom is having dreams, so let me go ahead and just see what this is about,’” Sloan says. “May of 2009 is when I graduated from the class, and I’ve been doing standup since then.”
My responsibility the entire time has been to make people laugh.
It wasn’t long before she became a regular — and a rising star — in the Atlanta comedy scene. In 2015, she won the “StandUp NBC” showcase. Then a big break came in early 2016 when she did a standup set on TBS’ “Conan.”
She moved to L.A., and the hits kept coming. Sloan won the Big Sky Comedy Festival in Montana and had multiple TV appearances. And in 2017, she auditioned for “The Daily Show.” Just hours after Sloan’s audition with then-host Trevor Noah, her phone rang: She’d gotten the job.
“The first thing out of my mouth was, ‘Oh (expletive), now I have to live in New York,’” she says.
Sloan’s “Daily Show” appearances have been big hits, with segments like “911 for White People Emergencies,” “Dumb Solutions to Policing Problems” and “Black Karen” getting millions of collective views on YouTube after airing on TV.
Sloan says it’s a fast-paced job that’s taught her a lot and helped her speak up for herself in creative situations. The show has a reputation for its political comedy. And during the Trump years, Sloan says, folks would ask her if she felt her responsibility as a comic had changed.
“My responsibility the entire time has been to make people laugh,” she says.
As she puts it, presenting something that happened on the news in a satirical manner is one thing.
“But trying to be people’s therapist? No,” Sloan says. “I have a theater degree from a small college in North Georgia, right? I went to school in the ‘poultry capital of the world’ — I can’t help you. If you want to know about a good Walmart, I got you.”
In the past few years, Sloan started an office-banter-style podcast called “Hold Up” with “Daily Show” writer and standup comedian Josh Johnson, starred in a Comedy Central Presents standup special and had a starring role in the 2020 film “Chick Fight” as Charleen, the best friend of Malin Åkerman’s character, Anna. She’s also the voice of Honeybee Shaw on the animated FOX show “The Great North.”
I did extra work, I did background work, I did everything that I could, … I’ve always worked, but I always made sure that I could stay in a performance space.
Most recently, Sloan has been producing a one-woman stage show about working in an adult video store called “Don’t Reach in the Bag,” written by and starring Shalewa Sharpe. She describes being a producer as “a totally different animal.” Instead of performing, she has to manage things like merchandise, promotion and ticket sales.
“It’s way more than I’m used to doing, but I’m very glad to be doing it because I wanted to get into this space,” she says.
It’s that aspect of the industry — the business part — that she wishes she’d learned more about in school. And that’s why she includes it in the new scholarship fund she’s launched for students of color who are performance majors at Brenau.
“I’m doing it for all people of color to help them stay in the program,” Sloan says. “It’s meeting with them two to three times a year to check on them … as well as having them meet with professional actors and showing them how to make their resumes and making sure they have headshots when they graduate. So, really, it’s a scholarship fund, but it’s also a work-preparedness program.”
While Sloan is undoubtedly successful and paying it forward, she still doesn’t feel like she’s “made it” yet in her career. She recalls a few moments that came close to that feeling — being able to help her mom retire, hiring her niece as her assistant and getting that role in “Chick Fight.”
“That was my first starring role in a movie,” Sloan says. “But it wasn’t my movie. I was playing, like, best friend. So I think it’s always just like: selling a TV show or when I’m the main character — not playing, like, the best friend of some white woman — then I’ll feel like I’ve made it.”
If Sloan’s career thus far is any indication, the best has yet to come.
Giving Back to Brenau
Alumna Dulcé Sloan is giving back to Brenau by establishing the Dulcé Sloan Minority Theatre Student Scholarship.
The fund will assist new and existing Brenau students pursuing a bachelor’s degree in theater performance. Additionally, the scholarship specifically is for students who are considered to be a person of color or racial minority.
Four scholarships of $2,000 each will be awarded each year to two incoming freshmen and two returning students. Sloan plans to provide regular mentoring for the scholarship recipients.
