A real-life journey that takes a person from a latchkey kid of a loving and hardworking mother in Detroit’s Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects to a stand-up comedienne/movie star/bacon loving television personality is not something that happens easily or often, but somehow Loni Love pulled it off with her usual aplomb. Not to say there wasn’t a lot of hard work getting there, but when Love puts her mind to something, well, you better move out of the way.
Loni Love is best known as a co-host of The Real, the one-hour daily talk show which had eight seasons on Fox stations. The nationally syndicated show (with a rebroadcast in primetime on cable network BET) was touted by the New York Post as “fun, funny, involved in life, outrageous by nature, warm and, most of all, real.” The show was nominated for four EMMY Awards, including Outstanding Talk Show, and won the EMMY for Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Hosts. The Real also won a 2018 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Talk Series.
As a young person, Loni knew the smartest way to get ahead was to work hard and take scheduled naps. Working hard was an ethic passed down to her by her mother. The naps were Loni’s own doing. While in high school, she worked on and flirted with the guys on the General Motors assembly line, discovering a passion for electrical engineering. Her smarts, hard work and determination helped her land a scholarship to Prairie View A&M University in Texas. She took her studies very seriously but was equally as driven in her downtime. While in college, she began dabbling in stand up and brown liquor, loving every minute of captivating an audience with her comedy. When she graduated college, she took an engineering job in California, which worked for both her chosen vocation and her ‘side-gig’ as a comedienne.
She quickly became a regular at the legendary Laugh Factory, working during the day as an engineer and at night doing her comedy. In 2003, she was a finalist on the revived Star Search, and not long after, Loni won the Jury Prize for Best Stand-Up. From there, she was invited to showcase on HBO’s U.S Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. At this point, it was time to make a career change, and thankfully for audiences, Loni went with comedy. “I took some time to think about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. At my job, my manager had a massive heart attack. It made me realize that nothing is certain, nothing is for sure, and if I’m going to make a move, I gotta make a move now.” Loni told Ebony magazine.
In the ten plus years since she began doing comedy full time, Loni has found her niche on The Real (“It’s like a younger, intoxicated version of The View” said Jezebel), as well as the recurring guest DJ on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Loni also currently co-hosted the Café Mocha radio show with rapper MC Lyte. They’ve interviewed President Obama and the First Lady as well as superstars like John Legend, Toni Braxton among many others. Café Mocha was the only nationally syndicated show of its kind that was created exclusively BY and FOR women of color.
Additionally, Loni has guest hosted on Fashion Police and has been a correspondent for Entertainment Tonight and E! Along with her work on television, Loni has appeared in myriad movies including Mother’s Day, the successful Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 opposite Kevin James, Soul Plane with Kevin Hart and the Bad Ass franchise with Danny Glover and Danny Trejo.
In addition, Loni is the subject of the documentary “Being Loni Love”, which traces Loni’s life story from her early days as a latchkey daughter growing up in Detroit’s Brewster- Douglas housing projects to national stand up comedienne, tv and movie star.
Author (“Love Him or Leave Him but Don’t Get Stuck with the Tab” came out in 2013), popular stand up comedienne, theatre actor, film star, television host, roving reporter and part time aunt – Loni Love has no plans to slow down.
Gurus Magazine presents #30Voices30Days is proudly benefitting GLAAD all month long – please donate here!
