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My mom came from such humble beginnings and especially my dad as well. He didn't go to university.

Parents often talk about the younger generation as if they didn't have anything to do with it.

If you must know, my parents came from pretty hardscrabble backgrounds in the southern Midwest. I certainly didn't grow up poor, but I did spend my 20s and early 30s juggling temp jobs and choking on massive student-loan debt.

I have learned so many things from my mother about the right upbringing, the right values, value for money, value for elders, for family members. I think these things only a parent can teach you.

Parents sometimes make not those allowances for youth, which, when young, they wished to be made for themselves.

I was born in Somalia, which is in East Africa. My parents started with nothing: poor, poor, poor. They eloped, which was unheard of in my country, when my father was 17 and my mother was 14.

Mum was an absolutely determined woman. She was determined I would have a good education, and they went without all sorts of things to ensure it.

Basically, my socialization as a child didn't come from any schooling; it came from being in theater and meeting people online.

My mum had me brought up by nannies and governesses. I didn't have much to do with my parents until I was 21.