Donald Glover says he battled impostor syndrome while working on ’30 Rock’

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Actor, rapper, comedian and writer Donald Glover has opened up about his struggle with impostor syndrome early in his career in a new interview with GQ.

Glover, 39, discussed landing his first writing job in 2006 on the NBC comedy “30 Rock.” Glover said Tina Fey, the show’s star and creator, told him he was a diversity rookie. NBC is owned by NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.

Fey’s comments contributed to the rising star impostor syndrome, he said. Imposter syndrome is a person’s inability to believe that success has been legitimately achieved, according to Psychology Today.

“There’s no animosity between us or anything like that, but [Tina Fey] said so herself. … It was about diversity,” Glover said.

Glover said he and TV writer Kenya Barris, the creator of “Blackish,” were the final two candidates for the job. Glover eventually won the spot, not realizing he had been competing against Barris.

“I didn’t know it was between him and me until later. He hit me one day and he was like, ‘I hated you for years!’” Glover recalled.

Once he was at the show, he said, he often felt uncomfortable.

“I really didn’t feel like I was supposed to be there,” he told GQ. “I used to have stressful dreams every night of cartwheeling on top of a New York skyscraper with the other writers watching me.”

The interview wasn’t the first time Glover has discussed his insecurities about being hired under a diversity initiative. In 2018, he opened up about his impostor syndrome in an interview with The New Yorker.

“I asked myself, ‘Am I hired just because I’m black? “”, Did he declare.

The New Yorker wrote that Fey, when asked if Glover had indeed been hired because he was black, replied that “the answer was largely yes; she admired Glover’s talent but hired him because funds from NBC’s Diversity Initiative” made it free.’”

Despite Glover’s anxieties, “30 Rock” star Tracey Morgan praised his writing and comedy prowess.

“When I first read his writings during ’30 Rock,’ I was like, ‘He got it,’” Morgan told GQ. “The stuff he wrote for me made me really funny.”

Glover went on to a successful acting and writing career in the television industry, as well as an award-winning music career.

He’s released four studio albums and won five Grammys under his rap alias, Childish Gambino. He also starred in the comedy series “Community” and created, wrote, and starred in the hit dark comedy “Atlanta.” He won two Emmys and a Golden Globe for “Atlanta.”

Glover and Fey did not immediately respond to requests for comment. NBC also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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