For decades, Tiffany Haddish starred in supporting roles on TV like The Carmichael Show and features like Keanu, while performing stand-up comedy at bar mitzvahs and comedy clubs. 

It wasn't until her breakout role in the raunchy R-rated comedy Girls Trip that her career took a turn for good. Though the cast boasted A-listers like Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and Regina Hall, it was Haddish's performance that enraptured the audience, all thanks to her outrageous personality and physicality. 

Vanity Fair even hailed her as "the funniest person alive right now" for her performance in the movie. 

Tiffany Hadish's Difficult Childhood after Her Father's Departure

Tiffany Haddish's father, Tsihaye Reda Haddish was a refugee from Eritrea and was an Eritrean Jew. He left her mother, Leola and Haddish was just three.

She had a happy childhood until her mother, who was involved in a terrible car accident when Haddish was 9, turned violent and abusive. The accident had left her mom with a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

"I had so much hate for my mother. She’s the first person I ever loved. And then for her to hurt me ... but after going to counseling and learning about brain injuries and trauma to the head, that helped me to see it’s not necessarily her fault."

Haddish's Relationship with Her Estranged Father

Haddish learned to live without her father, but when she got older and had the means to find him, she decided to go for it.

Her ex-husband, a former cop turned private investigator, in an effort to impress her set out to find Haddish’s father­ which he did. She helped her father secure his green card and he even managed to walk her down the aisle on her wedding day.

In an interview with Tyler Henry on Hollywood Medium, she talks about her relationship with her father. 

My whole point to meet my father was to know genetically, what do I have to expect and just, you know, where the hell your ass been?

She tried to repair their relationship but he still didn't want to be the parental figure she longed for and continued to be in and out of her life. He did share that he was proud of her success.

Unfortunately, her father suffered from heart failure and pneumonia and passed away on May 11, 2017. 

She reconnects with her Eritrean Roots After Her Father's Death

After her father's death, Haddish visited Eritrea for the first time to pay her respects to her father, bury his remains, and connect with her relatives.

In an interview with Tesfa News, the star opens up about her emotional experience in Eritrea. 

By the time I walked in the shores of the Red Sea, I got emotional. I finally felt at home. I told myself that this is where I should have been a long time ago.

Just months after her first visit to Eritrea, the actress arrived at the 2018 Academy Awards in a traditional Eritrean gown.

During a stop on the red carpet, she told a presenter that she wanted to pay tribute to her father. "He said, one day you’re going to end up at the Oscars and when you go, you have to honor your people."