Anjelah Johnson-Reyes Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Anjelah Johnson-Reyes
Anjelah Johnson-Reyes was born May 14, 1982 and is an American stand up comedian, actress, and an ex-NFL cheerleader. She was a cast member of MADtv during its 13th season.

She is considered one of the most successful stand up comedians touring today, selling out clubs and theaters around the country. Time Out Chicago described her shows as being “full of almost non stop laughter”. While Maxim described her as “uproariously funny”, although it is weird that they did not describe her as being “unapologetically sexy”, but whatever.

She was born and grew up in San Jose, California, in a devout Christian family and is still a Christian. She is of Native American and Mexican descent. Anjelah was a Pop Warner cheerleader starting at the age of 8 and was active in track, soccer, and softball, and also practiced break dancing and hip hop.

Anjelah started acting as a senior in high school and was particularly interested in imitating different accents and later studied speech communications while at De Anza College. She subsequently became a cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders after she got inducted in 2002. During her time as an Oakland Raiderette, she was named Rookie of the Year and performed at Super Bowl XXXVII.

In 2005, she moved to LA after a friend suggested that she join a joke writing class. She took improv classes, and soon started to headline her own shows. Her stand up routine, which was made up of her impression of a Vietnamese nail salon employee, got a bunch of attention on YouTube.

In 2007, she joined the MADtv cast as a featured performer. Because of the impending writers strike, she was often handed just a few lines in the scripts during her tenure, since writers were forced to produce more scripts at a quicker rate.

But it was her self-scripted character Bon Qui Qui, a fast food employee that treats customers rudely, was warmly received and gained a similarly large YouTube following, having been viewed by 85 million people around the world. She would reprise this role in 2013 for a skit released by Alexander Wang, and has released a full album as Bon Qui Qui, which was released by Warner Music.

In 2009, she released her one hour Comedy Central special, called “That’s How We Do It”. “Homecoming” was her second special and dropped on Netflix in 2013, having been filmed in San Jose. Her third special, called “Not Fancy” was released in 2015 on Netflix and was filmed in southern California. Anjelah’s fourth special, called “Mahalo & Goodnight” dropped on Epix in 2017, having been filmed in Honolulu, Hawaii.

She has guest starred on shows like “The Shield”, “About a Boy”, “Ugly Betty”, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, and “Superstore”. She has also appeared in movies like “Our Family Wedding”, “Alivin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel”, “Enough Said”, and she voiced a role in “The Book of Life”.

She was nominated for an ALMA Award for Outstanding Female Performance in a Comedy Television Series for her work on MADtv in 2008.

In 2011, she became the “TC Girl”, a spokesperson for Taco Cabana, a Mexican Restaurant.

She married Manwell Reyes (Group 1 Crew member) on June 11, 2011, in Half Moon Bay, California. They have a daughter named Rosalie Reyes.

“Who Do I Think I Am?: Stories of Chola Wishes and Caviar Dreams” is a non-fiction book that was released in 2022. This thoughtful and hilarious memoir from a comedy legend explores questions of belonging, identity, and her two major dreams as a kid: to be a chola and be an actress.

You might know Anjelah for Bon Qui Qui or “Nail Salon”, however it’s her clean humor and hilarious storytelling which make her one of the most successful stand up comics and actresses to date.

Anjelah, with her razor sharp wit recounts funny tales from her journey, from growing up caught between 2 worlds (does potato salad go with chips and salsa?) to embracing faith unexpectedly (loving Jesus, but still punching a ho)to her numerous dating adventures (there’s a chance she’s accepted dates just for the food). Through all of it, Anjelah transforms from a suburban-adjacent child with hair drenched in Aquanet into a devout Christian that abstains from premarital sex and drinking, into a mall-famous Oakland Raiders cheerleader, and then an actual famous comedian traveling around the world and meeting folks from all walks of life, including Oprah. No big deal. (Huge deal). While traveling around the world, she has some eye opening experiences, and morphs from square and rigid Anjelah and into “Funjelah”, and finds that she can still ride with Jesus without ever squashing the other aspects of her personality.

Anjelah’s stories explore subjects like finding your place in the world, navigating your racial identity, embracing the messiness of an evolving faith, chasing your crazy dreams, and searching for meaning and belonging. Through this journey of hers, she does get closer to find her real identity and encourages her readers to have the audacity to dream big.

This is such a fun book to sit back and read. It’s great getting a glimpse into the life of such a funny woman and how she would keep on going even during times when she was not feeling it. And the way that she talks about religion is never judgy or preachy whatsoever. It is just her own personal journey, which made this beautiful. Never at any point do you really want this excellent book to be over, you just want to continue hanging out with her and have her tell more of her stories.

This is a lighthearted and silly book and written in a manner that never makes it seem as though a ghost writer did this for her in order to make her sound much more interesting and eloquent. Her own voice comes through quite nicely throughout.

The audiobook makes for a great listen, as Anjelah’s many voice inflections and adds some small comments, which gives a bit more added humor than if you’d just read the book.