Comedy / Film & TV
Loni Love
born 1971 · comedian, television host, actress, author
Detroit comedian raised in the Brewster-Douglass projects, a Cass Tech graduate and former electrical engineer who became a Daytime Emmy-winning co-host of The Real.
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Loni Love was born in Detroit on July 14, 1971, and grew up in the Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects, the city's landmark public housing towers near downtown. She graduated from Cass Technical High School in 1989 and went to work on a General Motors assembly line, an experience that sparked her interest in engineering. She earned a degree in electrical engineering at Prairie View A&M University in Texas, where winning a $50 comedy contest gave her a first taste of the stage, and then spent eight years as an engineer at Xerox in California. When a layoff loomed she quit to do stand-up full time, became a regular at the Laugh Factory and reached the finals of Star Search in 2003. From 2013 to 2022 she co-hosted the daytime talk show The Real, sharing a Daytime Emmy Award in 2018.
Highlights
- Co-host of The Real (2013–2022); Daytime Emmy Award (2018)
- Star Search finalist (2003)
- Electrical engineering degree from Prairie View A&M; eight years at Xerox
- Worked on a General Motors assembly line after high school
- Author of Love Him Or Leave Him, But Don't Get Stuck With The Tab (2013)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Lived here · 1970s–1980s
Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects
Demolished
Love grew up in this historic public housing complex, also home in its time to Diana Ross and other Motown figures; the towers were demolished in 2013–2014.
Studied here · 1985–1989
Cass Technical High School
Love graduated in 1989, in the school's old building, demolished in 2011.