Keeping it REL
After ‘Get Out,’ Lil Rel Howery gets his own sitcom, based on his relationship woes
FOR Lil Rel Howery’s new TV show, “Rel” — about a newly single father of two, whose wife had an affair with his barber — he looked at his own marriage. And Jay-Z’s.
“One of the things I love about Jay-Z and Beyoncé [is that] they talked about cheating,” the 38-year-old tells The Post. “People think that when you cheat . . . you did something wrong. Jay went and got help.”
Howery, whose show premieres Sunday night on Fox, says, “There’s a lot of things a young couple can do better.”
The Chicago actor, who made for a memorably hilarious TSA agent in Jordan Peele’s 2017 hit, “Get Out,” says he based “Rel” on his own life. He and his ex-wife have two kids. That eight-year marriage ended in 2016 — though he won’t go so far as to say that she slept with his barber. And he doesn’t blame his ex, Verina Zonise, for the breakup.
“It’s kind of me [calling myself] on my BS,” says Howery, who admits he made his own mistakes in the marriage. “It’s watching a man grow up by learning what he could’ve done better. Rel is not a victim. He’s part of the problem.”
Nevertheless, Howery says, marriage has taught him one thing: “I don’t think you should get married [if you’re] under 30, even if you fall in love . . . A man has to clean house first. There are so many doors that stay open that need to close when you meet the woman of your dreams.”
For now, Howery — real first name: Milton — is fulfilling one of his dreams in mining his own life for a show. He’s using his pastor uncle’s actual church in the series, which is set in Chicago’s West Side. The comedian Sinbad plays Rel’s father; Jordan L. Jones plays Nat, Rel’s just-out-of-jail younger brother; and Jessica “Jess Hilarious” Moore is Brittany, Rel’s best friend.
That last relationship, he says, is based on his friendship with Tiffany Haddish, the actresscomedian and breakout star of 2017’s “Girls Trip.” She played his ex in NBC’s “The Carmichael Show,” which ran three seasons before ending last year.
“It is based on a platonic friendship,” he says. “People [think] men and women can’t be friends and grow.” His relationship with Haddish, Howery says, “adds another strength to [the show] that I loved writing. It’s just a whole other vibe. It’s almost like I am the softie, where she’s always like, the guy, in a way.”
When it comes to women in Hollywood, Howery has nothing but praise.
“I think it’s cool that I can hit up great creators like Ava DuVernay, Issa Rae and Lena Waithe, and they actually answer back and we talk,” he says of the women responsible, either behind or in front of the camera, for “Selma,” “Insecure” and “The Chi,” respectively.
“It’s always been like that when I go to women” for advice, he says. “I mean, that’s who the bosses are. That’s who I respect. That’s why I’m fascinated, especially, with Issa. When I did ‘Insecure’ ” — on which he played Quentin — “it was all women. I never seen nothing like that.”
He says he still enjoys the acclaim that followed “Get Out.” While he didn’t get an Oscar nod, he did win the MTV Movie & TV Award for best comedic performance.
“I will never get tired of people mentioning me [being] in ‘Get Out,’ ” Howery says. “How many times you get to say you made a legendary movie? So this is a dream come true.”