The Paradise and This Is Us actor has some seriously sweet thoughts on family, presents and sweet potato pie
This year, the Grinch doesn’t need to interact with the residents of Whoville to get into the Christmas spirit and make his heart grow three sizes—he can just read Sterling K. Brown’s thoughts on what the holiday season means to him.
“Growing up with my mom and brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles, family became such a huge part of my life,” says the Emmy-winning actor. “That wealth of love has sustained me and allowed me to dream and envision a life completely different from anything my family has ever done. Thinking about them makes me feel really warm. So the holidays remind me that I have the opportunity to be with these people that I love.”
Brown plans to spend Dec. 25 with his wife, actress Ryan Michelle Bathe, and their two sons, Andrew, 14, and Amare, 10. But to help stay connected with the rest of his family in his native St. Louis, he’s partnering with the online grocery service Shipt to launch its new gift-delivery feature. “I like to send them things,” says Brown, who proudly notes that he has four siblings. “I want them to know that I haven’t completely gone Hollywood and forgotten about them!”
If Brown hasn’t gone Hollywood, he’s at least conquered it. For six seasons on the beloved This Is Us, he stole the spotlight as Randall Pearson, the do-gooding brother, son, husband and father. (Fans can listen to him recap the episodes with co-hosts and former co-stars Mandy Moore and Chris Sullivan on the podcast That Was Us.) He’s since moved on to the political thriller side of the TV spectrum, playing a secret service agent in the Hulu hit Paradise.
Ahead, Brown unwraps his holiday traditions and more with Reader’s Digest. Read on to fall in love with him all over again—and make your own holiday even brighter.
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Reader’s Digest: Do you have a strategy for picking out gifts for your loved ones?
Sterling K. Brown: My wife is very good at taking mental notes throughout the year and being like, “Oh, God, remember when I went shopping with so-and-so? They like this!” I just ask people, and thankfully, my two sons will tell me exactly what they want for Christmas. They’re the easiest people to shop for. For the people who don’t tell me what they want, my wife and I will kibbitz and come up with something together. So my wife has thoughtful sensitivity and is a better person than I am is what I’m trying to tell you.
Reader’s Digest: What’s your theory on age limits for gifts?
Sterling K. Brown: This is major. If you’re in high school or under, you’re going to get a gift. It’s automatic. So my kids are getting gifts—and they’ll probably still get gifts once they get out of high school too. They’re my children. And if I am in the vicinity of your home for the holiday, you get a gift. If I’m in St Louis and I know everyone in the family is going to be at Christmas dinner, you will receive a gift, right? But if I don’t see you in that particular moment, that’s when Shipt comes in.
Reader’s Digest: So what are you sending?
Sterling K. Brown: I can send you food so that you can cook your favorite recipe. That feels easier than buying a gift because there’s something communal about the experience of sharing a meal together. Even if I’m not in the same vicinity, if I know that people are gathering around and doing something together, I love to fund the experience over something more material.
Reader’s Digest: What are your other favorite holiday traditions?
Sterling K. Brown: A lot of the traditions center around food. My grandmother made a sweet potato pie—and if you don’t know anything about African American culture, the sweet potato pie, in particular, is a staple in a lot of households. A pumpkin pie is just a bad sweet potato pie! And my grandmother made one that just would make my mouth water. The ingredients are something that we have shared over the years. My mom now makes the pies in our family, and my brother makes them.
My wife also makes a wonderful sweet potato pie. True story: In college, she made three sweet potato pies for three different fellas who said that they like sweet potato pie. She told me to give the pies to the other two dudes. The other two dudes never got their pies, and she got mad at me. She’s like, “Why didn’t you give them the pies?” I was like, “Because they were good, and I ate them.”
Reader’s Digest: Are you in the kitchen during all this baking goodness?
Sterling K. Brown: I would like to consider myself a wonderful sous-chef. So I’m there to assist and aid. I will make breakfast for the chefs while they are making the actual dinner. I hook up French toast. I can do all sorts of breakfast. But in terms of dinner, I leave that to the professional—also known as Ryan Michelle Bathe.
Reader’s Digest: Obvious question: What are you watching on TV?
Sterling K. Brown: My wife loves While You Were Sleeping. So on Christmas Eve, we usually stay up watching different romantic comedies. The fellas, the two boys, are big Home Alone fans, and that’s reinvigorated my own Home Alone love as well. And then during the daytime, there’s a ton of football. She loves that so much. And when I say “love,” I mean not at all.
Reader’s Digest: Will you ever sit down together and watch This Is Us?
Sterling K. Brown: I’m doing the podcast, so every once in a while, my youngest son will hop in my lap while I’m taking notes while watching the show. He’ll be like, “Dad, this is a really good show.” And I’m like, “Dude, like, I know.” I’m not even saying it as somebody who’s in the show. I’m saying it as a fan who’s sitting there watching. The model for how we’re consuming our media now has shifted so drastically and will continue to shift drastically, so I do believe This Is Us may have very well been the last of its kind.
Reader’s Digest: Speaking of, what’s the latest with Paradise? Is Season 2 wrapped?
Sterling K. Brown: Season 2 of Paradise has been shot. It will premiere sometime in the first quarter of 2026. We have some wonderful new people joining us—chiefly, Shailene Woodley, who is wonderful. It’s like we’re doing the movie Gladiator and I’m Maximus asking, “Are you not entertained?” I think people would say, “Yes!”
Reader’s Digest: What are you looking forward to the most this Christmas?
Sterling K. Brown: Nothing gives me more joy than watching your child open a gift and it is exactly what they wanted. You can tell when they fake it. You can tell when they’re like, “Ah, socks. Thank you.” When you get them that thing that they were hoping for, and they run and explode into your chest and just wrap their bodies around yours and hug you—oh, man, that’s it. I’m done. You feel like you can leave the world happy because you did something for the people who are most important to you. I love my wife too, but I think she would answer the same. These two boys make the holidays worthwhile.
Reader’s Digest: It’s nice to still have them at home, no?
Sterling K. Brown: Very much so. My mom used to say all the time: “18 years goes by real fast.” I’m starting to understand what she means!
Check out the new gift-delivery feature on Shipt.
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