Marlon Wayans On Healing After the Deaths of His Parents (Exclusive) [Video]

Grief has been Marlon Wayans‘ biggest motivator recently.

“That was my girl,” he says of his mother Elvira, who died in 2020. As the youngest of 10 siblings, “I was her baby,” he adds, opening up to PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “She felt I was special.”

In fact, the lot of Elvira’s kids proved exceptional — and exceptionally funny. The social worker and her husband, Howell, a supermarket manager, raised the family in New York City public housing. Marlon’s older siblings Keenen, Damon and Kim blazed a unique and hilarious trail to comedy stardom in the early 1990s with their hit Fox variety show In Living Color.

Shawn and Marlon followed with their own sitcom, The Wayans Bros., and successful slapstick films like White Chicks and the Scary Movie franchise.

For Marlon, 51, it all goes back to their parents, especially his mom, fostering an environment …