May 22, 2025 • 58 mins
In this special episode of *Eating While Broke*, host Coline Witt is joined by the multi-talented 'Terri J. Vaughn'—renowned actress, director, and producer. Together, they prepare delicious 'fish tacos' while diving into Terry’s inspiring journey through personal and professional challenges.
Terri shares heartfelt stories about her childhood, navigating the entertainment industry, and transitioning into producing and directing. She also gives an exclusive look into her new Netflix series, *She the People*, and reflects on her career highlights, including her first acting audition and landing her breakout role.
This episode is packed with cooking tips, candid anecdotes, and empowering lessons from one of TV’s most beloved personalities. Don’t miss this flavorful and inspiring conversation!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
I'm your host, Coleen Witt, and today we have a
very special treat for you all. Pun intended. Terry J. Vaughn, actress, director, producer.
Terry J. Vaughn's in the building. Thank you so much
for coming. I was extremely and I told you off camera,
(00:33):
extremely excited to have you on today. I've watched you.
I feel like we family, Like I've watched you so much.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I know people probably come up to you and say, hey.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, yeah, it's like we're family, and I don't mind that.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
You don't mind it, Okay for all our listeners, you
don't mind. Yeah, let me eat my mail and come over.
But what will you be having us eat today?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I Am going to make us some fish tacos.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Fish tacos.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yes, so very excited, very exciting, favorite thing to do.
I love Mexican food, so I love I'm a taco fanatic.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Really are you based out of Are you from California?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I am.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I'm from the Bay Area, from San Francisco. Okay, okay, yeah.
Whenever someone says they love Mexican food, I'm like that. California.
It is a California thing.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
It is, it is.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I have some great news for all the listeners. We've
never had fish tacos on the show. Okay, we've taped
like one hundred and twenty episodes, so that's amazing and
it's affordable. But what will be going into your dish?
By the way, I've never had homemade fish tacos?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Oh really?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Oh, you're in for a tree not Judge Hard. I'm
like that, who's that white guy that he's the chef,
that he's really mean? I forgot his name.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
You don't watch cook you don't want to cook it
though you want a cook It show except for yours. Okay,
that's great, all right. Tell me what the ingredients are
for your fish tacos.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Okay, for my fish tacos, we're gonna use tilapia fish.
I like corntertias because I do a little crunch on
my tacos. And we have avocados, onions, jalapeno, garlic, tomatoes,
and lime in cilantro.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Nope, but you got it all.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, And I like it all fresh, okay.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
And we did it fresh because I like to sneak
in the two garlic and I was like man when
they put a real garlic what's official? And then you
have a sauce.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yes, So I love taco sauce and I like the green.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Verdet sauce day sauce.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I was talking to my Meda glasses. What is Verdet sauce?
Show me picture? Yes, okay, so get in the kitchen woman.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Okay, so I cook?
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Now you cook, you cook. It's so weird because you're
taking a busy time out of your schedule. We have
this beautiful resume and then you're cooking for me a
broke dish, that's right, yes, yes, And I didn't know
if you needed that extra. I don't really know how
to make tortillas for real, So.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Well, did you know? This is a shame? Come on,
you need to learn.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I'm a New York native. New York. You don't eat
Mexican over there, not really. Some people do, but I
don't think it's a big We're like a Chinese pizza
type of state.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
And I do love Chinese food. Chinese food is big,
not in LA in the Bay Area, really, I'm saying.
In San Francisco, yes, we have a huge Chinese population.
One of the best chinatowns in the.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
World what And I love Chinese. I need to go
hit a month.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
So yeah, so we Chinese food and Mexican food are
huge in San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
And then, just so you all listeners know, she did
use avocado oil, and I gotta know why.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I just try to eat as healthy as possible, and
I'll be honest.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
That's why you look good.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I try, so I'll be honest. So I know we're
making the broke dish like something I ate, but I
did not use avocado oil. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I was growing up and I was assuming you didn't
always have avocados either.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
And I didn't always, So this is an upgraded broke.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Okay, thank you. I appreciate the treat because sometimes people
really make me relive for real. Okay, so you're putting
the tilapia in the pan and avocado oil. I saw
you did both sides. By the way, we did play
with some of your seasonings. You should tell the guests
what seasonings you have.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
So I like to put a little garlic, even though
I'm using fresh garlic. You know what, I don't need
to do both.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
You don't want to do the both garlic powder.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
You know, I'm going to use the fresh garl like
pepper salt, of course, and then Cooman mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
I always wonder what people use cooming for.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
It's Mexican food.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Oh that's what I make for me.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
That's the only thing I use it for. When I'm
making my tacos or if I'm making guacamole.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
I use Cuman. And really, is it Cooman or Cuman?
It's Cooman Cooman? Okay, you know what? It wasn't in
the studio. I went home and I was like, I know,
I haven't in my yeah, but I even understand why
I have it in my cabinet. I was like, I
must have taken it from point eating while broke or something.
And then you used to whole Himmalayan salt.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I love it again that this is your upgrade. This
is a part of the upgrade. It was just regular
ass white sauce salt, Morton.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
And why do you feel like this salt is better?
Is it healthier?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's healthier. It's not well processed. Okay, so you see
it's still and you guys got the good kind too,
because it's still in the big crystal flakes and we
gotta spin it to grind it.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Okay. So that when you go, if we were to
go in your house, would your pepper be the pepper grind?
We have it back there by the way, And they
played a tad of this because you we didn't get
the sodium.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, you guys got the one with a lot of sodium.
And the whole point is we're trying to be a
little bit more healthy, isn't it right? Aren't we?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I really need to lose a lot of weight. So yes, yes,
I'm gonna get there.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Okay, so this is gonna let this fry a little bit.
It's a heat. I'm just gonna say I do not
like cooking on the electric stoves.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
But everyone on this show, i'd say, like nine hate election.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah it's terrible. So hopefully the dish comes out.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Okay, Okay, so you're cooking those up, and then what
do you do with these tortillas?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Are you gonna know the tartilla? I am also going
to just do a little I don't know if you
call it fried because it's not like really fried, but
I am gonna I guess it's fried. I'm going to
put more avocado oil on this pain. Then I'm gonna
put the tortilla on and I'm gonna fry it up
a little bit because I like my shells crunching.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Now, is there a way to get the whole shell
really crunchy.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Listen, if you fry it hard, it'll be very crunchy.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
So I watch you do it. I love crunching. I
love crunching. Matter of fact, back in the day, when
Chipotle first came out, I would always get the bowls,
and then I discovered they had the taco shells, the
hard shells. You will never catch me in Chippole without
a hard taco shell.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
But you know what, and I get so in the
broke day when I was doing like sometimes, we would
have the taco shells that are already in the box.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I still use some. Okay, are you mad at me?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (07:06):
So that guys see how she looks in real life.
She looks exactly how she looks on TV.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I do.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
And the crazy part is we've been watching her all
for a very long time, so just imagine seeing her
in person. It's crazy how beautiful you are.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Okay, So now that my fans know that they should
be googling you and looking at you, and you have
Instagram too, we can keep it you I do.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Everything is under Terry Jbond.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Terry Jbon. You know, like when I say the JA,
I do like.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I don't like when people forget my jay.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Oh really, I don't good because I like saying it's
Terry J.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah. Isn't it cooler? Yeah? And I've always gone by it.
It's it's my middle name starts with a J.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
I love it. It's very in a.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Million years, you cannot guess when my middle name. Man,
it starts with the J. Obviously, but everything you say
is going to be off.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
I bet I'm gonna go with jam jam Jam s jam.
What is the J stand for? Are you gonna tell us?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
I will? I just wanted to at least take jam jelly. No,
why are you saying weird?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Because I'm trying to think of what name is giving
a J Jackson girl? Wait, I got excited.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
People say like Jeanett or jan answer they say regular regular.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
No, I'm sure it's gonna be a bomb name.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
It's not necessarily it isn't. I love my middle name,
but will give us a hand? Just want okay? The
J is silent.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
One?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Keep going?
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, I was gonna get that right from the jump.
I was thinking that from the jump. Does anyone ever
guess it that way?
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Ever?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
But does anyone ever guess one in the beginning? No,
So I'm like the first.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I gave you about a thousand hens.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah. Yeah, but if you give someone the silent jh.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah, yeah, the silent J gives it away.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Okay, J that's nice. Cherry Juanita, Ye, Terry, okay, Terry,
take me back to what was going on now with
the elevated fish tacos? What was going on with the
broke of fish tacos?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Okay? So, yes, this is elevated because when I was
growing up, like I said, we love Mexican food in
my house, and so we would make tacos really out
of all kinds of stuff. So on a normal day
it was just the ground beast, regular kind of tacos.
But I don't eat meat anymore. I only eat fish fish.
(10:01):
Yeah you chicken, Nope.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
No, we're slowly learning her beauty tips right here.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Guys, I gave it up. I just felt, to be honest,
I feel like our country doesn't take good care of
how they get our meat. So that's what it. This
is gonna sound so weird, I literally because I used
to eat bacon back then. We would make bacon tacos. Really,
that's some ghetto ship. Yeah, that's ghetto.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
You really love tacos? Really, really you would make it?
Did you have like breakfast tacos reastc eggs? Okay? You
just like the shell?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I too, I love and the shell just gives the
taste of Mexican. But I love Mexican. But I love
the rice, I love the beans.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
I love you really love it?
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I do? I really?
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Do you still eat Mexican every day? You just earlier
about eating Mexican?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yes, yes, yes. When we finished with you guys, we're
gonna go out tonight and Mexican.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Okay, you really like Mexican. Take me back to what
was going on in this household of Mexican food.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
So I grew up in a single parent household, raised
by my mom. It was me and my sister. I
have a sister that's two years younger than me and
my mom. She worked two jobs when we were young,
so me and my sister were we're home a lot
by ourselves, and.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
So well she when did you become a When did
she become a single mom?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Like?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
How old were you then?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I was really young, probably about.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Four, Okay, so that's pretty much all you've known is.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't have a lot of memory.
I definitely don't have anything. So yeah, So it was
always just me, my mom, and my sister, and we
have a family full of amazing, powerful, badass women, so
like my grandmother would of course we would go to
her house sometimes or my aunt. So we were always
(11:59):
very well cared for and we always ate really well.
It's funny as a kid, you never know that you
were poor, Like I never thought I'd never even thought
about it.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
What about when you got older though, in high school
and middle school, did you start to were you poor then?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Or no, yeah, you're still living in the same household.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Did you start to realize you guys were didn't have
as much as others or yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
One time I overheard my mom talking to somebody. And
this is when I was really young, maybe I was
in high school and I or with her. My mom
having a conversation telling somebody that they had to she
needed to borrow five dollars or something so she could
get something from McDonald's for us to eat, And that
(12:42):
always stuck with me. I was like, and I never
knew that she was doing that, but she was talking
to somebody, telling somebody that's what she had done. And
I was like, dang, I never even knew. Made me
appreciate my mother a lot more.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Did you ever approach about it or you just kept
it to yourself?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
I just came to myself. I just kept it to myself.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Did you tell your sister about it?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I'm sure we've talked about it now, but back then
we didn't talk about it. But yeah, it just made
me have a greater appreciation for her. And we always
tried to be very hopeful around the house, making sure
that we didn't bring too much drama into her life
because we knew that she was a single mom and
(13:28):
working her ass off and so good grades. We always
did really well in school. It was just I was
just a fast girl.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
I was what does that mean?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I was liked boys and that was probably the most
drama that I brought.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
I love you, Yes, I was not expecting that.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Just telling on myself. I don't know why you make me.
I'm just opening up and tell my business.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
I'm sure the boys liked you a lot, did you?
Was your dad semi around even though? Did you see
him in passing.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
No, not really. My dad suffered from alcoholism and for
my mom left my dad because of that, Like he
just wasn't it just wasn't good. And when she decided
that she was divorcing him, I think a part of
(14:28):
and it's weird, I think a part of his get
back at her was to not be accessible for him,
not to help out with us. Okay, then you got
it on your own. That's what it feels like to me. Yeah,
but I do remember a couple of times. There were
several times when I was waiting for him, like he
was supposed to come pick us up, do something, and
(14:50):
he just was a no show. And that was very hurtful. Yeah,
but then I remember.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Oh, you real cook, you real cook. You see how
she did that? Very rare we get guests to do that.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
By the way, I didn't know how these fish tackles
going to look. First time watching anyone make fish tackles,
this would be this time I do mine. But I
love that you broke up the meat.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
I like to do that, okay, because it were mine.
It's like eating like the ground beef, but it's ground turkey.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Okay, But I do know people that do it, Yeah, use.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Quiet. So anyway, so I was about to say, I
remember one time we were going to spend our summer
with him, and he had moved to Oklahoma at this time,
and we were still in San Francisco, and so we
go to visit him, and unfortunately he was still an alcoholic,
(15:45):
and I remember just not being feeling comfortable being in
his house. I think like for the first couple of days,
it was fine, and so at some point we were
we were just calling my mom and we were like, look,
we want to leave. We don't want to stay here,
because we were supposed to stay like for a few weeks.
And I was like, there's no way, I can't do it.
(16:05):
I cannot stay here. And I think I'm about maybe
ten or maybe twelve, but the most I don't think
I wasn't twelve. And so we're calling my mom. We're crying, like, Mom,
we don't want to stay, we want to come home.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
So does he catch wind of it? Does she tell him?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah? My grandmother at the time, she was on her
way to Texas for her family's family reunion, because my
grandmother's from Texas, my mom's mom, and so she my
mom had my dad because Oklahoma and Texas are pretty close.
Drive them to Texas and they'll be with my mom
(16:44):
and their grandmother and they'll come back.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
With her on his side of the family. No, on
your mom's side, yes, okay, okay, my mother's mom. Okay.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
So he agrees. So I remember driving, riding in the car.
My sister sleep in the back seat. I'm sleeping in
the front seat. And this is a horrible story, but.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I want to hear it. I'm all in it.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
So we're driving. So I fall asleep and I wake
up and the car swerving.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Oh heck no, this is a terrible shit.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
And so I look at him and I see that
he had a drink, a bottle in the center council,
and so I wake up. I was like, you're drinking.
I was like, you're crazy, you are drinking and you're
driving us. And he got mad. He raised his hand
(17:41):
like he was gonna hit me, but he didn't, and
that's all I can remember from it. But we got
there safely. But ever since then, I was like, yeah,
I'm never going back.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Wow again. I was gonna ask you if at some
point did he plead with you guys that he could
make the trip better or did he just was it?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
So? Yeah, you only remember the traumatic shit.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah, yeah that's pretty traumatic though.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, that was pretty traumatic.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Did you tell your mom on him?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:11):
And what she say?
Speaker 2 (18:12):
She was pissed, She was pissed, pissed. I was just
so happy to get in my grandmother's arms with this dude.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
So after that, did you ever request to see him again?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
As we got older and just started learning more about
his family and his childhood trauma and all that stuff
as well, do you become a little bit more forgiving?
Speaker 1 (18:38):
So you guys were close with his side.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
No, not really because we didn't grow up with her.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
So how did you hear his stories and all that?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
So the funny thing is, so my father is from LA.
And when I got into the business and I moved
to LA, that's when I got to know some of
his more of his family, my aunt whom I love her,
his sister, his mom was still alive then, so I
used to go visit her, my grandmother, and that's how
(19:08):
I got all the stories. Okay, okay, that's how I
got all the stories.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Your food looks really good. It looks official, It looks
and the tackles look good too. You're gonna make a lot.
I eat a lot.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
It doesn't look like a lot, but I do.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I'm a real eater. Okay, all right, girl, go for it.
Go for it. So fast forward to you're starting to
get older and figure out what it is you want
to do.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, so I so I went to college in the
Bay Area as well. This was before I ever knew
anything about having a career as an actor. I was
in college and I just knew I wanted to be
a boss. I was like, I'm going to college because
I want to be a boss. I want to be
a business owner. But I didn't know what kind of
(19:55):
business I was going to be in. The boss of
the business of me in a boss.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
And you told your mom and all this, everybody like yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Was like so in my mind, I was like, okay,
so I will be in a business as my major
because I don't know what kind of business I want
to be in, but I want to learn how to
be a boss in business. And oh yeah, these are
cooking good. Now. I use my hands a lot.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Don't I love it? Oh, I see how you've been
in them. Okay, Okay, don't bring yourself. Geez, do you
need a utensil? You need an INTENSI I'm terrible. She
over here doing it with her fingers. Is these are good?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Oh good?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Oh my gosh, I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah. I hope they taste good. That's gonna be so
embarrassing if they don't.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
How much I'm gonna judge you really, and I want
you to.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Be honest, Be honest girl. So yeah, so I was
God talkt Okay, hold on a second.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
I just want I hope you make more. I hope
you don't too much time on these little curved tackles. Please,
you love the utensil. She's over here struggling.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
You gotta bend it. You gotta flip it over and
bend it before it gets too hard. Hold on, hold on, everybody,
just be quiet and calm down. I'm fixing it. There
we go. Okay, So there's one.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
I don't know this, This moment with you feels really special.
I don't know if it's because I watched you on
TV for so long, but it feels really I love
it special to me.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Thank you? Okay. So yeah, I was so a business school.
You're gonna be a bus So I started taking all
these business classes.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Oh they're flipping right back, It's okay.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
And I didn't like it. I didn't like the classes
I have to take for a business major. So I
was like, what else could I do? And so I
changed it to Liberal Arts because I heard that I
can go into advertising. That was a good major if
you want to go into advertising, and it's far as advertising.
I was introduced to it and it was a business
(22:05):
but it was super creative and I was like, that
feels good to me. I want to do that, man.
And so I got an internship at this advertising agency
and one of my class projects was to interview the
people in the company. And it was with Gray Advertising,
(22:25):
when the biggest advertising agencies based in San Francisco. And
when I did the interview, everybody, Mama, I mean oh
I did with garlic and anyase more garlic tastes hilarious.
Everybody I interviewed at the company had come from theater
(22:47):
or something artistic like that, like they used to be
an actor in theater or something in theater. And I
just thought it was so weird. I'm like, this whole
advertising agency is full of people that used to be
in theater. And I just thought it was interesting. Fast forward,
returning the shills off.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
And this is your first job in advertising, you're realizing this.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Yeah, so yeah, So it was an internship and everybody
was talking about how they took theater and fast forwards.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
I would have never thought that either, me either.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
I was very surprised. Fast forward to my fifth year
in college now and a friend was recruiting girls for
a Miss Black California pageant. So weird, so random, and
so me and some of my girlfriends we were like, Okay, yeah,
we'll do the pageant. So what do you do? What's
the thing? What do you do for a beauty pageant?
(23:40):
Because I was just not that girl, and so we
were like, okay, we'll do it. And we did the pageant.
I'm concentrating here.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
I know it's hard to talk, it is, but your
stories are very captivating. So eight, come on, go back
to the story.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Okay, I still feel like it needs more.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Wait, what did they say you needed to do for
the talent part?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
So we had to wear a bathing suit, we had
to wear a gown, and we had to do a
talent part. So I was like, what the fuck am
I going to do for her? Talent. I don't know
what to do. And so me and my mom and
my aunt we came up with this idea for me
to recite a poem from a play, and so I
recited a poem from a play called for Colored Girls
(24:30):
who considered to a side when the rainbow is enough?
Speaker 1 (24:33):
And one of the poems I know, does it dark? Wait,
consider suicide? Wait say it again? For Colored girls who
can commit.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Consider suicide when the rainbow is enough? Geez, but it was.
It's a very powerful play. They actually did a movie
off of it too. It's very powerful play. So anyway,
so I took one of the monologues from the play
and I performed it. And one of the judges in
(25:01):
the pageant was a producer of a play that was
getting the casting and getting ready to tour the country,
and he asked me if I would be interested in
auditioning for his play. And I was like, what do
you do for an audition in the play? What is that?
And so he gave me all the information, told me
(25:22):
to bring a picture and a resume show up at
the theater, which was the Black Repertory Theater in Berkeley, California.
And I was like Okay, a picture and a resume,
all right, I got it. I'll do it just random.
My life is full of random stuff. I love it,
really love it, really I love it.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
By the way, for all your listeners, she added lime
to the pot, and she added the red as sausa. Yeah,
so she still got to make a lot more taco though.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
She's crazy. Okay, I want I want you to taste it.
I want you to taste I know if it is anything.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
In it, it's anything like this store where it's gonna
be good.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Salt or pepper or something.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Don't change anything. Perfect okay, yeah, really good?
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Okay, really good.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
And it's not dry, guys, Oh good?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Because yeah, and I should turn it off so it
doesn't get dry.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
That's why you're adding the water and the sauces and
all that.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah, because I like it to feel most.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
I like it. Yeah, I was scared it was going
to be dry, but not at all. That's why you water.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Okay, So this is yours you want, I'll make yours first.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
You better make way more tackles. We ain't on diet
eating while.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Broka, you want me to keep making the showy. So
this was yours. I was making it.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
We'll just switch plates. This looks really good. Miss a
little messy, and then why do I feel so comfortable
with you?
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Alvocado?
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yes, I want to do it. How you would do
it the elevated version?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Yeah, because we definitely did not have bitch tacos.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
This is so good looking. We shouldn't when they have
the cameras, the picture when you take a picture of
your food, I feel like we should.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
I should have done that.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Well we should. We can see technically do it with
these tacos.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Okay, you want something, any extra stuff because this I.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Want to do tomato here, I'll do the about your.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Okay, okay, oh yeah. So I go to the Black
Repertory Theater. I show up with a picture and a resume.
So again, I don't know anything about about acting as
a career or anything like that at this point. So
I show up with a regular working resume. I haven't
(27:40):
marry out hotel and this rent a car.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
I would have done the same time.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, I don't know. He said bring a picture in
a resume, So I brought my picture in my resume
and the picture and a picture, So it was this
is I'm totally aging myself. Look guys, I'm totally aging myself.
I brought a polaroid picture that I had my college
roommate take of me the night before.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Oh my goodness, you are real green.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
So I showed up with my working resume and my
little polaroy picture, and I walk into the into the
theater and it's full of real actors. And if you
know anything about San Francisco, in the whole Bay area Berkeley,
it's very artsy, it's a very artsy town. So these
(28:29):
were like real thesbian and I walk in and they
are like doing all these weird theater exercises, like with
their voice there stretching, They're moaning me all the just
weird shit. I was like, this is weird. They are weird.
I'm just gonna sit in the corner and wait for
(28:50):
them to call my name.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
At this point, did you see what other people's pictures
in what they saw all.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
The big eight by tens, they were black and white
eight by tens. Back then, I was like whatever. I
didn't have a way to feel because I didn't know shit,
and I've been doing a lot of dropping curse words.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
You literally only curse twice because me sit down, Terrace
sit down. Okay, let's try this while we hot. Okay,
I'm excited to eat this, guys, because it looks really delicious.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Hey, I hope it tastes good.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
I want to Cilantro. I just want to be like
you right now. I want to experience it. Okay, Okay,
I'm gonna let you buy first.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
I'm scared.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
You know you ain't got to be scared. You know
you make this.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
It's good.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
That's way better than any restaurant. You're sure you want
to go to the restaurant. The dish, Yo, it's juicy,
it's really good. That crunch. We're on a tight tom crunch.
But you're gonna make more of these before you leave.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
I got you.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
This is a plus one of my favorite top three
dishes on this show.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Yay, yay. Oh all right, let me finish my story.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Wait, even without all the jobbings, I know, it's just
you murdered that fish. You annihilated the fish tacco.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
No one makes a fish taco this juicy and flavorform.
You can't get it to no Mexican restaurant. No, no,
you better make moreities at home, girl. Okay, So get
back to this story. Yes, you are auditioning for this
play and yes.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
So I walk into the Black Repertory Theater. I see
all these real actors in there, and they're doing all
these theatrical exercises warming up for their big audition. Their
nat it was crazy, all kinds of stuff, and I
was like, Okay, these people are weird. I'm just gonna
sit over in the corner and wait for them to
call my name. I'm sitting on a corner with my
(30:54):
little working resume and my little polaroid picture and and
they finally call my name and I go in. I
meet the director. His name is Paul Roach, and I
meet the playwright who I'll say who the playwright is
and it in because you guys might know of him.
And so they give me some material.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I'm so excited, you like leaving these little cliffhangers going.
They give you the material, you read it.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Oh, they give me the material. So I read it
with the director and then he gives me a note.
He's okay, that was good, but this character, she's really sassy.
She has a lot of spice, and can you read
it again and give me some of that? And I
was like absolutely, so basically, you just want me to
be myself if I used to get in trouble all
the time for being too sassy, get popped in the mouth.
(31:41):
I was like, okay, so I'll just be myself. So
I read it again, did the audition and they were
like okay, great, And so I go home that night
and they call me and they offer me apart in
this play to tour the country. And it was David E.
Talbert's very first play. Wow Talbert is one maker now wow.
So yeah, it was his very first play. And I
(32:05):
toured with that play. It's called telling It like It
TI is Okay. I toured with that play for two years,
off and on and the Beauty and what changed my
life forever was Paul Roach, our director. He was a
very astute Thesbian had studied at act in San Francisco,
(32:26):
so he was a very well respected theater director and
he traveled with us the whole time and was training
us in the art of acting. He introduced me to
all the greats that I just started studying about acting
in theater, ud Hoggins, Demislowski, check Off, and I just
(32:47):
fell in love with it. I fell in love with
the craft. I fell in love with all the theater
exercises that I was laughing at all the other people.
So now I'm doing all these Oh.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Yeah, okay, that was good. I wanted to know. So
you do do those now, so now make it all
makes sense to you.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
It all makes sense. It all makes sense. And that
just changed my life forever. So I always tell people that,
oh my career to Paul Roach.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Wow, so what did your mom say when you booked
this tour?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yeah? So when they called me that night, the first
thing I did was I was like, okay, I'll call
you back. I was like, Mom, these people are offering
me this role to travel with a play and we're
going to travel around the country and they take care
of all of it, and they're going to pay me
(33:33):
four hundred dollars a week.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Oh snap, I was like.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
And I was like, can I go? Should I go?
And she was like absolutely. She was like, when is
this ever going to happen in your lifetime?
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, to get an offer like this, to travel the
country to perform on stage.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
And how old are you at this time?
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Land At this time, I'm twenty oh.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Girl, Yes go mom for that shut out of support.
Yeah yeah, and you were excited about it too.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I was, Are you changed my mouth? Yes? Again, I
had never done anything like that ever, And so we started.
We went into rehearsals, and that's how I learned the craft.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Was there any part of it that was like a
little rigorous where you wanted to quit at all? Or
was it all?
Speaker 2 (34:16):
It is very rigorous, But I was so in my
element and felt so excited and connected to this new
thing that I have found acting.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Did you have to drop out of college to do?
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Yeah, you was like peace.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
That's why I had to ask my mom. Okay, but yeah,
but it changed the whole trajectory of my life.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
So after are you getting interior at up in the house? Snap?
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (34:40):
I wanted to ask you after the tour ends? Huh?
What's it like?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
So the tour. When the tour ended, it was a
group of us. We decided we were going to move
to la and pursue acting.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Are you made friends too?
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Were any of the people from the audition room? Do
you remember any of them? And then they made it?
Kalita Smith a so a known actress. She was it
was her first start too.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
So we were all from the Bay Area, and we
all moved to LA after the show went down and
just started pursuing it as a.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Career with a real picture.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Yes, I got a real black and white by tea
and glossy. This is like so old, so you know
you We would mail our phus to different agencies and stuff,
trying to get agents. Again. Was always very adamant about
the craft. So the first thing we did find acting
classes to get into. Okay, when we moved to LA.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Even after all that work and training you went on
the road, you still wanted to do more to perfect it.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Oh yeah, okay, it's never ending.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
You still do take Do you still take acts?
Speaker 2 (35:45):
I teach acting classes now, which is also for me
a form of study for myself as well. But I
do also watch Masterclass a lot or and for directing,
I definitely like ye taking all that information and I
can get still.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
So between the touring and you booking major roles, how
long is that gap and what was that struggle looking like?
Speaker 2 (36:09):
I would say it was a five year build, which
is really a blessing because I have several friends that
I've been in it, doing it for well beyond five
years and still hadn't gotten their break. But so, yeah,
so I just I started booking like small parts. And
(36:29):
I want to say, yeah, five years in of me
living here, I got the audition for the Steve Harvey Show.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Wow. And then how are you surviving in between this
five year?
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Like a waitress?
Speaker 1 (36:41):
You did the waitressing thing?
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Okay, I waitressed, and I worked at a clothing store
that was in the Sherman Oaks Galleria. Yes, okay, I
used to work at the Sherman Oaks Galleria at a
store called Benetton. Yeah, I don't think company. I think
it's folded, but yeah, that's where I was, Okay, and
then so so so I have been waitressing a lot longer.
(37:05):
And then I got tired of waitressing and I got
the job at ben Aton. And I have been at
Benaton like two weeks and I booked the Steve Harvey Show.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
So I gave ben Aton my two weeks notice. I
didn't just leave. I gave them a two week notice.
And I still worked at ben Aton after I first
booked the Steve Harvey Show.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Okay, that's cool. And then but it wasn't out yet, no,
so nobody.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Was on because I came in the second season, but
I hadn't started.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
People hadn't seen you yet because you that two week notice.
Now I'm curious, so you become like a household name household,
everybody knows who you are. You from that point on,
is your career completely consistent or is it like a
little roller coastery in there?
Speaker 2 (37:56):
There's nothing consistent in this business. Nothing, no. So I
did the Steve Harvey Show for five seasons, and when
it went down, I, like you, just said, thought, Oh,
I'll just get my next gig. This is great. The
Steve Harvey Show was great for me. It's gotten my
name out there, fun character, everybody loves it, so I'm
(38:19):
sure I'll get another gig. It didn't happen that quick.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
How long would that get?
Speaker 2 (38:25):
To be honest, it wasn't long in the aspect of
what we do, because even if I was out of
work for four months, that's not really a long time
in his business. So it was probably something like that
before I got a call from Felicia Henderson, who was
(38:45):
the showrunner and producer of Soul Food that was on
Showtime at the time, and she offered me a part
for a reoccurring character on Soul Food, which they shot
in Toronto, so that was a huge blessing. So I
did fly to Toronto and I worked there for one season.
(39:09):
I can't remember how much time I spent out there,
but that was huge for me because I was going
from this sitcom really funny, silly kind of character, and
then I was going on to a Showtime show that
was a drama and a more astute kind of character.
So they were totally different from each other. So I
(39:30):
just always really thanked Felicia Henderson for seeing.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Pass and not communicat yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
And not just putting me in the box, which a
lot of people tried to do. So she immediately came
and gave me that opportunity. So that was huge.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
And then where does along this journey, where does directing
and producing start to peak its little head in were you?
Speaker 2 (39:56):
So? After the so thing, I want to say, the
next series that I was a regular on was All
of Us Will Smiths and Jada Pikett Smith Show. And
when that show went down, it was dry. The industry
was really dry. It was when a lot of the
(40:19):
black shows got taken off air. They weren't really producing
a lot of black television shows anymore. And that's when
I got frustrated and I met a girl who was
a writer. I was working on an independent project in
Atlanta at the time, and I met a girl that
was a writer and she had given me her novel.
(40:40):
She had written her first novel, and she asked me
if I were read it. So on my flight back
to home to LA I started reading her book and
I loved her book. It was called a Girl Named Lily.
And when I got home, I called her. I was like,
have you ever considered turning this book into a television show?
(41:00):
And she was like, no, I never thought about that.
And I was like, I would like to try to
do that. Would you be okay with that?
Speaker 1 (41:07):
And how did you guys intersect it? To begin with?
Speaker 2 (41:09):
On a film project that I've done in Atlanta, And
she was actually the costumer, and she slipped her book
and she slipping her book, and so once she said
yes to taking this journey with me of trying to
sell and this is my first time ever doing something
like this. But I had been in the business. I
had great relationships from the shows that I had been on,
(41:31):
So I thought I was always so naive. I was
so like I could do anything, give it this book,
I'm not making a TV show, and so my agent
at the time, they set up some meetings for me
to pitch this book. And the feedback we kept getting
was sounds like a great idea, but it doesn't sound
like a black voice. It doesn't sound like a black person.
(41:53):
And I'm like, that's strange because it's written by a
black person. This is her book, her voice, what are
you talking about. So that was the feedback we got,
and it just really lit a fire under our butts.
It's like, Okay, they're not going to tell us what
a black voice is. Yes, will We're going to make
content together that is our voice and that is So
(42:15):
that's how we started our production company that's called the
Nina Holliday Entertainment And the first project that we did
right after we went through that pitching cycle was we
shot a documentary called Angels Can't Help But Laugh, and
it was me interviewing a bunch of my peers that
were in the business just about their journey and how
(42:37):
they stay motivated and inspired to keep going when the
opportunities are so small, when we're constantly put in boxes
like what motivates you to keep doing this? Why don't
you just quit. So the documentary was amazing.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
It sounds amazing, It was incredible.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
It was Shirley out making good, Melinda Williams, Vanessa Williams,
Kim Whitley, Regina King, and we had some really great
people in the documentary and it was like our calling card.
This is what we are about. We're about the voices
of the black women in this industry.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Yeah, so how old did that do?
Speaker 2 (43:23):
So that did good. We ended up doing a lot
of college screenings and talkbacks. It was available on Amazon
or something. But this is the thing, and I really
want to tell everybody to handle your business like we
were just artists.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
So that was gonna be my next question. How are
you funding? How are you maintaining during this whole project?
Speaker 2 (43:44):
So we made it. It only cost us like five
thousand dollars, so we just paid for it ourselves because
we were just It was just a camera person, lights
and stuff that we and we would go to people
to interview them.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
I love that, by the way.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
Yeah, it got out and still to this day it's
out and you can order it, but I don't know
where it's being ordered and delivered from. It's really weird.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
What do you mean, if I were to go on
Amazon type it in, I could order it, but you
don't know where the money goes.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
I don't know where the money's going, and I don't
know who's sending it to you. Somebody to this day, Yeah, yeah,
like you could work because I did it because I
saw it. Somebody had hit me up and was like, Oh,
isn't this your documentary? It's so good? I love it,
blah blah blah blah. And I was like, where did
you get it? And they were like, oh, I ordered
it off of I think it's Amazon, And I was like, really,
So I went in not ordered it, and I got it,
(44:38):
and I don't know. It's really weird.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
So you did you try to call Amazon and find out.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
I had an attorney to try to reach out to
the name that was on it. It looks like it's
coming from somewhere from China, so it was really weird.
It's really weird.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
But so does that mean did you just find this out?
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Yeah? Not too long ago, like maybe year ago.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
So are they is there a way to find out
or stop it?
Speaker 2 (45:03):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
Oh no, I just wanted to do But wait, what's
the name of the documentary One more Time.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
Can really take care of your business when you're doing stuff.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
You still want to see it.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Yeah, it just it's called Angels can't help but laugh.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
Angels can't help but laugh. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, damn.
So it's like I want to say, go out there
and go out and still watch it.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
Really good. It's super informative, some great interviews and advice
and yeah, it's really good. I want to Smith as
in it. It was like a lot of my peers Essens, Adkins,
Jasmine Guy.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
And we could probably order on Amazon. I hate to.
Let's still check it out.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
It's still also I know, but that's the thing. Of course,
we want to make money off of stuff. But you
know sometimes and so this is why I want artists
to do better to handle your business. But I really
just I want to give my gifts to the world,
and that documentary is really a gift to young people
and it's a gift, and so I still want people
(46:07):
to see it even I want to see it. Yes,
I still want business.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
I was very inspirational.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
Yeah, so that was our that was my entry into producing.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
That was that and then from there the whole time
this is going on, what your mom saying she still
support everyone's support. You're fully sustained on acting, you're handling
your money right.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I've always been very frugal. Okay, good,
I'm very frugal and I learned a long time ago
in this business. You're working this great great getting them checks,
give them check, and then you could go years without working. Yeah. Yeah,
So I've always been very smart with my money. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
I always tell people it's all about managing cash flow. Yeah,
like people, will you get check a big check and
you're like, whoa, we can go here and buy this,
but no, let's make sure that we cover your monthly
for at least six months. Take exactly exactly minimum, hopefully exactly.
Actually that is it.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
But at that time, so yeah, so I was sustaining
myself but still still okay, I need to check. I
still got a mortgage. I still got that.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
You had a mortgage too, Yeah, oh girl, yeah. Do
you get married having kids in between all them?
Speaker 2 (47:14):
Okay, that's where I was about. So at that time, yes,
I was married and I had a son, but I
was breaking up. In the middle of breaking up, it
was a very stressful time in my life. Personally but creatively.
I think that's why I really poured so much into
(47:34):
especially that particular project, because it featured women and I
wanted to just get their voice and.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
With the empowerment. Yeah you needed it at that time.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
I really did. I really did. And yeah, so yes
I was married, and yes I had my first son
at that time.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
So after that, you go into after producing, you go
into directing.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
So the directing came in years later. So I did
finally go through a divorce and I ended up moving
meeting my current husband who was based in Atlanta, and
when we got married, I ended up moving to Atlanta.
That's how I ended up.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
In Atlanta almost just so you know, I wanted you
so bad. I was like, man, we may have to
make this trip to Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
Ah. I wish I would have known that. I would
have said, oh, that would have been some fun.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
Yeah, you guys could trust me. It was a lot
better on my budgets.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
So I'm sure I got you both.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
I got you here, but I was willing to. We
got to see if we can make it happen.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
But so yeah, so I'm so now. I moved to
Atlanta in two thousand and nine when I got there,
so I had been working there already. I had done
three projects in a row that was based in Atlanta.
So I was there and then I would come back
to LA there and so when I decided I was
moving there, I was like, Okay, I want to help
(48:57):
contribute to the film industry there because if I'm going
to live there and be considered now a Atlanta actor,
I need all the games to be up. So I
was on a mission to really pour into the film industry.
And that's when I started teaching acting classes. I had
(49:18):
a lot of young actors, aspiring actors that I worked with,
and I fell in love with doing that. I really
fell in love with just really teaching them how I
learned acting. And it was really study the books, study
the craft, watch films, and we would do a scene
(49:38):
study class. So in scene study, I'm directing actors in
the scenes. And so we got ready to produce a
movie that it was independently funded. It was like maybe
one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, but the script was funny.
It was a hood comedy. It was called a hashtag
(50:00):
Digital Lives Matter, Okay, and it was starting DC Young
fly Me, Little Hudson, I do too, Ernestine Johnson, b Simone.
So it was a lot of new actors, new faces,
but they were growing in their social media platforms, right,
So we produced this movie for them, and we didn't
(50:22):
really have money to pay a director. So I was like,
I can do it. I was like, I've been directing
young talent for a few years now. It's a comedy.
That's my sweet spot. Ann it's hood, that's my background. Yeah, yeah,
so I could do this, and that's how I directed
(50:43):
my first project.
Speaker 1 (50:45):
Wow. And in between all this, you're still acting.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
Yeah, still acting. So when I first moved to Atlanta,
I called Tyler Perry Studio.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
I was about to get to that. Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:56):
I was like, I just want to let y'all know
that I live in Atlanta, so if there's any parts
on your show, I'm here and I'm available. And so
they did end up calling me and giving me a
role on Meet the Browns.
Speaker 1 (51:11):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
And that's how I got on Meet the Browns. So yeah,
so it was still acting and what else was going
on at the time. I also opened up wanting to
pour into the community there, the art community. I opened
up a coffee shop, slash theatrical bookstore right because when
I was teaching the acting classes, there was nowhere for
me to send them to get these books that I
(51:33):
was telling them about. We're here, we have Samuel French,
and as a young actor, I spent so much time
in Samuel French. But they didn't have anything like that
in Atlanta. So I opened up a store and had
a contract with Samuel French store here and so I
offered some of the books at my store. And it
was a coffee shop, it was a lounge, we had
(51:54):
a stage, so I would do my acting class.
Speaker 1 (51:57):
Run that business too, very.
Speaker 2 (52:00):
Very I loved all the just the community of it.
I loved pouring into the people. People loved it. But
running the business was really stressful. For It's very stressful
and it was like I had to be there every
day and I was like, I gotta go make money.
So it stayed open for three years and then I
(52:21):
eventually had to close it just because it was just training, mentally, financially,
all the things. But people still ask me about it
all the time and was like it was just before
it's time. If you opened it up now, it would
blow up so much. And I'm like yeah, I don't
have the time or the wherewithal to do that again,
(52:42):
so I don't know, but who knows what the future holds.
But those were the things that I was doing before
I did the directing thing and having babies, had two
more and more kids.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
Yes, how can everybody keep up with everything?
Speaker 2 (52:58):
Ary Jay on all the platforms? I am Terry Jay
Vaughn on all the platforms. And I do have to
plug my new series right here, okay, straight ahead? Yeah,
and it's a beautiful Do we have time just for
me to tell this quick little story?
Speaker 1 (53:15):
I love it?
Speaker 2 (53:16):
Okay. I've had this TV show idea for at least
seven years. It was inspired by a girlfriend of mine,
London Breed, who became the mayor of San Francisco. Black Girl.
She's the only black female mayor that has ever been
in the city of San Francisco, and it was just
her journey and all the stuff she had to go
(53:36):
through was very interesting to me as a story. She's
a girl from the hood, all the things, and here
she is the mayor of one of the richest cities
in the country. Right. So I had this show idea,
and every time I pitched it to people, they were like, no,
I don't want to do anything political blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah. So I put it aside, got
(53:57):
busy directing, acting and other stuff. But the strike happened
in twenty twenty three, the writer strike and a brutal strike.
It was brutal, and I was like, so all my
jobs went away. Had jobs lined up through the year,
and they all went away. And so I was like, Okay,
I'm going to focus back on my dream, which is
to have my own series. And so I picked the
(54:19):
show back up and I called my writing partner who
was working on the show for me with me, and
her name is Nia Palmer, great writer, and I was like, look,
I know we're in the strike, but would you be
willing to just write a fifteen minute proof of concept
so we can shoot a proof of concept of this
(54:39):
show so when the strike is over we can send
it out and pitch it. And she was like, hell, yeah,
let's do it. So because I was nervous because a
lot of writers just wasn't to they were not and
I was like, we'll just do it, you know, I'll
call on friends, call the favors, and we'll shoot it,
so we did. I did that because it was in
(54:59):
the political space I wanted to add I wanted to
have a consulting producer, just to add some cachet for
when I go out to pitch it. So I met
with Keisha Lance Bottoms, who was our mayor in Atlanta
some years ago, and we've always had a good relationship.
So I called her and I was like, I have
an idea. I want to share it run by you.
(55:20):
And I met with her and when I pitched her
the idea, she loved it and she was like, absolutely,
I will join you on this journey. So now I
got Keisha Lance Bottoms as a producer with me. I
got the script, I got my producing team all together
in Atlanta. Oh, and I had to find somebody to
fund it because it's still so Keisha was like, I
(55:42):
know an investor that would invest in this because he
supports black women. Oh okay, this is one of the
reasons why I love living in Atlanta. I cannot lie.
I love it. The support there and that black pride
and stuff there is amazing. So he was like, yep,
I got it. I'll cover it. So shot this proof
of concept in twenty twenty three at the end of
(56:04):
the year at the beginning of the next year. Now
the strike is over. I got it edited when my
guy Victor editor back in Atlanta. He edited. He got
it just like I wanted it. I was like perfect
because I was like, I needed to look like it
can air on TV. I needed to look like that,
and it did. So the music was great, everything was great. Okay,
(56:25):
it was like, so, let's put it out into the
world and see what happens. So my agent sent it out.
We got calls left and right of people wanting to
meet with us about it. So we started setting up meetings.
Every meeting we had, they were pitching us why they
want our show. We did not have to pitch anything.
(56:47):
And the perfect fit for me was Tyler Perry.
Speaker 1 (56:51):
Of course I was wanting it.
Speaker 2 (56:53):
Okay, Yeah, he was the perfect person. Yeah, that's what
I'm saying. For several reasons, he was the one, and
working with him has been amazing, like incredibly collaborative. So yeah,
so he got it. He got us right away. He
was like the wind beneath our wings. And he had
(57:16):
a deal at Netflix already in place.
Speaker 1 (57:19):
What's the name of it again?
Speaker 2 (57:20):
So the show is she the People, She the People,
She the People. It will It's starring me, created by me,
Linda's it are in May, So May launching May on Netflix.
Please look out for it.
Speaker 1 (57:34):
She the People, She the People, and I will be
watching it. I'm really excited and very happy. That was
the most beautiful story. Thank you, beautiful ending, So She
the People. Watch it on Netflix now, and you keep
up with Terry J. Vaughn on all social media platforms. Yep,
don't forget the Jay, don't forget the JA, don't forget
the Jay. Peace out.
Speaker 2 (57:53):
Thank you, Thanks honey.
Speaker 1 (58:00):
For more Eating while Broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect.
Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
I'm your host, Coleen Witt, and today we have a
very special treat for you all. Pun intended. Terry J. Vaughn, actress, director, producer.
Terry J. Vaughn's in the building. Thank you so much
for coming. I was extremely and I told you off camera,
(00:33):
extremely excited to have you on today. I've watched you.
I feel like we family, Like I've watched you so much.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I know people probably come up to you and say, hey.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, yeah, it's like we're family, and I don't mind that.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
You don't mind it, Okay for all our listeners, you
don't mind. Yeah, let me eat my mail and come over.
But what will you be having us eat today?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I Am going to make us some fish tacos.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Fish tacos.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yes, so very excited, very exciting, favorite thing to do.
I love Mexican food, so I love I'm a taco fanatic.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Really are you based out of Are you from California?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I am.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I'm from the Bay Area, from San Francisco. Okay, okay, yeah.
Whenever someone says they love Mexican food, I'm like that. California.
It is a California thing.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
It is, it is.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I have some great news for all the listeners. We've
never had fish tacos on the show. Okay, we've taped
like one hundred and twenty episodes, so that's amazing and
it's affordable. But what will be going into your dish?
By the way, I've never had homemade fish tacos?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Oh really?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Oh, you're in for a tree not Judge Hard. I'm
like that, who's that white guy that he's the chef,
that he's really mean? I forgot his name.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
You don't watch cook you don't want to cook it
though you want a cook It show except for yours. Okay,
that's great, all right. Tell me what the ingredients are
for your fish tacos.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Okay, for my fish tacos, we're gonna use tilapia fish.
I like corntertias because I do a little crunch on
my tacos. And we have avocados, onions, jalapeno, garlic, tomatoes,
and lime in cilantro.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Nope, but you got it all.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, And I like it all fresh, okay.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
And we did it fresh because I like to sneak
in the two garlic and I was like man when
they put a real garlic what's official? And then you
have a sauce.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yes, So I love taco sauce and I like the green.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Verdet sauce day sauce.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I was talking to my Meda glasses. What is Verdet sauce?
Show me picture? Yes, okay, so get in the kitchen woman.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Okay, so I cook?
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Now you cook, you cook. It's so weird because you're
taking a busy time out of your schedule. We have
this beautiful resume and then you're cooking for me a
broke dish, that's right, yes, yes, And I didn't know
if you needed that extra. I don't really know how
to make tortillas for real, So.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Well, did you know? This is a shame? Come on,
you need to learn.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I'm a New York native. New York. You don't eat
Mexican over there, not really. Some people do, but I
don't think it's a big We're like a Chinese pizza
type of state.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
And I do love Chinese food. Chinese food is big,
not in LA in the Bay Area, really, I'm saying.
In San Francisco, yes, we have a huge Chinese population.
One of the best chinatowns in the.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
World what And I love Chinese. I need to go
hit a month.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
So yeah, so we Chinese food and Mexican food are
huge in San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
And then, just so you all listeners know, she did
use avocado oil, and I gotta know why.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I just try to eat as healthy as possible, and
I'll be honest.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
That's why you look good.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I try, so I'll be honest. So I know we're
making the broke dish like something I ate, but I
did not use avocado oil. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I was growing up and I was assuming you didn't
always have avocados either.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
And I didn't always, So this is an upgraded broke.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Okay, thank you. I appreciate the treat because sometimes people
really make me relive for real. Okay, so you're putting
the tilapia in the pan and avocado oil. I saw
you did both sides. By the way, we did play
with some of your seasonings. You should tell the guests
what seasonings you have.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
So I like to put a little garlic, even though
I'm using fresh garlic. You know what, I don't need
to do both.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
You don't want to do the both garlic powder.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
You know, I'm going to use the fresh garl like
pepper salt, of course, and then Cooman mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
I always wonder what people use cooming for.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
It's Mexican food.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Oh that's what I make for me.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
That's the only thing I use it for. When I'm
making my tacos or if I'm making guacamole.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
I use Cuman. And really, is it Cooman or Cuman?
It's Cooman Cooman? Okay, you know what? It wasn't in
the studio. I went home and I was like, I know,
I haven't in my yeah, but I even understand why
I have it in my cabinet. I was like, I
must have taken it from point eating while broke or something.
And then you used to whole Himmalayan salt.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I love it again that this is your upgrade. This
is a part of the upgrade. It was just regular
ass white sauce salt, Morton.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
And why do you feel like this salt is better?
Is it healthier?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's healthier. It's not well processed. Okay, so you see
it's still and you guys got the good kind too,
because it's still in the big crystal flakes and we
gotta spin it to grind it.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Okay. So that when you go, if we were to
go in your house, would your pepper be the pepper grind?
We have it back there by the way, And they
played a tad of this because you we didn't get
the sodium.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, you guys got the one with a lot of sodium.
And the whole point is we're trying to be a
little bit more healthy, isn't it right? Aren't we?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I really need to lose a lot of weight. So yes, yes,
I'm gonna get there.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Okay, so this is gonna let this fry a little bit.
It's a heat. I'm just gonna say I do not
like cooking on the electric stoves.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
But everyone on this show, i'd say, like nine hate election.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah it's terrible. So hopefully the dish comes out.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Okay, Okay, so you're cooking those up, and then what
do you do with these tortillas?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Are you gonna know the tartilla? I am also going
to just do a little I don't know if you
call it fried because it's not like really fried, but
I am gonna I guess it's fried. I'm going to
put more avocado oil on this pain. Then I'm gonna
put the tortilla on and I'm gonna fry it up
a little bit because I like my shells crunching.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Now, is there a way to get the whole shell
really crunchy.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Listen, if you fry it hard, it'll be very crunchy.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
So I watch you do it. I love crunching. I
love crunching. Matter of fact, back in the day, when
Chipotle first came out, I would always get the bowls,
and then I discovered they had the taco shells, the
hard shells. You will never catch me in Chippole without
a hard taco shell.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
But you know what, and I get so in the
broke day when I was doing like sometimes, we would
have the taco shells that are already in the box.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I still use some. Okay, are you mad at me?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (07:06):
So that guys see how she looks in real life.
She looks exactly how she looks on TV.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I do.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
And the crazy part is we've been watching her all
for a very long time, so just imagine seeing her
in person. It's crazy how beautiful you are.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Okay, So now that my fans know that they should
be googling you and looking at you, and you have
Instagram too, we can keep it you I do.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Everything is under Terry Jbond.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Terry Jbon. You know, like when I say the JA,
I do like.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I don't like when people forget my jay.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Oh really, I don't good because I like saying it's
Terry J.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah. Isn't it cooler? Yeah? And I've always gone by it.
It's it's my middle name starts with a J.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
I love it. It's very in a.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Million years, you cannot guess when my middle name. Man,
it starts with the J. Obviously, but everything you say
is going to be off.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
I bet I'm gonna go with jam jam Jam s jam.
What is the J stand for? Are you gonna tell us?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
I will? I just wanted to at least take jam jelly. No,
why are you saying weird?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Because I'm trying to think of what name is giving
a J Jackson girl? Wait, I got excited.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
People say like Jeanett or jan answer they say regular regular.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
No, I'm sure it's gonna be a bomb name.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
It's not necessarily it isn't. I love my middle name,
but will give us a hand? Just want okay? The
J is silent.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
One?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Keep going?
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, I was gonna get that right from the jump.
I was thinking that from the jump. Does anyone ever
guess it that way?
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Ever?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
But does anyone ever guess one in the beginning? No,
So I'm like the first.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I gave you about a thousand hens.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah. Yeah, but if you give someone the silent jh.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah, yeah, the silent J gives it away.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Okay, J that's nice. Cherry Juanita, Ye, Terry, okay, Terry,
take me back to what was going on now with
the elevated fish tacos? What was going on with the
broke of fish tacos?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Okay? So, yes, this is elevated because when I was
growing up, like I said, we love Mexican food in
my house, and so we would make tacos really out
of all kinds of stuff. So on a normal day
it was just the ground beast, regular kind of tacos.
But I don't eat meat anymore. I only eat fish fish.
(10:01):
Yeah you chicken, Nope.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
No, we're slowly learning her beauty tips right here.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Guys, I gave it up. I just felt, to be honest,
I feel like our country doesn't take good care of
how they get our meat. So that's what it. This
is gonna sound so weird, I literally because I used
to eat bacon back then. We would make bacon tacos. Really,
that's some ghetto ship. Yeah, that's ghetto.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
You really love tacos? Really, really you would make it?
Did you have like breakfast tacos reastc eggs? Okay? You
just like the shell?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I too, I love and the shell just gives the
taste of Mexican. But I love Mexican. But I love
the rice, I love the beans.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
I love you really love it?
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I do? I really?
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Do you still eat Mexican every day? You just earlier
about eating Mexican?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yes, yes, yes. When we finished with you guys, we're
gonna go out tonight and Mexican.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Okay, you really like Mexican. Take me back to what
was going on in this household of Mexican food.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
So I grew up in a single parent household, raised
by my mom. It was me and my sister. I
have a sister that's two years younger than me and
my mom. She worked two jobs when we were young,
so me and my sister were we're home a lot
by ourselves, and.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
So well she when did you become a When did
she become a single mom?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Like?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
How old were you then?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I was really young, probably about.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Four, Okay, so that's pretty much all you've known is.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't have a lot of memory.
I definitely don't have anything. So yeah, So it was
always just me, my mom, and my sister, and we
have a family full of amazing, powerful, badass women, so
like my grandmother would of course we would go to
her house sometimes or my aunt. So we were always
(11:59):
very well cared for and we always ate really well.
It's funny as a kid, you never know that you
were poor, Like I never thought I'd never even thought
about it.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
What about when you got older though, in high school
and middle school, did you start to were you poor then?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Or no, yeah, you're still living in the same household.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Did you start to realize you guys were didn't have
as much as others or yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
One time I overheard my mom talking to somebody. And
this is when I was really young, maybe I was
in high school and I or with her. My mom
having a conversation telling somebody that they had to she
needed to borrow five dollars or something so she could
get something from McDonald's for us to eat, And that
(12:42):
always stuck with me. I was like, and I never
knew that she was doing that, but she was talking
to somebody, telling somebody that's what she had done. And
I was like, dang, I never even knew. Made me
appreciate my mother a lot more.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Did you ever approach about it or you just kept
it to yourself?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
I just came to myself. I just kept it to myself.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Did you tell your sister about it?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I'm sure we've talked about it now, but back then
we didn't talk about it. But yeah, it just made
me have a greater appreciation for her. And we always
tried to be very hopeful around the house, making sure
that we didn't bring too much drama into her life
because we knew that she was a single mom and
(13:28):
working her ass off and so good grades. We always
did really well in school. It was just I was
just a fast girl.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
I was what does that mean?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I was liked boys and that was probably the most
drama that I brought.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
I love you, Yes, I was not expecting that.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Just telling on myself. I don't know why you make me.
I'm just opening up and tell my business.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
I'm sure the boys liked you a lot, did you?
Was your dad semi around even though? Did you see
him in passing.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
No, not really. My dad suffered from alcoholism and for
my mom left my dad because of that, Like he
just wasn't it just wasn't good. And when she decided
that she was divorcing him, I think a part of
(14:28):
and it's weird, I think a part of his get
back at her was to not be accessible for him,
not to help out with us. Okay, then you got
it on your own. That's what it feels like to me. Yeah,
but I do remember a couple of times. There were
several times when I was waiting for him, like he
was supposed to come pick us up, do something, and
(14:50):
he just was a no show. And that was very hurtful. Yeah,
but then I remember.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Oh, you real cook, you real cook. You see how
she did that? Very rare we get guests to do that.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
By the way, I didn't know how these fish tackles
going to look. First time watching anyone make fish tackles,
this would be this time I do mine. But I
love that you broke up the meat.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
I like to do that, okay, because it were mine.
It's like eating like the ground beef, but it's ground turkey.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Okay, But I do know people that do it, Yeah, use.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Quiet. So anyway, so I was about to say, I
remember one time we were going to spend our summer
with him, and he had moved to Oklahoma at this time,
and we were still in San Francisco, and so we
go to visit him, and unfortunately he was still an alcoholic,
(15:45):
and I remember just not being feeling comfortable being in
his house. I think like for the first couple of days,
it was fine, and so at some point we were
we were just calling my mom and we were like, look,
we want to leave. We don't want to stay here,
because we were supposed to stay like for a few weeks.
And I was like, there's no way, I can't do it.
(16:05):
I cannot stay here. And I think I'm about maybe
ten or maybe twelve, but the most I don't think
I wasn't twelve. And so we're calling my mom. We're crying, like, Mom,
we don't want to stay, we want to come home.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
So does he catch wind of it? Does she tell him?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah? My grandmother at the time, she was on her
way to Texas for her family's family reunion, because my
grandmother's from Texas, my mom's mom, and so she my
mom had my dad because Oklahoma and Texas are pretty close.
Drive them to Texas and they'll be with my mom
(16:44):
and their grandmother and they'll come back.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
With her on his side of the family. No, on
your mom's side, yes, okay, okay, my mother's mom. Okay.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
So he agrees. So I remember driving, riding in the car.
My sister sleep in the back seat. I'm sleeping in
the front seat. And this is a horrible story, but.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I want to hear it. I'm all in it.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
So we're driving. So I fall asleep and I wake
up and the car swerving.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Oh heck no, this is a terrible shit.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
And so I look at him and I see that
he had a drink, a bottle in the center council,
and so I wake up. I was like, you're drinking.
I was like, you're crazy, you are drinking and you're
driving us. And he got mad. He raised his hand
(17:41):
like he was gonna hit me, but he didn't, and
that's all I can remember from it. But we got
there safely. But ever since then, I was like, yeah,
I'm never going back.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Wow again. I was gonna ask you if at some
point did he plead with you guys that he could
make the trip better or did he just was it?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
So? Yeah, you only remember the traumatic shit.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah, yeah that's pretty traumatic though.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, that was pretty traumatic.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Did you tell your mom on him?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:11):
And what she say?
Speaker 2 (18:12):
She was pissed, She was pissed, pissed. I was just
so happy to get in my grandmother's arms with this dude.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
So after that, did you ever request to see him again?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
As we got older and just started learning more about
his family and his childhood trauma and all that stuff
as well, do you become a little bit more forgiving?
Speaker 1 (18:38):
So you guys were close with his side.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
No, not really because we didn't grow up with her.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
So how did you hear his stories and all that?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
So the funny thing is, so my father is from LA.
And when I got into the business and I moved
to LA, that's when I got to know some of
his more of his family, my aunt whom I love her,
his sister, his mom was still alive then, so I
used to go visit her, my grandmother, and that's how
(19:08):
I got all the stories. Okay, okay, that's how I
got all the stories.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Your food looks really good. It looks official, It looks
and the tackles look good too. You're gonna make a lot.
I eat a lot.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
It doesn't look like a lot, but I do.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I'm a real eater. Okay, all right, girl, go for it.
Go for it. So fast forward to you're starting to
get older and figure out what it is you want
to do.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, so I so I went to college in the
Bay Area as well. This was before I ever knew
anything about having a career as an actor. I was
in college and I just knew I wanted to be
a boss. I was like, I'm going to college because
I want to be a boss. I want to be
a business owner. But I didn't know what kind of
(19:55):
business I was going to be in. The boss of
the business of me in a boss.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
And you told your mom and all this, everybody like yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Was like so in my mind, I was like, okay,
so I will be in a business as my major
because I don't know what kind of business I want
to be in, but I want to learn how to
be a boss in business. And oh yeah, these are
cooking good. Now. I use my hands a lot.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Don't I love it? Oh, I see how you've been
in them. Okay, Okay, don't bring yourself. Geez, do you
need a utensil? You need an INTENSI I'm terrible. She
over here doing it with her fingers. Is these are good?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Oh good?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Oh my gosh, I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah. I hope they taste good. That's gonna be so
embarrassing if they don't.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
How much I'm gonna judge you really, and I want
you to.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Be honest, Be honest girl. So yeah, so I was
God talkt Okay, hold on a second.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
I just want I hope you make more. I hope
you don't too much time on these little curved tackles. Please,
you love the utensil. She's over here struggling.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
You gotta bend it. You gotta flip it over and
bend it before it gets too hard. Hold on, hold on, everybody,
just be quiet and calm down. I'm fixing it. There
we go. Okay, So there's one.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
I don't know this, This moment with you feels really special.
I don't know if it's because I watched you on
TV for so long, but it feels really I love
it special to me.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Thank you? Okay. So yeah, I was so a business school.
You're gonna be a bus So I started taking all
these business classes.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Oh they're flipping right back, It's okay.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
And I didn't like it. I didn't like the classes
I have to take for a business major. So I
was like, what else could I do? And so I
changed it to Liberal Arts because I heard that I
can go into advertising. That was a good major if
you want to go into advertising, and it's far as advertising.
I was introduced to it and it was a business
(22:05):
but it was super creative and I was like, that
feels good to me. I want to do that, man.
And so I got an internship at this advertising agency
and one of my class projects was to interview the
people in the company. And it was with Gray Advertising,
(22:25):
when the biggest advertising agencies based in San Francisco. And
when I did the interview, everybody, Mama, I mean oh
I did with garlic and anyase more garlic tastes hilarious.
Everybody I interviewed at the company had come from theater
(22:47):
or something artistic like that, like they used to be
an actor in theater or something in theater. And I
just thought it was so weird. I'm like, this whole
advertising agency is full of people that used to be
in theater. And I just thought it was interesting. Fast forward,
returning the shills off.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
And this is your first job in advertising, you're realizing this.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Yeah, so yeah, So it was an internship and everybody
was talking about how they took theater and fast forwards.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
I would have never thought that either, me either.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
I was very surprised. Fast forward to my fifth year
in college now and a friend was recruiting girls for
a Miss Black California pageant. So weird, so random, and
so me and some of my girlfriends we were like, Okay, yeah,
we'll do the pageant. So what do you do? What's
the thing? What do you do for a beauty pageant?
(23:40):
Because I was just not that girl, and so we
were like, okay, we'll do it. And we did the pageant.
I'm concentrating here.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
I know it's hard to talk, it is, but your
stories are very captivating. So eight, come on, go back
to the story.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Okay, I still feel like it needs more.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Wait, what did they say you needed to do for
the talent part?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
So we had to wear a bathing suit, we had
to wear a gown, and we had to do a
talent part. So I was like, what the fuck am
I going to do for her? Talent. I don't know
what to do. And so me and my mom and
my aunt we came up with this idea for me
to recite a poem from a play, and so I
recited a poem from a play called for Colored Girls
(24:30):
who considered to a side when the rainbow is enough?
Speaker 1 (24:33):
And one of the poems I know, does it dark? Wait,
consider suicide? Wait say it again? For Colored girls who
can commit.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Consider suicide when the rainbow is enough? Geez, but it was.
It's a very powerful play. They actually did a movie
off of it too. It's very powerful play. So anyway,
so I took one of the monologues from the play
and I performed it. And one of the judges in
(25:01):
the pageant was a producer of a play that was
getting the casting and getting ready to tour the country,
and he asked me if I would be interested in
auditioning for his play. And I was like, what do
you do for an audition in the play? What is that?
And so he gave me all the information, told me
(25:22):
to bring a picture and a resume show up at
the theater, which was the Black Repertory Theater in Berkeley, California.
And I was like Okay, a picture and a resume,
all right, I got it. I'll do it just random.
My life is full of random stuff. I love it,
really love it, really I love it.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
By the way, for all your listeners, she added lime
to the pot, and she added the red as sausa. Yeah,
so she still got to make a lot more taco though.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
She's crazy. Okay, I want I want you to taste it.
I want you to taste I know if it is anything.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
In it, it's anything like this store where it's gonna
be good.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Salt or pepper or something.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Don't change anything. Perfect okay, yeah, really good?
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Okay, really good.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
And it's not dry, guys, Oh good?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Because yeah, and I should turn it off so it
doesn't get dry.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
That's why you're adding the water and the sauces and
all that.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah, because I like it to feel most.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
I like it. Yeah, I was scared it was going
to be dry, but not at all. That's why you water.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Okay, So this is yours you want, I'll make yours first.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
You better make way more tackles. We ain't on diet
eating while.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Broka, you want me to keep making the showy. So
this was yours. I was making it.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
We'll just switch plates. This looks really good. Miss a
little messy, and then why do I feel so comfortable
with you?
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Alvocado?
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yes, I want to do it. How you would do
it the elevated version?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Yeah, because we definitely did not have bitch tacos.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
This is so good looking. We shouldn't when they have
the cameras, the picture when you take a picture of
your food, I feel like we should.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
I should have done that.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Well we should. We can see technically do it with
these tacos.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Okay, you want something, any extra stuff because this I.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Want to do tomato here, I'll do the about your.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Okay, okay, oh yeah. So I go to the Black
Repertory Theater. I show up with a picture and a resume.
So again, I don't know anything about about acting as
a career or anything like that at this point. So
I show up with a regular working resume. I haven't
(27:40):
marry out hotel and this rent a car.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
I would have done the same time.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, I don't know. He said bring a picture in
a resume, So I brought my picture in my resume
and the picture and a picture, So it was this
is I'm totally aging myself. Look guys, I'm totally aging myself.
I brought a polaroid picture that I had my college
roommate take of me the night before.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Oh my goodness, you are real green.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
So I showed up with my working resume and my
little polaroy picture, and I walk into the into the
theater and it's full of real actors. And if you
know anything about San Francisco, in the whole Bay area Berkeley,
it's very artsy, it's a very artsy town. So these
(28:29):
were like real thesbian and I walk in and they
are like doing all these weird theater exercises, like with
their voice there stretching, They're moaning me all the just
weird shit. I was like, this is weird. They are weird.
I'm just gonna sit in the corner and wait for
(28:50):
them to call my name.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
At this point, did you see what other people's pictures
in what they saw all.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
The big eight by tens, they were black and white
eight by tens. Back then, I was like whatever. I
didn't have a way to feel because I didn't know shit,
and I've been doing a lot of dropping curse words.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
You literally only curse twice because me sit down, Terrace
sit down. Okay, let's try this while we hot. Okay,
I'm excited to eat this, guys, because it looks really delicious.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Hey, I hope it tastes good.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
I want to Cilantro. I just want to be like
you right now. I want to experience it. Okay, Okay,
I'm gonna let you buy first.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
I'm scared.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
You know you ain't got to be scared. You know
you make this.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
It's good.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
That's way better than any restaurant. You're sure you want
to go to the restaurant. The dish, Yo, it's juicy,
it's really good. That crunch. We're on a tight tom crunch.
But you're gonna make more of these before you leave.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
I got you.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
This is a plus one of my favorite top three
dishes on this show.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Yay, yay. Oh all right, let me finish my story.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Wait, even without all the jobbings, I know, it's just
you murdered that fish. You annihilated the fish tacco.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
No one makes a fish taco this juicy and flavorform.
You can't get it to no Mexican restaurant. No, no,
you better make moreities at home, girl. Okay, So get
back to this story. Yes, you are auditioning for this
play and yes.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
So I walk into the Black Repertory Theater. I see
all these real actors in there, and they're doing all
these theatrical exercises warming up for their big audition. Their
nat it was crazy, all kinds of stuff, and I
was like, Okay, these people are weird. I'm just gonna
sit over in the corner and wait for them to
call my name. I'm sitting on a corner with my
(30:54):
little working resume and my little polaroid picture and and
they finally call my name and I go in. I
meet the director. His name is Paul Roach, and I
meet the playwright who I'll say who the playwright is
and it in because you guys might know of him.
And so they give me some material.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I'm so excited, you like leaving these little cliffhangers going.
They give you the material, you read it.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Oh, they give me the material. So I read it
with the director and then he gives me a note.
He's okay, that was good, but this character, she's really sassy.
She has a lot of spice, and can you read
it again and give me some of that? And I
was like absolutely, so basically, you just want me to
be myself if I used to get in trouble all
the time for being too sassy, get popped in the mouth.
(31:41):
I was like, okay, so I'll just be myself. So
I read it again, did the audition and they were
like okay, great, And so I go home that night
and they call me and they offer me apart in
this play to tour the country. And it was David E.
Talbert's very first play. Wow Talbert is one maker now wow.
So yeah, it was his very first play. And I
(32:05):
toured with that play. It's called telling It like It
TI is Okay. I toured with that play for two years,
off and on and the Beauty and what changed my
life forever was Paul Roach, our director. He was a
very astute Thesbian had studied at act in San Francisco,
(32:26):
so he was a very well respected theater director and
he traveled with us the whole time and was training
us in the art of acting. He introduced me to
all the greats that I just started studying about acting
in theater, ud Hoggins, Demislowski, check Off, and I just
(32:47):
fell in love with it. I fell in love with
the craft. I fell in love with all the theater
exercises that I was laughing at all the other people.
So now I'm doing all these Oh.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Yeah, okay, that was good. I wanted to know. So
you do do those now, so now make it all
makes sense to you.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
It all makes sense. It all makes sense. And that
just changed my life forever. So I always tell people that,
oh my career to Paul Roach.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Wow, so what did your mom say when you booked
this tour?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yeah? So when they called me that night, the first
thing I did was I was like, okay, I'll call
you back. I was like, Mom, these people are offering
me this role to travel with a play and we're
going to travel around the country and they take care
of all of it, and they're going to pay me
(33:33):
four hundred dollars a week.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Oh snap, I was like.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
And I was like, can I go? Should I go?
And she was like absolutely. She was like, when is
this ever going to happen in your lifetime?
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, to get an offer like this, to travel the
country to perform on stage.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
And how old are you at this time?
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Land At this time, I'm twenty oh.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Girl, Yes go mom for that shut out of support.
Yeah yeah, and you were excited about it too.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I was, Are you changed my mouth? Yes? Again, I
had never done anything like that ever, And so we started.
We went into rehearsals, and that's how I learned the craft.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Was there any part of it that was like a
little rigorous where you wanted to quit at all? Or
was it all?
Speaker 2 (34:16):
It is very rigorous, But I was so in my
element and felt so excited and connected to this new
thing that I have found acting.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Did you have to drop out of college to do?
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Yeah, you was like peace.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
That's why I had to ask my mom. Okay, but yeah,
but it changed the whole trajectory of my life.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
So after are you getting interior at up in the house? Snap?
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (34:40):
I wanted to ask you after the tour ends? Huh?
What's it like?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
So the tour. When the tour ended, it was a
group of us. We decided we were going to move
to la and pursue acting.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Are you made friends too?
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Were any of the people from the audition room? Do
you remember any of them? And then they made it?
Kalita Smith a so a known actress. She was it
was her first start too.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
So we were all from the Bay Area, and we
all moved to LA after the show went down and
just started pursuing it as a.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Career with a real picture.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Yes, I got a real black and white by tea
and glossy. This is like so old, so you know
you We would mail our phus to different agencies and stuff,
trying to get agents. Again. Was always very adamant about
the craft. So the first thing we did find acting
classes to get into. Okay, when we moved to LA.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Even after all that work and training you went on
the road, you still wanted to do more to perfect it.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Oh yeah, okay, it's never ending.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
You still do take Do you still take acts?
Speaker 2 (35:45):
I teach acting classes now, which is also for me
a form of study for myself as well. But I
do also watch Masterclass a lot or and for directing,
I definitely like ye taking all that information and I
can get still.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
So between the touring and you booking major roles, how
long is that gap and what was that struggle looking like?
Speaker 2 (36:09):
I would say it was a five year build, which
is really a blessing because I have several friends that
I've been in it, doing it for well beyond five
years and still hadn't gotten their break. But so, yeah,
so I just I started booking like small parts. And
(36:29):
I want to say, yeah, five years in of me
living here, I got the audition for the Steve Harvey Show.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Wow. And then how are you surviving in between this
five year?
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Like a waitress?
Speaker 1 (36:41):
You did the waitressing thing?
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Okay, I waitressed, and I worked at a clothing store
that was in the Sherman Oaks Galleria. Yes, okay, I
used to work at the Sherman Oaks Galleria at a
store called Benetton. Yeah, I don't think company. I think
it's folded, but yeah, that's where I was, Okay, and
then so so so I have been waitressing a lot longer.
(37:05):
And then I got tired of waitressing and I got
the job at ben Aton. And I have been at
Benaton like two weeks and I booked the Steve Harvey Show.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
So I gave ben Aton my two weeks notice. I
didn't just leave. I gave them a two week notice.
And I still worked at ben Aton after I first
booked the Steve Harvey Show.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Okay, that's cool. And then but it wasn't out yet, no,
so nobody.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Was on because I came in the second season, but
I hadn't started.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
People hadn't seen you yet because you that two week notice.
Now I'm curious, so you become like a household name household,
everybody knows who you are. You from that point on,
is your career completely consistent or is it like a
little roller coastery in there?
Speaker 2 (37:56):
There's nothing consistent in this business. Nothing, no. So I
did the Steve Harvey Show for five seasons, and when
it went down, I, like you, just said, thought, Oh,
I'll just get my next gig. This is great. The
Steve Harvey Show was great for me. It's gotten my
name out there, fun character, everybody loves it, so I'm
(38:19):
sure I'll get another gig. It didn't happen that quick.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
How long would that get?
Speaker 2 (38:25):
To be honest, it wasn't long in the aspect of
what we do, because even if I was out of
work for four months, that's not really a long time
in his business. So it was probably something like that
before I got a call from Felicia Henderson, who was
(38:45):
the showrunner and producer of Soul Food that was on
Showtime at the time, and she offered me a part
for a reoccurring character on Soul Food, which they shot
in Toronto, so that was a huge blessing. So I
did fly to Toronto and I worked there for one season.
(39:09):
I can't remember how much time I spent out there,
but that was huge for me because I was going
from this sitcom really funny, silly kind of character, and
then I was going on to a Showtime show that
was a drama and a more astute kind of character.
So they were totally different from each other. So I
(39:30):
just always really thanked Felicia Henderson for seeing.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Pass and not communicat yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
And not just putting me in the box, which a
lot of people tried to do. So she immediately came
and gave me that opportunity. So that was huge.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
And then where does along this journey, where does directing
and producing start to peak its little head in were you?
Speaker 2 (39:56):
So? After the so thing, I want to say, the
next series that I was a regular on was All
of Us Will Smiths and Jada Pikett Smith Show. And
when that show went down, it was dry. The industry
was really dry. It was when a lot of the
(40:19):
black shows got taken off air. They weren't really producing
a lot of black television shows anymore. And that's when
I got frustrated and I met a girl who was
a writer. I was working on an independent project in
Atlanta at the time, and I met a girl that
was a writer and she had given me her novel.
(40:40):
She had written her first novel, and she asked me
if I were read it. So on my flight back
to home to LA I started reading her book and
I loved her book. It was called a Girl Named Lily.
And when I got home, I called her. I was like,
have you ever considered turning this book into a television show?
(41:00):
And she was like, no, I never thought about that.
And I was like, I would like to try to
do that. Would you be okay with that?
Speaker 1 (41:07):
And how did you guys intersect it? To begin with?
Speaker 2 (41:09):
On a film project that I've done in Atlanta, And
she was actually the costumer, and she slipped her book
and she slipping her book, and so once she said
yes to taking this journey with me of trying to
sell and this is my first time ever doing something
like this. But I had been in the business. I
had great relationships from the shows that I had been on,
(41:31):
So I thought I was always so naive. I was
so like I could do anything, give it this book,
I'm not making a TV show, and so my agent
at the time, they set up some meetings for me
to pitch this book. And the feedback we kept getting
was sounds like a great idea, but it doesn't sound
like a black voice. It doesn't sound like a black person.
(41:53):
And I'm like, that's strange because it's written by a
black person. This is her book, her voice, what are
you talking about. So that was the feedback we got,
and it just really lit a fire under our butts.
It's like, Okay, they're not going to tell us what
a black voice is. Yes, will We're going to make
content together that is our voice and that is So
(42:15):
that's how we started our production company that's called the
Nina Holliday Entertainment And the first project that we did
right after we went through that pitching cycle was we
shot a documentary called Angels Can't Help But Laugh, and
it was me interviewing a bunch of my peers that
were in the business just about their journey and how
(42:37):
they stay motivated and inspired to keep going when the
opportunities are so small, when we're constantly put in boxes
like what motivates you to keep doing this? Why don't
you just quit. So the documentary was amazing.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
It sounds amazing, It was incredible.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
It was Shirley out making good, Melinda Williams, Vanessa Williams,
Kim Whitley, Regina King, and we had some really great
people in the documentary and it was like our calling card.
This is what we are about. We're about the voices
of the black women in this industry.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Yeah, so how old did that do?
Speaker 2 (43:23):
So that did good. We ended up doing a lot
of college screenings and talkbacks. It was available on Amazon
or something. But this is the thing, and I really
want to tell everybody to handle your business like we
were just artists.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
So that was gonna be my next question. How are
you funding? How are you maintaining during this whole project?
Speaker 2 (43:44):
So we made it. It only cost us like five
thousand dollars, so we just paid for it ourselves because
we were just It was just a camera person, lights
and stuff that we and we would go to people
to interview them.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
I love that, by the way.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
Yeah, it got out and still to this day it's
out and you can order it, but I don't know
where it's being ordered and delivered from. It's really weird.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
What do you mean, if I were to go on
Amazon type it in, I could order it, but you
don't know where the money goes.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
I don't know where the money's going, and I don't
know who's sending it to you. Somebody to this day, Yeah, yeah,
like you could work because I did it because I
saw it. Somebody had hit me up and was like, Oh,
isn't this your documentary? It's so good? I love it,
blah blah blah blah. And I was like, where did
you get it? And they were like, oh, I ordered
it off of I think it's Amazon, And I was like, really,
So I went in not ordered it, and I got it,
(44:38):
and I don't know. It's really weird.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
So you did you try to call Amazon and find out.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
I had an attorney to try to reach out to
the name that was on it. It looks like it's
coming from somewhere from China, so it was really weird.
It's really weird.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
But so does that mean did you just find this out?
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Yeah? Not too long ago, like maybe year ago.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
So are they is there a way to find out
or stop it?
Speaker 2 (45:03):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
Oh no, I just wanted to do But wait, what's
the name of the documentary One more Time.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
Can really take care of your business when you're doing stuff.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
You still want to see it.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Yeah, it just it's called Angels can't help but laugh.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
Angels can't help but laugh. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, damn.
So it's like I want to say, go out there
and go out and still watch it.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
Really good. It's super informative, some great interviews and advice
and yeah, it's really good. I want to Smith as
in it. It was like a lot of my peers Essens, Adkins,
Jasmine Guy.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
And we could probably order on Amazon. I hate to.
Let's still check it out.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
It's still also I know, but that's the thing. Of course,
we want to make money off of stuff. But you
know sometimes and so this is why I want artists
to do better to handle your business. But I really
just I want to give my gifts to the world,
and that documentary is really a gift to young people
and it's a gift, and so I still want people
(46:07):
to see it even I want to see it. Yes,
I still want business.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
I was very inspirational.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
Yeah, so that was our that was my entry into producing.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
That was that and then from there the whole time
this is going on, what your mom saying she still
support everyone's support. You're fully sustained on acting, you're handling
your money right.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I've always been very frugal. Okay, good,
I'm very frugal and I learned a long time ago
in this business. You're working this great great getting them checks,
give them check, and then you could go years without working. Yeah. Yeah,
So I've always been very smart with my money. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
I always tell people it's all about managing cash flow. Yeah,
like people, will you get check a big check and
you're like, whoa, we can go here and buy this,
but no, let's make sure that we cover your monthly
for at least six months. Take exactly exactly minimum, hopefully exactly.
Actually that is it.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
But at that time, so yeah, so I was sustaining
myself but still still okay, I need to check. I
still got a mortgage. I still got that.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
You had a mortgage too, Yeah, oh girl, yeah. Do
you get married having kids in between all them?
Speaker 2 (47:14):
Okay, that's where I was about. So at that time, yes,
I was married and I had a son, but I
was breaking up. In the middle of breaking up, it
was a very stressful time in my life. Personally but creatively.
I think that's why I really poured so much into
(47:34):
especially that particular project, because it featured women and I
wanted to just get their voice and.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
With the empowerment. Yeah you needed it at that time.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
I really did. I really did. And yeah, so yes
I was married, and yes I had my first son
at that time.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
So after that, you go into after producing, you go
into directing.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
So the directing came in years later. So I did
finally go through a divorce and I ended up moving
meeting my current husband who was based in Atlanta, and
when we got married, I ended up moving to Atlanta.
That's how I ended up.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
In Atlanta almost just so you know, I wanted you
so bad. I was like, man, we may have to
make this trip to Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
Ah. I wish I would have known that. I would
have said, oh, that would have been some fun.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
Yeah, you guys could trust me. It was a lot
better on my budgets.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
So I'm sure I got you both.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
I got you here, but I was willing to. We
got to see if we can make it happen.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
But so yeah, so I'm so now. I moved to
Atlanta in two thousand and nine when I got there,
so I had been working there already. I had done
three projects in a row that was based in Atlanta.
So I was there and then I would come back
to LA there and so when I decided I was
moving there, I was like, Okay, I want to help
(48:57):
contribute to the film industry there because if I'm going
to live there and be considered now a Atlanta actor,
I need all the games to be up. So I
was on a mission to really pour into the film industry.
And that's when I started teaching acting classes. I had
(49:18):
a lot of young actors, aspiring actors that I worked with,
and I fell in love with doing that. I really
fell in love with just really teaching them how I
learned acting. And it was really study the books, study
the craft, watch films, and we would do a scene
(49:38):
study class. So in scene study, I'm directing actors in
the scenes. And so we got ready to produce a
movie that it was independently funded. It was like maybe
one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, but the script was funny.
It was a hood comedy. It was called a hashtag
(50:00):
Digital Lives Matter, Okay, and it was starting DC Young
fly Me, Little Hudson, I do too, Ernestine Johnson, b Simone.
So it was a lot of new actors, new faces,
but they were growing in their social media platforms, right,
So we produced this movie for them, and we didn't
(50:22):
really have money to pay a director. So I was like,
I can do it. I was like, I've been directing
young talent for a few years now. It's a comedy.
That's my sweet spot. Ann it's hood, that's my background. Yeah, yeah,
so I could do this, and that's how I directed
(50:43):
my first project.
Speaker 1 (50:45):
Wow. And in between all this, you're still acting.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
Yeah, still acting. So when I first moved to Atlanta,
I called Tyler Perry Studio.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
I was about to get to that. Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:56):
I was like, I just want to let y'all know
that I live in Atlanta, so if there's any parts
on your show, I'm here and I'm available. And so
they did end up calling me and giving me a
role on Meet the Browns.
Speaker 1 (51:11):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
And that's how I got on Meet the Browns. So yeah,
so it was still acting and what else was going
on at the time. I also opened up wanting to
pour into the community there, the art community. I opened
up a coffee shop, slash theatrical bookstore right because when
I was teaching the acting classes, there was nowhere for
me to send them to get these books that I
(51:33):
was telling them about. We're here, we have Samuel French,
and as a young actor, I spent so much time
in Samuel French. But they didn't have anything like that
in Atlanta. So I opened up a store and had
a contract with Samuel French store here and so I
offered some of the books at my store. And it
was a coffee shop, it was a lounge, we had
(51:54):
a stage, so I would do my acting class.
Speaker 1 (51:57):
Run that business too, very.
Speaker 2 (52:00):
Very I loved all the just the community of it.
I loved pouring into the people. People loved it. But
running the business was really stressful. For It's very stressful
and it was like I had to be there every
day and I was like, I gotta go make money.
So it stayed open for three years and then I
(52:21):
eventually had to close it just because it was just training, mentally, financially,
all the things. But people still ask me about it
all the time and was like it was just before
it's time. If you opened it up now, it would
blow up so much. And I'm like yeah, I don't
have the time or the wherewithal to do that again,
(52:42):
so I don't know, but who knows what the future holds.
But those were the things that I was doing before
I did the directing thing and having babies, had two
more and more kids.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
Yes, how can everybody keep up with everything?
Speaker 2 (52:58):
Ary Jay on all the platforms? I am Terry Jay
Vaughn on all the platforms. And I do have to
plug my new series right here, okay, straight ahead? Yeah,
and it's a beautiful Do we have time just for
me to tell this quick little story?
Speaker 1 (53:15):
I love it?
Speaker 2 (53:16):
Okay. I've had this TV show idea for at least
seven years. It was inspired by a girlfriend of mine,
London Breed, who became the mayor of San Francisco. Black Girl.
She's the only black female mayor that has ever been
in the city of San Francisco, and it was just
her journey and all the stuff she had to go
(53:36):
through was very interesting to me as a story. She's
a girl from the hood, all the things, and here
she is the mayor of one of the richest cities
in the country. Right. So I had this show idea,
and every time I pitched it to people, they were like, no,
I don't want to do anything political blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah. So I put it aside, got
(53:57):
busy directing, acting and other stuff. But the strike happened
in twenty twenty three, the writer strike and a brutal strike.
It was brutal, and I was like, so all my
jobs went away. Had jobs lined up through the year,
and they all went away. And so I was like, Okay,
I'm going to focus back on my dream, which is
to have my own series. And so I picked the
(54:19):
show back up and I called my writing partner who
was working on the show for me with me, and
her name is Nia Palmer, great writer, and I was like, look,
I know we're in the strike, but would you be
willing to just write a fifteen minute proof of concept
so we can shoot a proof of concept of this
(54:39):
show so when the strike is over we can send
it out and pitch it. And she was like, hell, yeah,
let's do it. So because I was nervous because a
lot of writers just wasn't to they were not and
I was like, we'll just do it, you know, I'll
call on friends, call the favors, and we'll shoot it,
so we did. I did that because it was in
(54:59):
the political space I wanted to add I wanted to
have a consulting producer, just to add some cachet for
when I go out to pitch it. So I met
with Keisha Lance Bottoms, who was our mayor in Atlanta
some years ago, and we've always had a good relationship.
So I called her and I was like, I have
an idea. I want to share it run by you.
(55:20):
And I met with her and when I pitched her
the idea, she loved it and she was like, absolutely,
I will join you on this journey. So now I
got Keisha Lance Bottoms as a producer with me. I
got the script, I got my producing team all together
in Atlanta. Oh, and I had to find somebody to
fund it because it's still so Keisha was like, I
(55:42):
know an investor that would invest in this because he
supports black women. Oh okay, this is one of the
reasons why I love living in Atlanta. I cannot lie.
I love it. The support there and that black pride
and stuff there is amazing. So he was like, yep,
I got it. I'll cover it. So shot this proof
of concept in twenty twenty three at the end of
(56:04):
the year at the beginning of the next year. Now
the strike is over. I got it edited when my
guy Victor editor back in Atlanta. He edited. He got
it just like I wanted it. I was like perfect
because I was like, I needed to look like it
can air on TV. I needed to look like that,
and it did. So the music was great, everything was great. Okay,
(56:25):
it was like, so, let's put it out into the
world and see what happens. So my agent sent it out.
We got calls left and right of people wanting to
meet with us about it. So we started setting up meetings.
Every meeting we had, they were pitching us why they
want our show. We did not have to pitch anything.
(56:47):
And the perfect fit for me was Tyler Perry.
Speaker 1 (56:51):
Of course I was wanting it.
Speaker 2 (56:53):
Okay, Yeah, he was the perfect person. Yeah, that's what
I'm saying. For several reasons, he was the one, and
working with him has been amazing, like incredibly collaborative. So yeah,
so he got it. He got us right away. He
was like the wind beneath our wings. And he had
(57:16):
a deal at Netflix already in place.
Speaker 1 (57:19):
What's the name of it again?
Speaker 2 (57:20):
So the show is she the People, She the People,
She the People. It will It's starring me, created by me,
Linda's it are in May, So May launching May on Netflix.
Please look out for it.
Speaker 1 (57:34):
She the People, She the People, and I will be
watching it. I'm really excited and very happy. That was
the most beautiful story. Thank you, beautiful ending, So She
the People. Watch it on Netflix now, and you keep
up with Terry J. Vaughn on all social media platforms. Yep,
don't forget the Jay, don't forget the JA, don't forget
the Jay. Peace out.
Speaker 2 (57:53):
Thank you, Thanks honey.
Speaker 1 (58:00):
For more Eating while Broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect.
Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Host
Coline Witt
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