Terri J. Vaughn Interview - 06.13.25

Steve Harvey Morning Show Online: http://www.steveharveyfm.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Y'all, that's problemse. We got a special guest this morning,
longtime friend, Lord Have Mercy, has played such a pivotal
role in my success early on, as well as a
host of others. We go all the way back to
the Steve Harvey Show, Lord Have Mercy. She starred as
LaVita alas A Jenkins. She's an actress, a writer, producer.

(00:23):
Her newest project, brand new one, y'all, is an all
new series that's on Netflix right now. All new series
on Netflix right now, and it's called She the People.
She is the co creator, she is the executive producer
of She the People, and she's here to tell us
all about it. It's a new series on Netflix. Ladies

(00:46):
and gentlemen, please welcome family member, longtime friend you know
her as LaVita alas A Jenkins called government name Terry
Jay Von Harry.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Welcome Harry.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
What was going on?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Girl? Yes, I am so happy to be with you guys.
Thank you Seeve, thank you Shirley, Carla, Tommy, thank y'all
for having me on. Hello.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
I couldn't believe this. You have been at this for
quite some time. I know you. I've heard you discussing
projects before. Well, we did it. It's called She the
People is streaming right now on Netflix. You star as
a character named Antoinette Dunkerson. She is Mississippi's first black

(01:36):
female lieutenant governor and She the People is all about politics,
power and petty. It's Southern style. So Terry tell us
about the show.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yes, so She's the People First. I have to tell
you how where the inspiration for the show came from.
When my girlfriend London Breed became the first black female
mate of our city, San Francisco, where we grew up
in back in twenty seventeen or twenty eighteen, and she

(02:09):
got so much pushback and with so much drama for
her and she's just a girl from the hood. You know,
she grew up in one hood. I grew up in
another hood. To come from very humble beginning and watching
her work her way up through politics in our city,
one of the richest cities in the nation, and to
become the first black female mayor, it was a huge deal.

(02:32):
And she got so much pushback and watching her like
smile through all the situations and do all the things
you have to do was just so inspiring to me.
And so I was like, dang that would be a
really great character to play. But of course, though she
was dealing with all this drama and heaviness, I wanted

(02:53):
to put a comical twist on it because I believe
you can tell stories and send your messages and they
become more digestible if you can make people laugh while
you're talking about all the harsh things that we have
to go through. So that's where the inspiration where the
show came from. So back during the writer's strike, when
the writers and actors and everybody was on strike, I

(03:16):
called Nya Palmer, who's an amazing writer, and I was like,
what if we shoot a proof of concepts of this show?
Because we've been like pitching it, talking, telling people about it,
and nobody's fighting. So I was like, let's shoot it
while everybody's on strike, so when the strike is over,
we have something to show people. And so that's what
we did. She wrote, like the fifteen minute speck we shot.

(03:39):
I got a team together, as you know seeve I
live here in Atlanta now, so the support of the
people here in the community for us to be able
to shoot it with massive and you know, because it
was in the space of politics and I'm not super
well versed in that area at all. I thought it
was smart to bring somebody onto the team that could

(04:00):
be like the producer, a consulting producer. So I called
our friend Kisha Lance Bottom, and I pitched her the
show and asked her if she would be interested in
coming on board with me as a producer, and she
loved the idea and she said, yes, I'll join you.

(04:21):
So with her by my side, I was able to
get the fund raise the fund from a private investor
here in Atlanta, and we shot this proof of concepts
so it came out exactly like I wanted it to.
So when the strike was over, we sent it out
into the world and we just got called after calls

(04:43):
after calls to people wanting to meet with us for
this show. And one of the people we met with
was Tyler Perry, and we got multiple offers. But going
with Tyler Perry, it sits the vision of what I
wanted to do with the show. And now it's on air.

(05:03):
And you know, a lot of the character's names are
named after people in my family or my neighborhood. My
mother's played by jo Marie Peyton, who was Harriet Winslow
on Family matters. Yeah, yeah, she is not Harriet Windblow
on this show, fasy saucy. She drops the f bob.

(05:27):
He tells it like it is. This has been twenty
years of pitting my own show, and finally it happened.
We did it, And congratulation. That is persistence.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
I mean, I'm telling you well. I mean it's just
a great story of perseverance and vision and all of
that and that's how God works. And congratulations on it
because I think Tyler Perry was the ideal pick for it.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yep, yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Mean, congratulations. That's a great story. I think it's I
think it's it's a worse for everybody. Everybody in the
Steve Harvey Nation. Go on Netflix and check it out.
It is called She the People. It is produced. Start
in our very own Terry Jay Vaughn. Listen to me.

(06:16):
What a great story everybody's involved in. It sounds like
a great project. I'm gonna watch it myself. I'm telling
everybody in the Steve arvination, let's go to Netflix and
support our own Terry J. Vond. The name of the
project is She the People. Ladies and gentlemen, put your
hands together for my dear friend Terry j Von

Speaker 2 (06:42):
You're listening Steve Harvey Morning Show,