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TERRI J VAUGHN - A Star Is Grilled · Eating While Broke

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Coleen Witt, and today we have a
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: very special treat for you all. Pun intended. Terry J. Vaughn, actress, director, producer.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Terry J. Vaughn's in the building. Thank you so much
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: for coming. I was extremely and I told you off camera,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: extremely excited to have you on today. I've watched you.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I feel like we family, Like I've watched you so much.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: I know people probably come up to you and say, hey.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's like we're family, and I don't mind that.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: You don't mind it, Okay for all our listeners, you
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: don't mind. Yeah, let me eat my mail and come over.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: But what will you be having us eat today?
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: I Am going to make us some fish tacos.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Fish tacos.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Yes, so very excited, very exciting, favorite thing to do.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: I love Mexican food, so I love I'm a taco fanatic.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Really are you based out of Are you from California?
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: I am.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: I'm from the Bay Area, from San Francisco. Okay, okay, yeah.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Whenever someone says they love Mexican food, I'm like that. California.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: It is a California thing.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: It is, it is.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I have some great news for all the listeners. We've
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: never had fish tacos on the show. Okay, we've taped
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: like one hundred and twenty episodes, so that's amazing and
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: it's affordable. But what will be going into your dish?
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: By the way, I've never had homemade fish tacos?
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Oh really?
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Oh, you're in for a tree not Judge Hard. I'm
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: like that, who's that white guy that he's the chef,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: that he's really mean? I forgot his name.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: You don't watch cook you don't want to cook it
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: though you want a cook It show except for yours. Okay,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: that's great, all right. Tell me what the ingredients are
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: for your fish tacos.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Okay, for my fish tacos, we're gonna use tilapia fish.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: I like corntertias because I do a little crunch on
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: my tacos. And we have avocados, onions, jalapeno, garlic, tomatoes,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: and lime in cilantro.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Nope, but you got it all.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I like it all fresh, okay.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: And we did it fresh because I like to sneak
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: in the two garlic and I was like man when
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: they put a real garlic what's official? And then you
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: have a sauce.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Yes, So I love taco sauce and I like the green.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Verdet sauce day sauce.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I was talking to my Meda glasses. What is Verdet sauce?
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Show me picture? Yes, okay, so get in the kitchen woman.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Okay, so I cook?
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Now you cook, you cook. It's so weird because you're
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: taking a busy time out of your schedule. We have
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: this beautiful resume and then you're cooking for me a
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: broke dish, that's right, yes, yes, And I didn't know
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: if you needed that extra. I don't really know how
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: to make tortillas for real, So.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Well, did you know? This is a shame? Come on,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: you need to learn.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: I'm a New York native. New York. You don't eat
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Mexican over there, not really. Some people do, but I
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: don't think it's a big We're like a Chinese pizza
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: type of state.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: And I do love Chinese food. Chinese food is big,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: not in LA in the Bay Area, really, I'm saying.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: In San Francisco, yes, we have a huge Chinese population.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: One of the best chinatowns in the.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: World what And I love Chinese. I need to go
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: hit a month.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: So yeah, so we Chinese food and Mexican food are
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: huge in San Francisco.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: And then, just so you all listeners know, she did
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: use avocado oil, and I gotta know why.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: I just try to eat as healthy as possible, and
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: I'll be honest.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: That's why you look good.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: I try, so I'll be honest. So I know we're
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: making the broke dish like something I ate, but I
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: did not use avocado oil. Yeah.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: I was growing up and I was assuming you didn't
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: always have avocados either.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: And I didn't always, So this is an upgraded broke.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, thank you. I appreciate the treat because sometimes people
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: really make me relive for real. Okay, so you're putting
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: the tilapia in the pan and avocado oil. I saw
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: you did both sides. By the way, we did play
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: with some of your seasonings. You should tell the guests
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: what seasonings you have.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: So I like to put a little garlic, even though
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: I'm using fresh garlic. You know what, I don't need
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: to do both.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: You don't want to do the both garlic powder.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm going to use the fresh garl like
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: pepper salt, of course, and then Cooman mm hmm.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I always wonder what people use cooming for.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: It's Mexican food.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Oh that's what I make for me.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: That's the only thing I use it for. When I'm
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: making my tacos or if I'm making guacamole.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: I use Cuman. And really, is it Cooman or Cuman?
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: It's Cooman Cooman? Okay, you know what? It wasn't in
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: the studio. I went home and I was like, I know,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: I haven't in my yeah, but I even understand why
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: I have it in my cabinet. I was like, I
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: must have taken it from point eating while broke or something.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: And then you used to whole Himmalayan salt.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: I love it again that this is your upgrade. This
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: is a part of the upgrade. It was just regular
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: ass white sauce salt, Morton.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: And why do you feel like this salt is better?
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Is it healthier?
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: It's healthier. It's not well processed. Okay, so you see
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: it's still and you guys got the good kind too,
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: because it's still in the big crystal flakes and we
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: gotta spin it to grind it.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Okay. So that when you go, if we were to
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: go in your house, would your pepper be the pepper grind?
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: We have it back there by the way, And they
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: played a tad of this because you we didn't get
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: the sodium.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you guys got the one with a lot of sodium.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: And the whole point is we're trying to be a
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: little bit more healthy, isn't it right? Aren't we?
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: I really need to lose a lot of weight. So yes, yes,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna get there.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Okay, so this is gonna let this fry a little bit.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: It's a heat. I'm just gonna say I do not
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: like cooking on the electric stoves.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: But everyone on this show, i'd say, like nine hate election.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah it's terrible. So hopefully the dish comes out.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, so you're cooking those up, and then what
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: do you do with these tortillas?
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Are you gonna know the tartilla? I am also going
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: to just do a little I don't know if you
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: call it fried because it's not like really fried, but
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: I am gonna I guess it's fried. I'm going to
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: put more avocado oil on this pain. Then I'm gonna
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: put the tortilla on and I'm gonna fry it up
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: a little bit because I like my shells crunching.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Now, is there a way to get the whole shell
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: really crunchy.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Listen, if you fry it hard, it'll be very crunchy.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: So I watch you do it. I love crunching. I
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: love crunching. Matter of fact, back in the day, when
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Chipotle first came out, I would always get the bowls,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: and then I discovered they had the taco shells, the
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: hard shells. You will never catch me in Chippole without
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: a hard taco shell.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: But you know what, and I get so in the
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: broke day when I was doing like sometimes, we would
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: have the taco shells that are already in the box.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: I still use some. Okay, are you mad at me?
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: So that guys see how she looks in real life.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: She looks exactly how she looks on TV.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: I do.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: And the crazy part is we've been watching her all
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: for a very long time, so just imagine seeing her
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: in person. It's crazy how beautiful you are.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, So now that my fans know that they should
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: be googling you and looking at you, and you have
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Instagram too, we can keep it you I do.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Everything is under Terry Jbond.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Terry Jbon. You know, like when I say the JA,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: I do like.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: I don't like when people forget my jay.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Oh really, I don't good because I like saying it's
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Terry J.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Isn't it cooler? Yeah? And I've always gone by it.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: It's it's my middle name starts with a J.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: I love it. It's very in a.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Million years, you cannot guess when my middle name. Man,
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: it starts with the J. Obviously, but everything you say
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: is going to be off.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: I bet I'm gonna go with jam jam Jam s jam.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: What is the J stand for? Are you gonna tell us?
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: I will? I just wanted to at least take jam jelly. No,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: why are you saying weird?
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Because I'm trying to think of what name is giving
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: a J Jackson girl? Wait, I got excited.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: People say like Jeanett or jan answer they say regular regular.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: No, I'm sure it's gonna be a bomb name.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: It's not necessarily it isn't. I love my middle name,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: but will give us a hand? Just want okay? The
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: J is silent.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: One?
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Keep going?
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna get that right from the jump.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: I was thinking that from the jump. Does anyone ever
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: guess it that way?
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Ever?
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: But does anyone ever guess one in the beginning? No,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: So I'm like the first.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: I gave you about a thousand hens.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, but if you give someone the silent jh.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, the silent J gives it away.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Okay, J that's nice. Cherry Juanita, Ye, Terry, okay, Terry,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: take me back to what was going on now with
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: the elevated fish tacos? What was going on with the
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: broke of fish tacos?
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Okay? So, yes, this is elevated because when I was
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: growing up, like I said, we love Mexican food in
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: my house, and so we would make tacos really out
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: of all kinds of stuff. So on a normal day
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: it was just the ground beast, regular kind of tacos.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: But I don't eat meat anymore. I only eat fish fish.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah you chicken, Nope.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: No, we're slowly learning her beauty tips right here.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: Guys, I gave it up. I just felt, to be honest,
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: I feel like our country doesn't take good care of
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: how they get our meat. So that's what it. This
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: is gonna sound so weird, I literally because I used
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: to eat bacon back then. We would make bacon tacos. Really,
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: that's some ghetto ship. Yeah, that's ghetto.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: You really love tacos? Really, really you would make it?
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Did you have like breakfast tacos reastc eggs? Okay? You
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: just like the shell?
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: I too, I love and the shell just gives the
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: taste of Mexican. But I love Mexican. But I love
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: the rice, I love the beans.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: I love you really love it?
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: I do? I really?
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Do you still eat Mexican every day? You just earlier
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: about eating Mexican?
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes. When we finished with you guys, we're
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: gonna go out tonight and Mexican.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Okay, you really like Mexican. Take me back to what
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: was going on in this household of Mexican food.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: So I grew up in a single parent household, raised
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: by my mom. It was me and my sister. I
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: have a sister that's two years younger than me and
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: my mom. She worked two jobs when we were young,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: so me and my sister were we're home a lot
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: by ourselves, and.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: So well she when did you become a When did
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: she become a single mom?
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Like?
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: How old were you then?
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: I was really young, probably about.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Four, Okay, so that's pretty much all you've known is.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't have a lot of memory.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: I definitely don't have anything. So yeah, So it was
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: always just me, my mom, and my sister, and we
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: have a family full of amazing, powerful, badass women, so
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: like my grandmother would of course we would go to
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: her house sometimes or my aunt. So we were always
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: very well cared for and we always ate really well.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: It's funny as a kid, you never know that you
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: were poor, Like I never thought I'd never even thought
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: about it.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: What about when you got older though, in high school
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: and middle school, did you start to were you poor then?
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Or no, yeah, you're still living in the same household.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Did you start to realize you guys were didn't have
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: as much as others or yeah.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: One time I overheard my mom talking to somebody. And
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: this is when I was really young, maybe I was
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: in high school and I or with her. My mom
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: having a conversation telling somebody that they had to she
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: needed to borrow five dollars or something so she could
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: get something from McDonald's for us to eat, And that
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: always stuck with me. I was like, and I never
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: knew that she was doing that, but she was talking
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: to somebody, telling somebody that's what she had done. And
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: I was like, dang, I never even knew. Made me
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: appreciate my mother a lot more.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Did you ever approach about it or you just kept
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: it to yourself?
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: I just came to myself. I just kept it to myself.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Did you tell your sister about it?
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: I'm sure we've talked about it now, but back then
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: we didn't talk about it. But yeah, it just made
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: me have a greater appreciation for her. And we always
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: tried to be very hopeful around the house, making sure
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: that we didn't bring too much drama into her life
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: because we knew that she was a single mom and
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: working her ass off and so good grades. We always
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: did really well in school. It was just I was
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: just a fast girl.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: I was what does that mean?
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: I was liked boys and that was probably the most
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: drama that I brought.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: I love you, Yes, I was not expecting that.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: Just telling on myself. I don't know why you make me.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: I'm just opening up and tell my business.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: I'm sure the boys liked you a lot, did you?
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Was your dad semi around even though? Did you see
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: him in passing.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: No, not really. My dad suffered from alcoholism and for
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: my mom left my dad because of that, Like he
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: just wasn't it just wasn't good. And when she decided
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: that she was divorcing him, I think a part of
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: and it's weird, I think a part of his get
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: back at her was to not be accessible for him,
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: not to help out with us. Okay, then you got
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: it on your own. That's what it feels like to me. Yeah,
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: but I do remember a couple of times. There were
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: several times when I was waiting for him, like he
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: was supposed to come pick us up, do something, and
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: he just was a no show. And that was very hurtful. Yeah,
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: but then I remember.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Oh, you real cook, you real cook. You see how
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: she did that? Very rare we get guests to do that.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: I like that.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: By the way, I didn't know how these fish tackles
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: going to look. First time watching anyone make fish tackles,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: this would be this time I do mine. But I
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: love that you broke up the meat.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: I like to do that, okay, because it were mine.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: It's like eating like the ground beef, but it's ground turkey.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Okay, But I do know people that do it, Yeah, use.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: Quiet. So anyway, so I was about to say, I
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: remember one time we were going to spend our summer
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: with him, and he had moved to Oklahoma at this time,
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: and we were still in San Francisco, and so we
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: go to visit him, and unfortunately he was still an alcoholic,
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: and I remember just not being feeling comfortable being in
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: his house. I think like for the first couple of days,
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: it was fine, and so at some point we were
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: we were just calling my mom and we were like, look,
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: we want to leave. We don't want to stay here,
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: because we were supposed to stay like for a few weeks.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: And I was like, there's no way, I can't do it.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: I cannot stay here. And I think I'm about maybe
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: ten or maybe twelve, but the most I don't think
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: I wasn't twelve. And so we're calling my mom. We're crying, like, Mom,
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: we don't want to stay, we want to come home.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: So does he catch wind of it? Does she tell him?
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah? My grandmother at the time, she was on her
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: way to Texas for her family's family reunion, because my
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: grandmother's from Texas, my mom's mom, and so she my
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: mom had my dad because Oklahoma and Texas are pretty close.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: Drive them to Texas and they'll be with my mom
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: and their grandmother and they'll come back.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: With her on his side of the family. No, on
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: your mom's side, yes, okay, okay, my mother's mom. Okay.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: So he agrees. So I remember driving, riding in the car.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: My sister sleep in the back seat. I'm sleeping in
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: the front seat. And this is a horrible story, but.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: I want to hear it. I'm all in it.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: So we're driving. So I fall asleep and I wake
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: up and the car swerving.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Oh heck no, this is a terrible shit.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: And so I look at him and I see that
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: he had a drink, a bottle in the center council,
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: and so I wake up. I was like, you're drinking.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: I was like, you're crazy, you are drinking and you're
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: driving us. And he got mad. He raised his hand
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: like he was gonna hit me, but he didn't, and
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: that's all I can remember from it. But we got
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: there safely. But ever since then, I was like, yeah,
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: I'm never going back.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Wow again. I was gonna ask you if at some
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: point did he plead with you guys that he could
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: make the trip better or did he just was it?
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: So? Yeah, you only remember the traumatic shit.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah that's pretty traumatic though.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was pretty traumatic.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: Did you tell your mom on him?
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: And what she say?
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: She was pissed, She was pissed, pissed. I was just
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: so happy to get in my grandmother's arms with this dude.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: So after that, did you ever request to see him again?
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: As we got older and just started learning more about
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: his family and his childhood trauma and all that stuff
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: as well, do you become a little bit more forgiving?
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: So you guys were close with his side.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: No, not really because we didn't grow up with her.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: So how did you hear his stories and all that?
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: So the funny thing is, so my father is from LA.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: And when I got into the business and I moved
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: to LA, that's when I got to know some of
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: his more of his family, my aunt whom I love her,
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: his sister, his mom was still alive then, so I
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: used to go visit her, my grandmother, and that's how
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: I got all the stories. Okay, okay, that's how I
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: got all the stories.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Your food looks really good. It looks official, It looks
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: and the tackles look good too. You're gonna make a lot.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: I eat a lot.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: It doesn't look like a lot, but I do.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: I'm a real eater. Okay, all right, girl, go for it.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Go for it. So fast forward to you're starting to
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: get older and figure out what it is you want
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: to do.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I so I went to college in the
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: Bay Area as well. This was before I ever knew
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: anything about having a career as an actor. I was
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: in college and I just knew I wanted to be
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: a boss. I was like, I'm going to college because
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: I want to be a boss. I want to be
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: a business owner. But I didn't know what kind of
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: business I was going to be in. The boss of
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: the business of me in a boss.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: And you told your mom and all this, everybody like yeah, I.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: Was like so in my mind, I was like, okay,
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: so I will be in a business as my major
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: because I don't know what kind of business I want
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: to be in, but I want to learn how to
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: be a boss in business. And oh yeah, these are
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: cooking good. Now. I use my hands a lot.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Don't I love it? Oh, I see how you've been
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: in them. Okay, Okay, don't bring yourself. Geez, do you
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: need a utensil? You need an INTENSI I'm terrible. She
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: over here doing it with her fingers. Is these are good?
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Oh good?
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I'm excited.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I hope they taste good. That's gonna be so
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: embarrassing if they don't.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: How much I'm gonna judge you really, and I want
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: you to.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Be honest, Be honest girl. So yeah, so I was
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: God talkt Okay, hold on a second.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: I just want I hope you make more. I hope
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: you don't too much time on these little curved tackles. Please,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: you love the utensil. She's over here struggling.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: You gotta bend it. You gotta flip it over and
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: bend it before it gets too hard. Hold on, hold on, everybody,
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: just be quiet and calm down. I'm fixing it. There
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: we go. Okay, So there's one.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: I don't know this, This moment with you feels really special.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it's because I watched you on
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: TV for so long, but it feels really I love
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: it special to me.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: Thank you? Okay. So yeah, I was so a business school.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: You're gonna be a bus So I started taking all
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: these business classes.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Oh they're flipping right back, It's okay.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: And I didn't like it. I didn't like the classes
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: I have to take for a business major. So I
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: was like, what else could I do? And so I
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: changed it to Liberal Arts because I heard that I
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: can go into advertising. That was a good major if
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: you want to go into advertising, and it's far as advertising.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: I was introduced to it and it was a business
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: but it was super creative and I was like, that
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: feels good to me. I want to do that, man.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: And so I got an internship at this advertising agency
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: and one of my class projects was to interview the
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: people in the company. And it was with Gray Advertising,
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: when the biggest advertising agencies based in San Francisco. And
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: when I did the interview, everybody, Mama, I mean oh
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: I did with garlic and anyase more garlic tastes hilarious.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: Everybody I interviewed at the company had come from theater
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: or something artistic like that, like they used to be
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: an actor in theater or something in theater. And I
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: just thought it was so weird. I'm like, this whole
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: advertising agency is full of people that used to be
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: in theater. And I just thought it was interesting. Fast forward,
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: returning the shills off.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: And this is your first job in advertising, you're realizing this.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, So it was an internship and everybody
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: was talking about how they took theater and fast forwards.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: I would have never thought that either, me either.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: I was very surprised. Fast forward to my fifth year
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: in college now and a friend was recruiting girls for
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: a Miss Black California pageant. So weird, so random, and
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: so me and some of my girlfriends we were like, Okay, yeah,
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: we'll do the pageant. So what do you do? What's
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: the thing? What do you do for a beauty pageant?
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: Because I was just not that girl, and so we
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: were like, okay, we'll do it. And we did the pageant.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: I'm concentrating here.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: I know it's hard to talk, it is, but your
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: stories are very captivating. So eight, come on, go back
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: to the story.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Okay, I still feel like it needs more.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Wait, what did they say you needed to do for
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: the talent part?
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: So we had to wear a bathing suit, we had
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: to wear a gown, and we had to do a
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: talent part. So I was like, what the fuck am
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: I going to do for her? Talent. I don't know
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: what to do. And so me and my mom and
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: my aunt we came up with this idea for me
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: to recite a poem from a play, and so I
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: recited a poem from a play called for Colored Girls
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: who considered to a side when the rainbow is enough?
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: And one of the poems I know, does it dark? Wait,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: consider suicide? Wait say it again? For Colored girls who
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: can commit.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: Consider suicide when the rainbow is enough? Geez, but it was.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: It's a very powerful play. They actually did a movie
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: off of it too. It's very powerful play. So anyway,
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: so I took one of the monologues from the play
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: and I performed it. And one of the judges in
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: the pageant was a producer of a play that was
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: getting the casting and getting ready to tour the country,
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: and he asked me if I would be interested in
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: auditioning for his play. And I was like, what do
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: you do for an audition in the play? What is that?
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: And so he gave me all the information, told me
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: to bring a picture and a resume show up at
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: the theater, which was the Black Repertory Theater in Berkeley, California.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: And I was like Okay, a picture and a resume,
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: all right, I got it. I'll do it just random.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: My life is full of random stuff. I love it,
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: really love it, really I love it.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: By the way, for all your listeners, she added lime
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: to the pot, and she added the red as sausa. Yeah,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: so she still got to make a lot more taco though.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: She's crazy. Okay, I want I want you to taste it.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: I want you to taste I know if it is anything.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: In it, it's anything like this store where it's gonna
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: be good.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Salt or pepper or something.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Don't change anything. Perfect okay, yeah, really good?
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: Okay, really good.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: And it's not dry, guys, Oh good?
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: Because yeah, and I should turn it off so it
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: doesn't get dry.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: That's why you're adding the water and the sauces and
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: all that.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because I like it to feel most.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: I like it. Yeah, I was scared it was going
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: to be dry, but not at all. That's why you water.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Okay, So this is yours you want, I'll make yours first.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: You better make way more tackles. We ain't on diet
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: eating while.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: Broka, you want me to keep making the showy. So
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: this was yours. I was making it.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: We'll just switch plates. This looks really good. Miss a
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: little messy, and then why do I feel so comfortable
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: with you?
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: Alvocado?
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Yes, I want to do it. How you would do
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: it the elevated version?
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because we definitely did not have bitch tacos.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: This is so good looking. We shouldn't when they have
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: the cameras, the picture when you take a picture of
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: your food, I feel like we should.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: I should have done that.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: Well we should. We can see technically do it with
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: these tacos.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: Okay, you want something, any extra stuff because this I.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Want to do tomato here, I'll do the about your.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: Okay, okay, oh yeah. So I go to the Black
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Repertory Theater. I show up with a picture and a resume.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: So again, I don't know anything about about acting as
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: a career or anything like that at this point. So
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: I show up with a regular working resume. I haven't
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: marry out hotel and this rent a car.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: I would have done the same time.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. He said bring a picture in
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: a resume, So I brought my picture in my resume
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: and the picture and a picture, So it was this
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: is I'm totally aging myself. Look guys, I'm totally aging myself.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: I brought a polaroid picture that I had my college
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: roommate take of me the night before.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, you are real green.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: So I showed up with my working resume and my
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: little polaroy picture, and I walk into the into the
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: theater and it's full of real actors. And if you
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: know anything about San Francisco, in the whole Bay area Berkeley,
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: it's very artsy, it's a very artsy town. So these
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: were like real thesbian and I walk in and they
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: are like doing all these weird theater exercises, like with
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: their voice there stretching, They're moaning me all the just
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: weird shit. I was like, this is weird. They are weird.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: I'm just gonna sit in the corner and wait for
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: them to call my name.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: At this point, did you see what other people's pictures
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: in what they saw all.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: The big eight by tens, they were black and white
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: eight by tens. Back then, I was like whatever. I
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: didn't have a way to feel because I didn't know shit,
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: and I've been doing a lot of dropping curse words.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: You literally only curse twice because me sit down, Terrace
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: sit down. Okay, let's try this while we hot. Okay,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: I'm excited to eat this, guys, because it looks really delicious.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: Hey, I hope it tastes good.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: I want to Cilantro. I just want to be like
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: you right now. I want to experience it. Okay, Okay,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you buy first.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: I'm scared.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: You know you ain't got to be scared. You know
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: you make this.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: It's good.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: That's way better than any restaurant. You're sure you want
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: to go to the restaurant. The dish, Yo, it's juicy,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: it's really good. That crunch. We're on a tight tom crunch.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: But you're gonna make more of these before you leave.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: I got you.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: This is a plus one of my favorite top three
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: dishes on this show.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: Yay, yay. Oh all right, let me finish my story.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: Wait, even without all the jobbings, I know, it's just
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: you murdered that fish. You annihilated the fish tacco.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: It's so good.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: No one makes a fish taco this juicy and flavorform.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: You can't get it to no Mexican restaurant. No, no,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: you better make moreities at home, girl. Okay, So get
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: back to this story. Yes, you are auditioning for this
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: play and yes.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: So I walk into the Black Repertory Theater. I see
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: all these real actors in there, and they're doing all
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: these theatrical exercises warming up for their big audition. Their
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: nat it was crazy, all kinds of stuff, and I
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: was like, Okay, these people are weird. I'm just gonna
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: sit over in the corner and wait for them to
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: call my name. I'm sitting on a corner with my
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: little working resume and my little polaroid picture and and
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: they finally call my name and I go in. I
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: meet the director. His name is Paul Roach, and I
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: meet the playwright who I'll say who the playwright is
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: and it in because you guys might know of him.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: And so they give me some material.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: I'm so excited, you like leaving these little cliffhangers going.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: They give you the material, you read it.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: Oh, they give me the material. So I read it
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: with the director and then he gives me a note.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: He's okay, that was good, but this character, she's really sassy.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: She has a lot of spice, and can you read
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: it again and give me some of that? And I
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: was like absolutely, so basically, you just want me to
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: be myself if I used to get in trouble all
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: the time for being too sassy, get popped in the mouth.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: I was like, okay, so I'll just be myself. So
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: I read it again, did the audition and they were
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: like okay, great, And so I go home that night
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: and they call me and they offer me apart in
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: this play to tour the country. And it was David E.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: Talbert's very first play. Wow Talbert is one maker now wow.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it was his very first play. And I
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: toured with that play. It's called telling It like It
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: TI is Okay. I toured with that play for two years,
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: off and on and the Beauty and what changed my
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: life forever was Paul Roach, our director. He was a
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: very astute Thesbian had studied at act in San Francisco,
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: so he was a very well respected theater director and
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: he traveled with us the whole time and was training
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: us in the art of acting. He introduced me to
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: all the greats that I just started studying about acting
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: in theater, ud Hoggins, Demislowski, check Off, and I just
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: fell in love with it. I fell in love with
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: the craft. I fell in love with all the theater
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: exercises that I was laughing at all the other people.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: So now I'm doing all these Oh.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, that was good. I wanted to know. So
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: you do do those now, so now make it all
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: makes sense to you.
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: It all makes sense. It all makes sense. And that
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: just changed my life forever. So I always tell people that,
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: oh my career to Paul Roach.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Wow, so what did your mom say when you booked
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: this tour?
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah? So when they called me that night, the first
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: thing I did was I was like, okay, I'll call
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: you back. I was like, Mom, these people are offering
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: me this role to travel with a play and we're
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: going to travel around the country and they take care
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: of all of it, and they're going to pay me
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: four hundred dollars a week.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: Oh snap, I was like.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: And I was like, can I go? Should I go?
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: And she was like absolutely. She was like, when is
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: this ever going to happen in your lifetime?
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, to get an offer like this, to travel the
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: country to perform on stage.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: And how old are you at this time?
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: Land At this time, I'm twenty oh.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Girl, Yes go mom for that shut out of support.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and you were excited about it too.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: I was, Are you changed my mouth? Yes? Again, I
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: had never done anything like that ever, And so we started.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: We went into rehearsals, and that's how I learned the craft.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: Was there any part of it that was like a
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: little rigorous where you wanted to quit at all? Or
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: was it all?
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: It is very rigorous, But I was so in my
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: element and felt so excited and connected to this new
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: thing that I have found acting.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Did you have to drop out of college to do?
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you was like peace.
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: That's why I had to ask my mom. Okay, but yeah,
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: but it changed the whole trajectory of my life.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: So after are you getting interior at up in the house? Snap?
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: Okay?
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you after the tour ends? Huh?
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: What's it like?
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: So the tour. When the tour ended, it was a
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: group of us. We decided we were going to move
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: to la and pursue acting.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: Are you made friends too?
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Were any of the people from the audition room? Do
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: you remember any of them? And then they made it?
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: Kalita Smith a so a known actress. She was it
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: was her first start too.
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: So we were all from the Bay Area, and we
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: all moved to LA after the show went down and
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: just started pursuing it as a.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Career with a real picture.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, I got a real black and white by tea
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: and glossy. This is like so old, so you know
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: you We would mail our phus to different agencies and stuff,
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: trying to get agents. Again. Was always very adamant about
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: the craft. So the first thing we did find acting
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: classes to get into. Okay, when we moved to LA.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: Even after all that work and training you went on
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: the road, you still wanted to do more to perfect it.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, okay, it's never ending.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: You still do take Do you still take acts?
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: I teach acting classes now, which is also for me
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: a form of study for myself as well. But I
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: do also watch Masterclass a lot or and for directing,
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: I definitely like ye taking all that information and I
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: can get still.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: So between the touring and you booking major roles, how
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: long is that gap and what was that struggle looking like?
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: I would say it was a five year build, which
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: is really a blessing because I have several friends that
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: I've been in it, doing it for well beyond five
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: years and still hadn't gotten their break. But so, yeah,
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: so I just I started booking like small parts. And
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: I want to say, yeah, five years in of me
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: living here, I got the audition for the Steve Harvey Show.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: Wow. And then how are you surviving in between this
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: five year?
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: Like a waitress?
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: You did the waitressing thing?
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: Okay, I waitressed, and I worked at a clothing store
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: that was in the Sherman Oaks Galleria. Yes, okay, I
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: used to work at the Sherman Oaks Galleria at a
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: store called Benetton. Yeah, I don't think company. I think
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: it's folded, but yeah, that's where I was, Okay, and
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: then so so so I have been waitressing a lot longer.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: And then I got tired of waitressing and I got
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: the job at ben Aton. And I have been at
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: Benaton like two weeks and I booked the Steve Harvey Show.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: So I gave ben Aton my two weeks notice. I
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: didn't just leave. I gave them a two week notice.
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: And I still worked at ben Aton after I first
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: booked the Steve Harvey Show.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's cool. And then but it wasn't out yet, no,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: so nobody.
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: Was on because I came in the second season, but
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: I hadn't started.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: People hadn't seen you yet because you that two week notice.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Now I'm curious, so you become like a household name household,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: everybody knows who you are. You from that point on,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: is your career completely consistent or is it like a
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: little roller coastery in there?
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: There's nothing consistent in this business. Nothing, no. So I
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: did the Steve Harvey Show for five seasons, and when
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: it went down, I, like you, just said, thought, Oh,
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: I'll just get my next gig. This is great. The
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: Steve Harvey Show was great for me. It's gotten my
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: name out there, fun character, everybody loves it, so I'm
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: sure I'll get another gig. It didn't happen that quick.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: How long would that get?
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: To be honest, it wasn't long in the aspect of
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: what we do, because even if I was out of
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: work for four months, that's not really a long time
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: in his business. So it was probably something like that
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: before I got a call from Felicia Henderson, who was
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: the showrunner and producer of Soul Food that was on
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: Showtime at the time, and she offered me a part
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: for a reoccurring character on Soul Food, which they shot
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: in Toronto, so that was a huge blessing. So I
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: did fly to Toronto and I worked there for one season.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: I can't remember how much time I spent out there,
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: but that was huge for me because I was going
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: from this sitcom really funny, silly kind of character, and
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: then I was going on to a Showtime show that
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: was a drama and a more astute kind of character.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: So they were totally different from each other. So I
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: just always really thanked Felicia Henderson for seeing.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: Pass and not communicat yeah.
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: And not just putting me in the box, which a
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: lot of people tried to do. So she immediately came
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: and gave me that opportunity. So that was huge.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: And then where does along this journey, where does directing
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: and producing start to peak its little head in were you?
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: So? After the so thing, I want to say, the
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: next series that I was a regular on was All
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: of Us Will Smiths and Jada Pikett Smith Show. And
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: when that show went down, it was dry. The industry
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: was really dry. It was when a lot of the
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: black shows got taken off air. They weren't really producing
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: a lot of black television shows anymore. And that's when
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: I got frustrated and I met a girl who was
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: a writer. I was working on an independent project in
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: Atlanta at the time, and I met a girl that
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: was a writer and she had given me her novel.
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: She had written her first novel, and she asked me
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: if I were read it. So on my flight back
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: to home to LA I started reading her book and
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: I loved her book. It was called a Girl Named Lily.
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: And when I got home, I called her. I was like,
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: have you ever considered turning this book into a television show?
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: And she was like, no, I never thought about that.
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: And I was like, I would like to try to
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: do that. Would you be okay with that?
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: And how did you guys intersect it? To begin with?
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: On a film project that I've done in Atlanta, And
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: she was actually the costumer, and she slipped her book
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: and she slipping her book, and so once she said
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: yes to taking this journey with me of trying to
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: sell and this is my first time ever doing something
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: like this. But I had been in the business. I
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: had great relationships from the shows that I had been on,
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: So I thought I was always so naive. I was
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: so like I could do anything, give it this book,
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: I'm not making a TV show, and so my agent
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: at the time, they set up some meetings for me
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: to pitch this book. And the feedback we kept getting
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: was sounds like a great idea, but it doesn't sound
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: like a black voice. It doesn't sound like a black person.
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, that's strange because it's written by a
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: black person. This is her book, her voice, what are
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: you talking about. So that was the feedback we got,
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: and it just really lit a fire under our butts.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: It's like, Okay, they're not going to tell us what
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: a black voice is. Yes, will We're going to make
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: content together that is our voice and that is So
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: that's how we started our production company that's called the
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: Nina Holliday Entertainment And the first project that we did
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: right after we went through that pitching cycle was we
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: shot a documentary called Angels Can't Help But Laugh, and
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: it was me interviewing a bunch of my peers that
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: were in the business just about their journey and how
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: they stay motivated and inspired to keep going when the
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: opportunities are so small, when we're constantly put in boxes
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: like what motivates you to keep doing this? Why don't
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: you just quit. So the documentary was amazing.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: It sounds amazing, It was incredible.
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: It was Shirley out making good, Melinda Williams, Vanessa Williams,
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: Kim Whitley, Regina King, and we had some really great
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: people in the documentary and it was like our calling card.
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: This is what we are about. We're about the voices
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: of the black women in this industry.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so how old did that do?
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: So that did good. We ended up doing a lot
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: of college screenings and talkbacks. It was available on Amazon
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: or something. But this is the thing, and I really
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: want to tell everybody to handle your business like we
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: were just artists.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: So that was gonna be my next question. How are
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: you funding? How are you maintaining during this whole project?
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: So we made it. It only cost us like five
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars, so we just paid for it ourselves because
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: we were just It was just a camera person, lights
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: and stuff that we and we would go to people
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: to interview them.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: I love that, by the way.
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it got out and still to this day it's
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: out and you can order it, but I don't know
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: where it's being ordered and delivered from. It's really weird.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: What do you mean, if I were to go on
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: Amazon type it in, I could order it, but you
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: don't know where the money goes.
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: I don't know where the money's going, and I don't
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: know who's sending it to you. Somebody to this day, Yeah, yeah,
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: like you could work because I did it because I
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: saw it. Somebody had hit me up and was like, Oh,
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: isn't this your documentary? It's so good? I love it,
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: blah blah blah blah. And I was like, where did
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: you get it? And they were like, oh, I ordered
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: it off of I think it's Amazon, And I was like, really,
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: So I went in not ordered it, and I got it,
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: and I don't know. It's really weird.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: So you did you try to call Amazon and find out.
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: I had an attorney to try to reach out to
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: the name that was on it. It looks like it's
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: coming from somewhere from China, so it was really weird.
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: It's really weird.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: But so does that mean did you just find this out?
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Not too long ago, like maybe year ago.
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: So are they is there a way to find out
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: or stop it?
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: Oh no, I just wanted to do But wait, what's
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: the name of the documentary One more Time.
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: Can really take care of your business when you're doing stuff.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: You still want to see it.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it just it's called Angels can't help but laugh.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: Angels can't help but laugh. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, damn.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: So it's like I want to say, go out there
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: and go out and still watch it.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: Really good. It's super informative, some great interviews and advice
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: and yeah, it's really good. I want to Smith as
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: in it. It was like a lot of my peers Essens, Adkins,
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: Jasmine Guy.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: And we could probably order on Amazon. I hate to.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: Let's still check it out.
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: It's still also I know, but that's the thing. Of course,
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: we want to make money off of stuff. But you
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: know sometimes and so this is why I want artists
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: to do better to handle your business. But I really
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: just I want to give my gifts to the world,
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: and that documentary is really a gift to young people
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: and it's a gift, and so I still want people
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: to see it even I want to see it. Yes,
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: I still want business.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: I was very inspirational.
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that was our that was my entry into producing.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: That was that and then from there the whole time
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: this is going on, what your mom saying she still
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: support everyone's support. You're fully sustained on acting, you're handling
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: your money right.
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I've always been very frugal. Okay, good,
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: I'm very frugal and I learned a long time ago
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: in this business. You're working this great great getting them checks,
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: give them check, and then you could go years without working. Yeah. Yeah,
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: So I've always been very smart with my money. Yeah.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: I always tell people it's all about managing cash flow. Yeah,
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: like people, will you get check a big check and
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: you're like, whoa, we can go here and buy this,
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: but no, let's make sure that we cover your monthly
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: for at least six months. Take exactly exactly minimum, hopefully exactly.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: Actually that is it.
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: But at that time, so yeah, so I was sustaining
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: myself but still still okay, I need to check. I
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: still got a mortgage. I still got that.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: You had a mortgage too, Yeah, oh girl, yeah. Do
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: you get married having kids in between all them?
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's where I was about. So at that time, yes,
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: I was married and I had a son, but I
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: was breaking up. In the middle of breaking up, it
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: was a very stressful time in my life. Personally but creatively.
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: I think that's why I really poured so much into
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: especially that particular project, because it featured women and I
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: wanted to just get their voice and.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: With the empowerment. Yeah you needed it at that time.
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: I really did. I really did. And yeah, so yes
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: I was married, and yes I had my first son
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: at that time.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: So after that, you go into after producing, you go
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: into directing.
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: So the directing came in years later. So I did
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: finally go through a divorce and I ended up moving
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: meeting my current husband who was based in Atlanta, and
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: when we got married, I ended up moving to Atlanta.
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: That's how I ended up.
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: In Atlanta almost just so you know, I wanted you
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: so bad. I was like, man, we may have to
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: make this trip to Atlanta.
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: Ah. I wish I would have known that. I would
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: have said, oh, that would have been some fun.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you guys could trust me. It was a lot
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: better on my budgets.
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: So I'm sure I got you both.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: I got you here, but I was willing to. We
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: got to see if we can make it happen.
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: But so yeah, so I'm so now. I moved to
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: Atlanta in two thousand and nine when I got there,
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: so I had been working there already. I had done
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: three projects in a row that was based in Atlanta.
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: So I was there and then I would come back
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: to LA there and so when I decided I was
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: moving there, I was like, Okay, I want to help
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: contribute to the film industry there because if I'm going
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: to live there and be considered now a Atlanta actor,
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: I need all the games to be up. So I
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: was on a mission to really pour into the film industry.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: And that's when I started teaching acting classes. I had
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: a lot of young actors, aspiring actors that I worked with,
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: and I fell in love with doing that. I really
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: fell in love with just really teaching them how I
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: learned acting. And it was really study the books, study
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: the craft, watch films, and we would do a scene
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: study class. So in scene study, I'm directing actors in
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: the scenes. And so we got ready to produce a
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: movie that it was independently funded. It was like maybe
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, but the script was funny.
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: It was a hood comedy. It was called a hashtag
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: Digital Lives Matter, Okay, and it was starting DC Young
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: fly Me, Little Hudson, I do too, Ernestine Johnson, b Simone.
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: So it was a lot of new actors, new faces,
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: but they were growing in their social media platforms, right,
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: So we produced this movie for them, and we didn't
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: really have money to pay a director. So I was like,
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: I can do it. I was like, I've been directing
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: young talent for a few years now. It's a comedy.
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: That's my sweet spot. Ann it's hood, that's my background. Yeah, yeah,
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: so I could do this, and that's how I directed
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: my first project.
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: Wow. And in between all this, you're still acting.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, still acting. So when I first moved to Atlanta,
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: I called Tyler Perry Studio.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: I was about to get to that. Yeah, oh yeah.
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: I was like, I just want to let y'all know
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: that I live in Atlanta, so if there's any parts
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: on your show, I'm here and I'm available. And so
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: they did end up calling me and giving me a
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: role on Meet the Browns.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: And that's how I got on Meet the Browns. So yeah,
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: so it was still acting and what else was going
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: on at the time. I also opened up wanting to
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: pour into the community there, the art community. I opened
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: up a coffee shop, slash theatrical bookstore right because when
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: I was teaching the acting classes, there was nowhere for
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: me to send them to get these books that I
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: was telling them about. We're here, we have Samuel French,
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: and as a young actor, I spent so much time
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: in Samuel French. But they didn't have anything like that
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: in Atlanta. So I opened up a store and had
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: a contract with Samuel French store here and so I
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: offered some of the books at my store. And it
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: was a coffee shop, it was a lounge, we had
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: a stage, so I would do my acting class.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: Run that business too, very.
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: Very I loved all the just the community of it.
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: I loved pouring into the people. People loved it. But
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: running the business was really stressful. For It's very stressful
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: and it was like I had to be there every
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: day and I was like, I gotta go make money.
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: So it stayed open for three years and then I
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: eventually had to close it just because it was just training, mentally, financially,
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: all the things. But people still ask me about it
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: all the time and was like it was just before
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: it's time. If you opened it up now, it would
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: blow up so much. And I'm like yeah, I don't
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: have the time or the wherewithal to do that again,
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: so I don't know, but who knows what the future holds.
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: But those were the things that I was doing before
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: I did the directing thing and having babies, had two
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: more and more kids.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: Yes, how can everybody keep up with everything?
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: Ary Jay on all the platforms? I am Terry Jay
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: Vaughn on all the platforms. And I do have to
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: plug my new series right here, okay, straight ahead? Yeah,
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: and it's a beautiful Do we have time just for
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: me to tell this quick little story?
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: I love it?
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: Okay. I've had this TV show idea for at least
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: seven years. It was inspired by a girlfriend of mine,
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: London Breed, who became the mayor of San Francisco. Black Girl.
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: She's the only black female mayor that has ever been
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: in the city of San Francisco, and it was just
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: her journey and all the stuff she had to go
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: through was very interesting to me as a story. She's
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: a girl from the hood, all the things, and here
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: she is the mayor of one of the richest cities
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: in the country. Right. So I had this show idea,
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: and every time I pitched it to people, they were like, no,
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: I don't want to do anything political blah blah blah
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: blah blah blah blah. So I put it aside, got
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: busy directing, acting and other stuff. But the strike happened
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three, the writer strike and a brutal strike.
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: It was brutal, and I was like, so all my
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: jobs went away. Had jobs lined up through the year,
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: and they all went away. And so I was like, Okay,
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: I'm going to focus back on my dream, which is
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: to have my own series. And so I picked the
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: show back up and I called my writing partner who
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: was working on the show for me with me, and
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: her name is Nia Palmer, great writer, and I was like, look,
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: I know we're in the strike, but would you be
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: willing to just write a fifteen minute proof of concept
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: so we can shoot a proof of concept of this
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: show so when the strike is over we can send
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: it out and pitch it. And she was like, hell, yeah,
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: let's do it. So because I was nervous because a
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: lot of writers just wasn't to they were not and
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: I was like, we'll just do it, you know, I'll
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: call on friends, call the favors, and we'll shoot it,
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: so we did. I did that because it was in
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: the political space I wanted to add I wanted to
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: have a consulting producer, just to add some cachet for
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: when I go out to pitch it. So I met
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: with Keisha Lance Bottoms, who was our mayor in Atlanta
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: some years ago, and we've always had a good relationship.
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: So I called her and I was like, I have
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: an idea. I want to share it run by you.
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: And I met with her and when I pitched her
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: the idea, she loved it and she was like, absolutely,
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: I will join you on this journey. So now I
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: got Keisha Lance Bottoms as a producer with me. I
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: got the script, I got my producing team all together
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: in Atlanta. Oh, and I had to find somebody to
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: fund it because it's still so Keisha was like, I
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: know an investor that would invest in this because he
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: supports black women. Oh okay, this is one of the
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: reasons why I love living in Atlanta. I cannot lie.
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: I love it. The support there and that black pride
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: and stuff there is amazing. So he was like, yep,
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: I got it. I'll cover it. So shot this proof
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: of concept in twenty twenty three at the end of
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: the year at the beginning of the next year. Now
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: the strike is over. I got it edited when my
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: guy Victor editor back in Atlanta. He edited. He got
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: it just like I wanted it. I was like perfect
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: because I was like, I needed to look like it
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: can air on TV. I needed to look like that,
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: and it did. So the music was great, everything was great. Okay,
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: it was like, so, let's put it out into the
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: world and see what happens. So my agent sent it out.
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: We got calls left and right of people wanting to
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: meet with us about it. So we started setting up meetings.
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: Every meeting we had, they were pitching us why they
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: want our show. We did not have to pitch anything.
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: And the perfect fit for me was Tyler Perry.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: Of course I was wanting it.
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, he was the perfect person. Yeah, that's what
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: I'm saying. For several reasons, he was the one, and
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: working with him has been amazing, like incredibly collaborative. So yeah,
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: so he got it. He got us right away. He
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: was like the wind beneath our wings. And he had
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: a deal at Netflix already in place.
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: What's the name of it again?
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: So the show is she the People, She the People,
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: She the People. It will It's starring me, created by me,
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: Linda's it are in May, So May launching May on Netflix.
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: Please look out for it.
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: She the People, She the People, and I will be
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: watching it. I'm really excited and very happy. That was
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: the most beautiful story. Thank you, beautiful ending, So She
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: the People. Watch it on Netflix now, and you keep
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: up with Terry J. Vaughn on all social media platforms. Yep,
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: don't forget the Jay, don't forget the JA, don't forget
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: the Jay. Peace out.
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Thanks honey.
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: For more Eating while Broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect.
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.