(New Video Post) Makeup Horror – How To Survive Being A #BlackActress

Every actress of color has been in the makeup chair before and came out looking a hot mess! I can’t tell you how many times I came out of the chair much darker and much lighter than my actual complexion or heard a makeup artist say, “hmmm you’re skin tone is sort of tricky to match”. The biggest lesson I’ve ever learned on set is to bring my own makeup and fix whatever problems when I’m by myself. I love when I meet a confident makeup artist who doesn’t let brown skin intimidate them and is prepared and has worked with multiple complexions, because it’s really not that bad! Check out this video below on how to deal calmly with a makeup artist who doesn’t have a clue what they’re doing!

Black Actress Premiers on Nov 5th 2013 on youtube.com/issarae

(New Video Post) Light Skin Vs Dark Skin – How to Survive Being A #BlackActress

This is a sketch for all of my aspiring actresses out there. Only in the black community do we make a big deal over complexion but the truth is Hollywood can’t tell the difference and they don’t care! So the first tip is don’t worry about your complexion, just do a good audition and hope that the part doesn’t go to someone who isn’t black! Good luck!

 Black Actress Coming to youtube.com/issarae Nov 5 2013

(New Video Post) “Black Actress” Behind the scenes – web series coming in September

This has been the best month of my life! I’m so excited, confident and in control of everything that I’m doing and I cannot wait to share it with you guys!

I told you guys before that over this last month I’d be doing a bunch of traveling for my web series and I’m glad to say that both my trips to LA and New York were incredibly successful and productive and I got everything done on my to-do list! There’s nothing better than having an idea and courage and vision to see it through and I’m so glad that I’m finally in the stage of my life where I am not afraid to go big or go home when it comes to my ideas, dreams and plans! I’m getting shit done son!

“Black Actress” is completely on schedule, we had an amazing shoot because of the hard work of both the cast and crew and to top it off everyone had a smile on their face! Out of all the sets I’ve been on, this was my favorite for very obvious reasons but mainly because I really saw where my life is going and that this is the position that I’ve always wanted to be in and feel most comfortable in. It’s a good day in “Lewyville” check out the video below to see some of the people I had the pleasure of working with for “Black Actress” Can’t wait to share it with the world!  You can follow “Black Actress” on both twitter and instagram for more behind the scenes and updates!

 

Thank you….What I learned from @indiegogo

I apologize for not writing this post sooner but after the last 40 days of social media over load I needed a bit of break from looking at my computer lol.

So back to our regularly scheduled program. Wow! We did it! 40 days, teasers and interviews, countless tweets, too many instagram screen shots and Facebook status updates and we hit our goal! I can’t describe how amazing it felt when I finally saw that number on the indie gogo page. I was overwhelmed, I thought I was reading it wrong lol. It was one of those moments when I said, “you like me, you really like!” lol.

From day one of releasing information about, “Black Actress” I received endless emails full of support from people who told me they were rooting for me, they wanted to help me and they were inspired by me. Those emails made me feel amazing and was the one constant source of inspiration I had throughout the entire indie gogo campaign. This campaign was tough, I have friends who have done crowd funding in the past and they all warned me that it’s a lot of work and very stressful and they didn’t lie. I’m not sure I slept for the entire 40 day of the campaign and to top it off I was doing a million other things during the campaign, I was filming another project that was full of night shoots so my sleeping schedule was all kinds of jacked up, I was dealing with health issues, a little bit of family drama and I was doing the pre-production for the show. It was a lot on my mind but at no point did I question the work load. The whole time, it just felt right, like it was the beginning of how busy I am going to be and how busy I want to be.

The most important thing I learned while doing the indie gogo campaign is who my audience is. I always thought I had a good idea but for the first time I felt like I actually saw and heard them, and really felt the support and presence of YOU guys. It was a real blessing to see the people who may have never tweeted me or commented on anything now coming out of the wood work to give what they could and asking people to donate and help make this series happen.

I realized during the campaign that our dreams are bigger than us and we should always strive to make them as big as we possibly can. Without you realizing it your dreams can connect, inspire and change life for so many other people. I had a long conversation with a woman that I idolize in the entertainment industry and I explained to her how for the first time in my life my dream felt so heavy that it was now pulling me instead of me  having to dragging it all these years. The simple shift in weight was subtle but so important to what I was doing, I was going in the right direction.

I think crowd funding is like your life on steroids. Whether you’ve been chasing your dream for 10 years or 1 year, you know what it’s like to need support and finances and man power and so many other things to just make a little stride to being closer to your goals. Crowd funding is everything you’ve already been doing and preparing but to the next level, you’ve always been had to be shameless and asking people to give you a chance and some help but now you have to do it with a time constraint. It’s stressful as hell and the epitome of being your most vulnerable as an artist and entrepreneur. But at the end of the day it’s worth it! It made me stronger, made me proud and made me realize that I’m not a flake, I’m not just talking out of my ass, I’m dead serious! I want this, I’ve wanted it my whole life and it doesn’t matter how long it takes me I’m going to have it. It’s important to confirm and remind yourself of who you are and what your goals are. Indie gogo helped me re-confirm my promise with myself and added one more dot to my journey. Thank you to every single person who wrote, tweeted, instagrammed, facebook’d, emailed, donated and supported “Black Actress” and my indie gogo campaign! Some serious big tings a gwan!! xo

(video) Teaser “Black Actress” Web Series – Less than 1 week left to donate

Here is a snippet teaser for “Black Actress” that I filmed a few months ago, big shout out to my girlfriends, Maya Washington, Antoinette Henry, Brooke Slade and Sharlyn Pierre for being apart of the teaser! Check it out below and let me know what you think 🙂

There is less than 1 week left to donate to this project that I believe in so much. All I’m asking is that you give $2 to the campaign, it may sound like a little but a little can go a long way! This has been a very interesting ride doing the indie gogo campaign and I’ve learned a lot about myself and my audience. I’m so grateful for all of the people who have donated to the campaign so far and lets keep going till we get $20,000!!

(Video) Topic of the week featuring @blacknoisemedia @jabari @ashleyblaine @bestnewactress @briancwalker1

We’re in the home stretch so I’m pulling out all of the stops! This is the LAST week that you can donate to the “Black Actress” indie gogo campaign. The most important weeks are the first and the last when you’re doing crowd funding and we started with an amazing energy and momentum and I know we’re gonna finish with a bang too! Give what you can no amount is too small! http://igg.me/at/blackactress

The next video up, is a mega “topic of the week” featuring a bunch of my friends and peers in my industry that I respect and look up to.The video features Brian Walker (Executive Producer of Black Actress), Jabari Johnson (Filmmaker and Host) Ashley Blaine Featherson, (actress and creator of the new web series “Hello Cupid”). Iman Milner (Actress and CEO of Edge Magazine) and Michael “Boogie” Pickney (Director of Black Actress). In this video we discuss 3 questions: What has happened to TV/Film over the last 10 yrs for the decline in projects featuring people of color? Why have so many filmmakers had to turn to the internet to get their stories heard? and Does TV/Film today have an accurate depiction of women of color?

These are all questions that I talk about on a regular basis with my friends in the industry and ones that aren’t so I figured why not make a video about it and really get into it. Leave your thoughts in the comments and don’t forget to DONATE!!!

Inequality for women, deportees & home again – A conversation with producer Jennifer Holness

I love Jennifer Holness and Sudz Sutherland! A film making married couple who are making some serious strides for people of color in Canada and shedding light on heart wrenching truths from the Caribbean. They have a new film in theaters called, “Home Again” about 3 deportees born in Jamaica but raised in Toronto, New York and London who have now been sent back because of criminal charges to survive in a land that they no nothing about. The film is very gritty and has a fantastic story. I was proud to be a Canadian – West Indian and watch this great film on the big screen and especially proud of both Sudz and Jennifer who put everything into getting this film made. I had the pleasure of speaking to them both about the film, life and the struggles of being a black person in film in Canada. Check out the interviews below.

 

(video) Hustling and Confidence discussed by @ATWcurls & @missandrealewis

There’s only 25 days left in this campaign which means time is officially going to fly by! DONATE NOW!! This whole thing is because I want to change the game, do something great and finally put OUR faces in the spotlight, stop all the stereotypes and the lack of color on the screen and bring in the change that we all want to see in 2013!! Please, Please Donate to this project, I can promise it’ll be worth it.

Latest video is with my homie Antoinette Henry from “Around The Way Curls” she’s a blogger, a hustler, an actress and a singer and truly an inspiring person. We’ve had many discussions about not having confidence, living to your potential and following your passions as an entertainer. This industry ain’t easy but when it’s in you, it’s just in you and the best thing you can do for yourself is give it your all! I appreciate everything she says in this video and I can’t wait to see her win that Tony! Share your thoughts in the comments.

 

Black Actress Indie gogo…if you don’t ask you’ll never receive

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I have some very exciting news! I’m taking my biggest leap of faith to date by writing, producing and starring in my first web series. The series is called “Black Actress” and it is a scripted mockumentary about a character named “Kori Bailey”. Kori is a struggling actress pursuing an unconventional career in an upside down world. The show is going to incorporate interviews and stories from some very well known black actresses such as Tatyana Ali (Fresh Prince of Bel Air), Tracee Ellis Ross (Girlfriends), Keke Palmer (Nickelodeon) and many more.

I’m producing, “Black Actress” with Issa Rae a very successful, producer, writer, actress who created the most popular African American web-series to date, “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl”. Issa is also producing a TV show with Shonda Rhimes who is the creator of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal” on ABC.

I’m very excited about this project because it is a story that I’ve wanted to share for years. The show is not just about black actresses but it is a show for anyone who has pursued and believed in a dream when it didn’t make sense to everyone else around you. I’m so happy to finally be bringing this project to life with Issa and as the first show from my own production company, “Jungle Wild Productions”

This project would not be complete if I didn’t allow you all to be apart of it! I’ve created an Indiegogo campaign for “Black Actress”. For those of you who don’t know, Indiegogo is a crowd-funding website that allows people to donate money towards creative projects that they want to see brought to life. I am officially launching on Wednesday March 6th but I wanted to share this with all of you earlier because as I said before you’ve supported me thus far and I need your support more than ever now. Check out the link below and donate what you can, and spread the word about “Black Actress”!

Black Actress Indiegogo Campaign:

http://igg.me/at/blackactress

 

Thank you so much for your continued support!