(New Post) Happy Thanksgiving (Again) – What’re you thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving (again)

I’m a Canadian and we celebrate Thanksgiving in October but since I’ve lived in and out of America for many years I often celebrate this holiday twice and it’s truly become on of my favorite holidays! I’m in Toronto right now and I’m going to make a thanksgiving dinner just for the hell of it aka because I don’t pass up the opportunity to eat good food! It’s great to have holidays to remind us to be thankful but we should do our best to be thankful everyday but on this day I’ve written of all the things that I feel extremely grateful for and one of my goals is to show my gratitude as much as I can. Check out my list below, what are you thankful for?

1. My mom

2. My brother

3. My health

4. My sane mind

5. My imagination

6. My childhood

7. My wisdom

8. My friends

9. My foodie ambitions

10. My body

11. My hair

12. My confidence

13. My talents

14. My appreciation for music

15. My creative team that forever supports and helps me

16. Jabari Johnson

17. My sense of humor

18. My petite stature

19. My mother’s home

20. Melisa Antony

21. Michaella Blisset-Williams

22. My laptop

23. My west indian heritage

24. All of my travels around the world

25. My heart

26. My journey

27. My ability to turn negatives into positives

28. My growth

29. My youth

30. My supporters throughout my entire career.

 

(New Video Post) THR Actress Roundtable #Inspiration

Every year I enjoy watching The Hollywood Reporter Roundtables but this one just hit me in away that I had to share! The energy and positivity amongst these women is beautiful. Even more beautiful to me is the ratio of diversity at the table, there are THREE black women sitting there!! THREE!!

And don’t even get me started on the beauty on of Lupita Nyong’o! Don’t. Even. Get. Me. Started! Yeesh! I truly hope “white america” embrace her look even more and we see a true change in what “beauty” is supposed to look like! But that’s for another post.

What I loved so much about this round table talk was there was no separation amongst the women, they were all just actresses, strong women who had the privilege of making beautiful movies and portraying interesting whole characters. That’s the true hollywood dream to me, seeing a sense of equality and as Emma Thompson said in this talk, covering the stories of everyone! Anyway watch the video and get a little bit of positive inspiration.

NEW EPISODE OF BLACK ACTRESS TONIGHT 4pm pst/7pm est

(New Video Post) #BlackActress – Meet The Cast & Acting Pet Peeves

Tomorrow is a new episode of “Black Actress” @ 4pm pst/7pm est. In the mean time meet some of the actors behind the characters in the show.

I’d like to introduce you guys to Allison Edwards-Crewe aka “Izzy”, Rob Vincent aka “Romeo” and Suzannah Gugsa aka “Alicia”. I’m very proud to say that the entire cast of “Black Actress” consists of talented hard working actors that I believe in and HAD to find a way  to put them in the show and I love all of the performances through out the series.

In this video we discuss a few of our pet peeves of pursuing an acting career, the one common factor amongst all actors and some of our on set shenanigans, Enjoy!

(New Video Post) #BlackActress Episode 3 featuring @ReaganGomez

I can’t believe how the weeks are flying by and we’re already at Episode 3!  Tonight’s special guest is the beautiful Reagan Gomez, from Zaria on ParentHood and one of the voices on The Clevelands and she has her own web series called “Home Again” getting ready to go into it’s 2nd season that you can watch at http://www.youtube.com/reagangomez . For now check out tonight’s episode and let me know what you think!

Episode Description:

After a few failed audition attempts, Kori decides to join a new acting class with the renowned writer/director Tommy Hannigan and the class doesn’t turn out exactly as she’d hoped. Special Guest Reagan Gomez.

(New Post) What we’ve learned from “Kori Bailey” so far #BlackActress 4pm pst/7pm est

Episode 3 Comes out tonight at 4pm pst/7pm set and I wanted to do a quick re-cap on what we’ve learned from “Kori Bailey”.

1. Auditions are difficult no matter how prepared you think you are.

2. It’s ok to be insecure just don’t stop pursuing your dreams

3. You are your own worst enemy.

In the first two episodes of Black Actress we watched Kori struggle through her auditions and also struggle to regain her confidence in herself as an actress. Luckily her best friend Izzy has served as both her support system and distraction to remind  her that life continues outside of “acting”. In tonight’s episode Kori takes initiative to do something about her acting career and starts a new acting class with the renowned Tommy Hannigan. The class however doesn’t end up being what she hoped for and anyone that takes acting classes knows you shouldn’t always believe the hype!

I think all entertainers have once been in the same place as “Kori Bailey”. Unsure where your life is headed and even more unsure of what you’re doing. It’s a scary place to be in and depending on your choices you’re either going to sink or swim.

Check out the first two episodes below and stay tuned tonight 4pm pst/7pm est http://www.youtube.com/issarae

(New Video Post) “Leave It To Your Faith” – Wednesday Memo

I wrote a post about this a few days ago but I felt the need to expand a bit and talk about it some more in a video. I truly believe that when something you want isn’t working for you, you have to step back and leave it to your faith that it will work out when and how it’s supposed to. Let me know if you’ve ever had something that you loved that you had to step back from? Also my next video will be a Q&A video so please leave all of your questions in the comments section!

(New Video Post) Episode 2 of #BlackActress fting @naturinaughton

Episode Description: Kori is very hopeful for a double audition day but she continues to struggle with her auditions. While her best friend, Izzy has a new potential love interest. Guest appearance from Naturi Naughton. Created by and starring Andrea Lewis. Enjoy!

(New post) Top 3 Music Obsessions for the week

I’m currently listening to these 3 songs on a regular rotation! Does that happen to you? You can’t stop listening to the same song(s) and you enjoy the fact that it’s stuck in your head for the whole night. Well call me crazy but I love it! These are my top 3 music obsession’s for the week. What are yours?

Daniel Beddingfield – Sometimes You just know (the lyrics are my life!)

Lady Gaga – Do What You Want with my body (this track is pure fiyah!)

Drake – Worst Behavior (My friend Aubrey, so I’m showing love)

(New Post) “God isn’t leaving me out he’s just getting me ready” #selflovesaturday

Every now and then, you give something your all, put up the big fight and go after what you want with reckless abandon but it doesn’t work out….What do you do? Quit? Become bitter? Wear the rejection on your shoulders like an ugly coat? No. You live, your learn, you take a look at where you could’ve done better and keep going looking for the chance to give it your all once again.

I’ve learned a big lesson this past year, I went after something I wanted like nothing else mattered in the world. I had ups and downs, good days and bad days and every now and then I had great days. I gained and lost inspiration while on this journey but at the end of it all, it was like pulling teeth to truly make it work. I have this philosophy that if something I’m doing is like “pulling teeth” to get it to work meaning it’s getting “very difficult, a lot of pulling and tugging and it’s starting to hurt” then I have to step back and analyze why it isn’t working. In my analysis sometimes I have to come to a hard realization that no matter how hard I try it’s not going to work and I have to walk away.

But in the past I used to hold on to these “disappointments” and “rejections” like an unhealthy badge of honor that I thought was making me better but instead it was just making me bitter. It’s hard sometimes to let go of things that you really wanted but didn’t get and to stop blaming yourself and just realize that it wasn’t meant for you to have. I had to grow and have faith and tell myself that “God isn’t leaving me out he’s just getting me ready”. I really believe this and it’s helped me a lot to accept and move on from things that didn’t work out for me. I hope you’re all having a great weekend and if you happen to be going through some things I hope this post helped you. Xo

#Saturdaynightconfessions #SelfloveSaturday 

 

(New Video Post) Black Actress Ep 1 ft @TatyanaAli

Episode Description:

Kori Bailey jumps back into auditioning after taking a much needed, brief hiatus. But she begins second guessing herself and the business as she finds auditions aren’t coming as easy as they used to. Guest star appearance from Tatyana Ali.

 

Enjoy! 🙂