A life
of my own.

Family came first. Still does.

I grew up in Chicago with my older brother and my mother. My father passed away when I was in fourth grade, and my mother raised us on her own. Growing up, time and money weren’t always there for everything I wanted to explore. After 23 years in Chicago, I moved my mother to North Carolina because the warmer weather was better for her health, and I moved with her to care for her. Being there for her is something I’m blessed to do every day.

A risk worth taking.

In 2021, I opened my painting business, Charlotte Pro Painters. I had been working for a company that was sold, and the experience left me thinking about how the business could be run better, especially for the people hiring us.

I decided to take the risk and build one myself. I wanted to put those improvements into practice: careful work, clearer communication, and customers who felt happy with both the result and the experience. I built it single-handedly, one project at a time.

That business has given me more than a living. It has given me the freedom to pursue my true passion, acting, while continuing to care for my mother. After growing up with those limitations, I don’t take that freedom for granted. I feel blessed to be able to show up for both.

Permission to begin.

Acting was always something I wanted to pursue. I was naturally drawn to entertaining my family, but growing up, I didn’t have the time or money to explore it. When I finally had the room to begin, I started auditioning and training, and I’ve kept showing up ever since.

The reasons I act today change daily. Commercials for Lowe’s and ESPN, along with industrial work, have given me experience in different kinds of productions. But playing roles in Streethart and A Court of Book Boyfriends, and seeing the interesting characters in System Failure, has helped me understand what excites me most about acting: finding a part of myself in a character, leaning into it, and discovering where it can go. There’s something freeing about letting a different side of your personality take the lead while staying truthful to someone else’s story.

That discovery is the most exciting part of the work for me. A character can make you laugh at yourself, confront something you’ve avoided, or recognize a truth you didn’t know how to put into words. I want more of that: characters that speak to my soul and ask something of me. Ultimately, I want to create work I’m proud of, with deep, truthful stories that give someone else a reason to feel something.

I’ve always loved TV and film. Gattaca is my absolute, unquestioned number one. The Matrix, Good Will Hunting, Breaking Bad, and Suits are favorites, too. That love has always stayed with me.

By then, I had lost 50 pounds and come through a period of depression. I was beginning to see my life differently and recognize that I could make choices for myself. Acting was part of that change: a chance to pursue something because my soul was screaming for me to.

Part of why Gattaca means so much to me is Vincent. I know what it feels like to look at a dream and wonder how someone with your beginnings is supposed to reach it. For me, getting closer meant building my own ladder: starting a business, creating room to pursue acting, and showing up for the work even when the next step wasn’t clear. The life I wanted wasn’t waiting within reach. I had to build a way to it.

I’m still learning, still showing up, and still doing the work. I want to be part of stories that feel like megaphones for our souls: to act in them, help bring them together, and keep building a life that feels like my own.

To borrow from Gattaca: when you hire me, I won’t save anything for the swim back.