About Me!
I grew up in Gramercy, a small town of 3,600 people in Southeast Louisiana, surrounded by sugarcane fields and swampland. I've come a long way since then...
After receiving my undergraduate degree in Performing Arts and Psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, I went on to earn my MFA in Acting from the Yale School of Drama. After grad school, I moved to New York, acting in more than 100 episodes of television, multiple films, and stage productions. I've shared the screen with industry greats such as Viola Davis, Dustin Hoffman, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. You can see me playing the therapist, Mel Greene, on Hulu's Tiny Beautiful Things alongside Kathryn Hahn. Or check me out in Billions on Showtime as Tonelle "T" Burton sharing the screen with Paul Giamatti or as reporter Thembi Wallace on Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones on Netflix.
In 2015, I self-produced and starred in a short comedy called Human Resources: Sick Days Aren't a Game. HR premiered at the LA Comedy Fest and went on to be an official selection for SoHo International Film Festival, St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase, HollyShorts Film Festival, St. Louis International Film Festival, and the Atlanta Film Festival where I was named, "A Filmmaker to Watch."
In 2016, I made my directorial debut directing a comedy pilot I co-created and produced, The Vampire Leland - an official selection of the New York Television Festival, St. Louis International Film Festival, SoHo International Film Festival, and SeriesFest. IndieWire singled The Vampire Leland as one of "8 great pilots that deserve a network home" that has "professional gloss, plenty of fun plot threads to explore, and a wry tone that had us hooked." In 2019, I was selected as a finalist for the Shondaland! Women Directing Fellowship. In 2022, I got to shadow director Marita Grabiak on episode 608 of FOX's #1 hit show, 9-1-1 as a recipient of the Ryan Murphy Half Initiative Directing Mentorship. I was recently selected to participate in the sought-after 2023 Women in Film Directing Fellowship for emerging filmmakers. I am also a proud founding member of Some Folks Productions.
Growing up, I was a cheerleader, the president of the library club, a pageant queen, in the math honors society, and the only black girl on the state championship tennis team. I have moved in some crazy, different circles in the many lives I’ve lived. I believe everyone has a story and I want to hear them. I’m a thoughtful creative, problem solver, sometimes silly, and always ready. Empathy is my superpower. I love building worlds on film and am working to be an example of success for the next generation of weird black girls from tiny towns.