hello and welcome to the r and b be up close and personal i'm your host beingness and i'm here to take you through this musical dance we call life now to do that you know i talk to tell a good artist all across our community who can help us make it through today our guest is a fantastic talented artist she sings she dances she's more than a triple threat she's won numerous awards and she's been on so many things credit's too long to mention so i'm just going to stop right here and get up close and personal with shawntel m defend you have come such a long way thank you you're doing so many things i had to talk to you because you know we need to know i got to tell a focus about stuff level so let me know this is not a first with i want to start with your name it's so beautiful has a wonderful ring and i ok so now you said you act in credit now you've done so many things we're going to start with acting first so when did you know that you wanted to act when that not no because there was never anything else that i wanted to do and i remember being five years old and you know looking at t v shows and my writing my own scripts and asking my dad for a camcorder when i was eleven so that can make my own sitcoms really yeah robert townsend was like one of my biggest i looked up to him with his movies and shows that he did so i've always been i always wanted to be an entertainer whether was singing dancing or acting since i was little and i've just always done it moves and i know you majored in theater right ok so after college talk about route how did you and you get to your first whatever actually my first credit while in college i was a junior and i auditioned to be a dancer in big momma's house three ok so yeah so i skipped my college  finals my junior year my teachers were ok with it i made them up and i went down to atlanta and i auditioned had a callback and they picked me to be one of the dancers in the scene so that was my first major film credit ok so now i have to go back to that movie look for you if i wireless so yeah i moved to new york right after i graduated college and then worked a couple of jobs and my first big my biggest credit was assurance wireless and when the marshal and the name aired in major markets new york new jersey connecticut atlanta south carolina all over the place i think i even saw it on the bus on the side of the yes it's print it's mercial and print so you'll see like if they're handing out flyers and pounds on the flyer and then a lot of the print work for them so yeah that was my first like my biggest  so what does that feel like so you're on a bus and you happened to see the you know up in the you know the area up there where they have the ads or sometimes on the side of the bus what does that feel like when you see yourself you know is this a little surreal that it's something that you've been working so hard for and when you finally see that first things like wow like i'm not where i want to be yet but i'm in the right direction like i'm headed there so my one margery those just like a really it's a great like an  series ok all right blue bloods yes yes yes oh my goodness how did that happen so i have representation i have a manager i have an agent and you know i've been auditioning for the show these casting directors for about three or four years and a lot of the times they have to continue to see your face they keep calling you and they keep calling you and if they like your take they shoot it over to the directors and the producers and it's up to them who they pick up a lot of the times it's not about who is talented because everybody that's walking into the room with you know it is all about their vision of that particular episode that particular role in whom this is so just grateful that my are you know one of my last auditions for blue bloods which is the same casting director who cast me  meet them but when you know that you actually know them and you can reach out and you know my goodness it is definitely achievable if anybody it is you know you got to do is work hard and i want to back track of who you said you have a manager you know you're scheduling your paperwork that you have to fill out they're the ones that help get you an agent and so my manager has been great often for me he's helped introduce me to casting directors open up doors and just kind of if i send him an audition tape he'll watch it and say ok you know what let's fix this and tweak this a little bit where as an agent they don't do that they hold out of hell yeah they just submit you for work so i think it's great to have both some people if you don't have enough credits yet you may not need an agent you may just need a manager who can kind of like tweak and hone in on your look in your type and business wise your package that you're presenting and so you get to the point where casting directors are interested in you directors and producers are interested in you in the you do need an agent to help you in those doors so how do you go about important so that he knew i'm doing the work as well as i'm not just looking for somebody to i'm not going to sit back and say you do the work and i'm like these are the people that i know these are the casting directors t v and film casting directors that know my work in that trust me as an actor and i think that that was one of the main reasons why he wanted to work with me because he saw that i took what i did seriously and that i had already i was hustling on my own together we can we're just going to do even greater things than what i've already been doing and i think that's important you said that you take what you do seriously away so you can talk about it but that means you have to come back i have to go back up with that i was so you develop yeah ok go ahead so but i think film i prefer film because i get to actually develop a character i get to do the work you know t v i'm doing a lot of one day shoots on these t v shows and those it's pretty easy for me and you know it's not that difficult or that complicated but when there's a film character you know that that's a lot of work i'm actually taking the time to create this character and i have ample shooting time to work on this person to actually become this person and that's why i love to act so t v right now is great i'm getting the credits but film work is what i'm really focused on doing all right so now in some of the films have you found that they haven't really given you much direction as to the characters profile or who the character is and you have to develop the character yourself yes a lot of the time especially independent films or you know independent web series a lot of the times you have to do more of the work the t v shows i'm doing  costar role so it's like and they play a role and again this is really you bring yourself to this receptionist role or to this cop role or you know to this makeup artist role so that's why i decide you know it's like i have to there has to be a way where i can do more i have to put in more work so that's why you have to create your own work have you ever gotten a character where you just couldn't see yourself doing it no no no you just you just go that's right that's it i'm afraid that's i mean at the end of the day we're all humans so if there's a character where you feel like i can identify with this person yes you can because nobody is a bad person like people who we consider bad people they don't consider themselves a bad person but you have to find the human in that character and just bring that human to life not necessarily that characteristic or a mistake that they made that people that makes them look bad but you have to find the human and this in that person and bring him to life now this is how real she is i want you guys to know i did a david e tablet workshop and he's doing almost christmas also have you seen show that's about to come out that we can talk about so are you a full time actress i am not well i mean i do have a survival  job that helps me a lot it's i work at an escape game company so it's fun it's not like i don't do any type of corporate work or anything like that but it also just keeps me busy while i'm not working whether i'm not auditioning but don't have an audition i can choose to go in and like work at this company is about that so the song call shows actually a comedic web series that i did with another actor named shawn hankinson is this him yes that's on we used to work together at an acting studio called t v actors studio so this came together from us literally just working together and our conflicting personalities together ok stuff so the show came together because you had conflict in personnel so yes all right let's get more yes so we had conflicting personalities  i'm a southern southern belles don's a really you know liberal gay man in new york city so we you know we would clash but in a really funny way people come into our office and we would be bantering back and forth and people would be like you guys  the one day we're like you know what every tyrant because sean he's a little outrageous he said some crazy stuff sometimes you know what the next time you say something crazy we need to write it down let's write it down and after about like three months of just jotting down ideas we were like ok now i'm going to take this and make it into a script ok so wait so if he's an actor also yes he'll be back directly so we took the time to like literally just make a script out of real life conversation that we had the he he's a huge casting director so we knew him from working at the studio he agreed to work with us and yet he directed our we did it in one day and so we have four episodes out and we were actually chosen sag aftra foundation award yeah i won best actress at a film competition that i did for hollywood and vine film festival so i won best actress award there and i'm hoping to win another award with my new film project that i'm r  rapping writing acting so how much writing do you plan on doing while you know it's two thousand and sixteen and you cannot wait for someone to hire you for a job and you there are so many people out here not everybody has a camera everybody's making a web series everybody's making a short film and you literally can you can't afford to sit back and wait for somebody said validate your talent and say you book this job right so as an actor now i feel like it's your job also to be a writer because you have to create your own work so as far as how much writing i want to do as much as i can is much as i can to put myself myself in the projects that i want to be in right i love you to put yourself into the problems you want to be and yeah and that just goes to show everybody that like you said you have to create opportunities for yourself if they're not there yet you know create them so you can say i am here people can see you are here kind of like the show is an independent t v show you know but it just happens to give a platform to everybody else which i think is just wonderful it's awesome you know so i  hope you do tell people about it and come on you know so let's talk about your newest project that you're working on today tell us the name of it so it's called edge of harmony that has met the beautiful quit force think you need is a short b i mean i didn't create my own you know it doesn't have to be long it's literally six minutes so it's not long at all but it's a great story i hire i did hire a broadway singer to sing the the music for me then i am lip sinking in the film succeeded that we can even think about today like right we can think of them are rainy and bessie smith which was one of my inspirations for this film when i saw clean my teeth in messy i regret i want to do there so for yeah i'm super excited about it the trailer will be out soon and going to start submitting it to film festivals and my goal is to showcase the six minute build that i have in february as a fund raiser to maybe think back and raise money to do a feature length film nine so then if you like all those the you have to wrote it and got funding for it and we produced it in saudi in two days and it's a great story that's a good thing you said got funding for it how do you get funding so actually the owner of the company that i work for in the detail of it i spoke to him about my idea he's our shipper knew and he believed in me and he actually helped to produce the film financially so he you know i sat down with him and we had a meeting i told him my goals i told him my vision for the film and he said you know what i really believe in you and i think you're a great asset to my teens i want to help you and i want to help you get this done so i actually put him in the film he has a small yeah and he has a small little part in there where to go he plays the owner of the club that harmony harmony thing that so yeah i i did that and i also did a like a website indie go go campaign works and was able to donate to me that way as well who so now i know you said that you work you know part time just to make sure that you can have funds to continue is there anything else you do to keep yourself together when you're not acting when you don't have any roles when the time gets to because we don't want people to think that you know it's always rosy because this is a hard field yet it's you know so is there anything else you do with the things you would do well to actually i am a member of get residual checks ok so when you know i'm not working or things aren't coming in that those checks randomly just come in the mail from the t v shows and so i'm really blessed that they're happy because they always come on time  so yeah between working and that's the great thing about being a part of the union is that you do get residual check right so those both help me a lot and like i said they always come in you've got to be a good budgeter of money yes there's exam on time but if you don't know how to budget your money then you've got a problem and y is a filmmaker and director producer you directed a film that was on lifetime called see the love that had gladys knight interest in him and in it so i connected with her on social media actually i saw everything that she was doing and she was coming to new york for a film festival and i reached out and i said hey i love to just help you out and volunteer i'm looking for a mentor and she actually we met up one day she sat me down and she said look someone helped me so i'm going to help you so you know whenever she comes to new york she invites me to events i get to go with her network with her we were at the american black film festival together longer there so yes she literally like she keeps it so real with me as she lets me know like the things that she's gone through in the industry and she just giving tips so it's just so great to have somebody in the industry that's looking out for me in your corner and yeah yeah so then you think it's important that you have a mentor you have to you have to have somebody that's done it before so that they can guide you because this business of this kind of crazy yeah so  definitely need somebody in your corner that knows at the time and someone that has the heart to help yes yes ok so how do you think that people should go about finding a mentor i think it should come about genuinely you know you shouldn't just be like i know you you're doing great things will help me it's a little bit like that you never really understood up to say like hey can i take you to coffee i just want to pick your brain about an idea yet you know what can you how can you help this person with princess i'm always volunteer with her helping her whatever way she needs so it's like a give and take years and you know i'm not just like pulling information from her i'm offering my time volunteer my services to her as well and then in return you know she throws me these nuggets and always keeps me under her wing here that so now certain number to do not compare yourself absolutely anyone else because your journey is your journey right and very self to you in your life right right not you can't say oh this person booked this and they didn't do this but i went to school and they didn't you can't do that because you have nothing to do with anybody else's journey you just have to stay focused on your own patent number three number three is to honing in on your craft i think because it's so easy for people to access cameras and everybody feels like i can be an actor but people don't actually want to take the time to study and to learn to realize this is a skill so this is a muscle that you have to continue to build you can't just say oh after the class  is limited literally a skill that you have to hone in on so that will be my message and that will get you further than ok i'm on a reality show so now i'm a star right you still have to if you want to get those promising roles you still have to train in studying work for chantelle it's been so com and yet it's the gram of our fire the best ways to contact me ok so now when you do all these films especially when you do the queen latifa yes you must come back and talk to her of course right on venus you've been listening to the  up close and personal make sure you come on back you can find me on venus true tales face book venus nine a seven on twitter and instagram venus ninety seven underscore make sure you tell someone to come on is to the army be sure remember it's never too late to live your dreams and when you do i'll be there encouraging you thank you so much we'll see you next time right here on the army bistro up close and personal