Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Dawnn Lewis: "A Different World" star discusses career in animation, music, and philanthropy.

Transcript

Dawnn Lewis: "A Different World" star discusses career in animation, music, and philanthropy. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show.
0:06
Speaker 2: I'm Rashaan McDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
0:10
Speaker 2: where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
0:13
Speaker 2: stories and.
0:14
Speaker 1: Start planning their own.
0:16
Speaker 2: Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,
0:19
Speaker 2: talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running
0:22
Speaker 2: their companies, and speak with dog profits who are making
0:25
Speaker 2: a difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and
0:28
Speaker 2: listen as we unlock the secrets to their success on
0:31
Speaker 2: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Hi, I'm Rashaan McDonald. I host
0:36
Speaker 2: this Money Making Conversation Master Class show. The interviews and
0:39
Speaker 2: information that this show provides off for everyone. It's time
0:42
Speaker 2: to stop reading other people's success stories and start living
0:45
Speaker 2: your own. For decades, my guest has used her a
0:48
Speaker 2: celebrity platform for mentoring, lecturing, giving concerts, and donating her
0:52
Speaker 2: time and talents to causes across America and abroad on
0:56
Speaker 2: behalf of organizations such as UNISEF, UNCF Congressional Like Harkers
1:00
Speaker 2: Against HIV AIDS and American Heart Association.
1:04
Speaker 1: She is amazing, she really is.
1:06
Speaker 2: In addition to her acting, she lends her voice work
1:09
Speaker 2: on such shows as Star Trek Lord Dex, and she
1:11
Speaker 2: currently lends her voice to reoccurring characters on the Simpsons
1:16
Speaker 2: and Futurama. Please welcome the Money Making Conversations Masterclass, the
1:20
Speaker 2: iconic and very very funny Don.
1:23
Speaker 1: Lewis how you doing?
1:23
Speaker 3: Don?
1:25
Speaker 1: What should I say? Tina Turner Mama's last.
1:32
Speaker 2: Time we talk, you know, Broadway, Tina Turner Mama doing
1:35
Speaker 2: your thing and you say you're having a great time,
1:36
Speaker 2: but you know your your your whole career.
1:38
Speaker 1: Thank you for coming on the show.
1:39
Speaker 4: First of all, my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
1:41
Speaker 2: Now you know you do I go back with you.
1:45
Speaker 2: We're not talking about television. We first kind of met.
1:47
Speaker 2: I was manager Steve Harvey. You came into the radio
1:49
Speaker 2: studio and he was doing music. You was singing. So
1:52
Speaker 2: you had all these different lay layers in your life,
1:55
Speaker 2: you know, actress, singer, voice over work, acting, philanthropists. Let's
2:02
Speaker 2: start talking about dicing up these different levels. Okay, what
2:06
Speaker 2: came first, acting or singing?
2:09
Speaker 3: Between the two of those, singing came first, but between
2:13
Speaker 3: singing and acting was dancing. I started singing it for
2:17
Speaker 3: dancing at seven, acting at eleven, and I've been doing
2:20
Speaker 3: all three professionally since I was about ten years old.
2:24
Speaker 2: So okay, so we got so you gave me the
2:26
Speaker 2: trivector right there, you go, CA, I didn't even say dancing.
2:29
Speaker 2: They're dancing, acting, singing, okay, So what jumped ot first?
2:33
Speaker 1: You know, I say, you know, there's always a talent
2:35
Speaker 1: that leads the way.
2:36
Speaker 2: And then everybody started recognizing these other skill sets.
2:39
Speaker 4: It would be singing, okay.
2:41
Speaker 3: So I really thought I was going to be a
2:42
Speaker 3: recording artist. I was lead singer in a band by
2:44
Speaker 3: the time I was fourteen. I was a songwriter, so
2:48
Speaker 3: my music was getting recorded by other artists.
2:50
Speaker 4: I was a session singer, singing background.
2:53
Speaker 3: Vocals for different artists people everyone from Patrice Russian to
2:58
Speaker 3: Vanessams not not at fourteen, and that was after I
3:02
Speaker 3: graduated from college.
3:03
Speaker 4: But before then, I was recording.
3:05
Speaker 3: I had my own single out, I was charting on Billboards.
3:09
Speaker 4: I was doing shows off and on Broadway.
3:11
Speaker 3: I had done a couple of TV pilots, but none
3:14
Speaker 3: of them had gotten picked up. One of them had
3:17
Speaker 3: a release as a special holiday special. It was called
3:20
Speaker 3: Crummy Movie Show.
3:21
Speaker 1: While I was in college.
3:23
Speaker 3: And the movie was so bad you would turn channels
3:25
Speaker 3: to see the commercials and we were the quote unquote
3:27
Speaker 3: commercials sketches. So when I graduated college, I went back
3:31
Speaker 3: to doing theater off and on Broadway.
3:33
Speaker 4: Then the last Broadway tour I did.
3:36
Speaker 3: And I want to give a shout out because today
3:38
Speaker 3: was the star's birthday who recently passed, Hinton Battle, three
3:41
Speaker 3: time Tony Award winner, Amazing performer, and that was the
3:45
Speaker 3: Tap Dance Kid with Harold Nicholas of the Nicholas Brothers.
3:48
Speaker 3: There you go, hint In Battle, Ben Harney, the original
3:51
Speaker 3: Curtis from Dreamgirls, Monica Page and Hint and Doulat Hill,
3:55
Speaker 3: who was our ten year.
3:56
Speaker 4: Old boy at the time.
3:58
Speaker 3: It was now into an amazing This is so at
4:01
Speaker 3: the time I was doing that. And then Hinton invited
4:03
Speaker 3: me to sing with him on his first solo album
4:05
Speaker 3: that was produced by Quincy Jones.
4:07
Speaker 4: Okay, so I'm doing that. We finished that.
4:09
Speaker 1: All these great names just dancing around.
4:12
Speaker 3: That has been my journey, blessing. I am so blessed
4:15
Speaker 3: to have been in the company of these amazingly talented
4:18
Speaker 3: people that always encouraged me to do better and be better.
4:21
Speaker 4: And I was always the youngster in the group because
4:23
Speaker 4: I was sixteen when I started college. So all of
4:26
Speaker 4: this is happening before, I mean six, when I started college.
4:29
Speaker 4: I left New York.
4:30
Speaker 3: I went to the High School of Music and Art
4:32
Speaker 3: of Fame Fame, graduated and they danced and sing.
4:35
Speaker 4: And doing all of it.
4:36
Speaker 3: And went down to the U and actually started my
4:39
Speaker 3: own degree program. I was singing opera, playing cello, acting
4:43
Speaker 3: and dancing. Okay, so the musical theater degree program that
4:46
Speaker 3: now flourishes at the U. I'm the founder and first graduate.
4:50
Speaker 2: You know, when I hear a person like you, I
4:52
Speaker 2: remember a couple of times in Hollywood somebody slowed out.
4:56
Speaker 1: You're doing too much, you know.
4:57
Speaker 2: I remember my first agent, he said, you know, we
5:00
Speaker 2: got to keep you on the train tracks because you
5:02
Speaker 2: keep getting off the train tracks. You keep going to
5:04
Speaker 2: do this and that. Did you feel that people were
5:08
Speaker 2: boxing you in or people told you you were doing
5:11
Speaker 2: too many things because you were talented at so many
5:14
Speaker 2: different things.
5:14
Speaker 3: You know, when I was coming up, I was always
5:17
Speaker 3: taught you had to be a triple threat in order
5:20
Speaker 3: to work in the industry and to survive in the industry,
5:22
Speaker 3: multiple incoming, multiple strings, whether and even if it was
5:26
Speaker 3: just one doing musical theater.
5:28
Speaker 4: When you look back at old movies.
5:30
Speaker 3: Almost every major actor you can name sang, dance and act,
5:33
Speaker 3: everyone from Judy Garland to Frank Sinatra to Bing Crosby,
5:37
Speaker 3: Bob Hole. Everybody was doing everything. So that was what
5:41
Speaker 3: I was always taught. The journey was supposed to be,
5:43
Speaker 3: but I actually didn't start getting pigeonholed until I did
5:47
Speaker 3: a different world. So I moved from live performing into
5:51
Speaker 3: doing now this what would.
5:52
Speaker 1: Become that became most art.
5:54
Speaker 3: I was just gonna say, but you talk about when
5:56
Speaker 3: do people start telling you you're doing too much or
5:58
Speaker 3: your skill set is too and try to put you
6:01
Speaker 3: in a box. That was when it started, because I
6:03
Speaker 3: went from being able and open to be this multifaceted
6:09
Speaker 3: person to now I'm doing a TV series, which ended
6:12
Speaker 3: up being one of the most successful television.
6:15
Speaker 4: Series then and now.
6:17
Speaker 3: But now you're, oh, well, now you're just an actress,
6:20
Speaker 3: or you're a comedic actress, or you're a sitcom actress.
6:24
Speaker 3: And then I went from being the youngest to play
6:26
Speaker 3: in the Oldest Person when I was actually younger than
6:29
Speaker 3: a lot of people around me. I was just taller
6:31
Speaker 3: than everybody playing the older person.
6:33
Speaker 4: Huh about five seven, but I look long. I look
6:36
Speaker 4: taller because.
6:37
Speaker 3: I have long legs, and well, you know everybody, so
6:41
Speaker 3: you know. But that's when people started saying and when
6:45
Speaker 3: I when I got cast to do a different world.
6:49
Speaker 3: The musical director from The Cosby Show also knew me
6:51
Speaker 3: as as the singer, songwriter musician that I that I
6:54
Speaker 3: that I am, and he invited me to write the
6:56
Speaker 3: theme song for the show. So that's how I ended
6:59
Speaker 3: up writing the theme song and being cast in the
7:02
Speaker 3: show because I wasn't in a box yet, so I
7:05
Speaker 3: was able to bring both those gifts and blessings to
7:08
Speaker 3: one show and they had no idea they had hired
7:10
Speaker 3: the same person.
7:11
Speaker 2: Here's the funny part about it that I shouldn't say funny,
7:13
Speaker 2: you know, because you know, I met you when I
7:17
Speaker 2: knew you as an actress, and I remember when you
7:19
Speaker 2: came into the studio. We're talking about the studio chief Howard,
7:22
Speaker 2: and I was doing the radio show in LA and
7:24
Speaker 2: you was promoting your music and I just looked at
7:26
Speaker 2: you as an actress.
7:27
Speaker 1: I go, oh, she's trying to sing that.
7:29
Speaker 4: She's trying to sing that. That's one folk and that's
7:31
Speaker 4: what people do.
7:33
Speaker 1: You know.
7:33
Speaker 4: I am grateful for the blessing of how people came
7:36
Speaker 4: to know me. But it was just just.
7:38
Speaker 3: One small sorry, but it's okay. You wouldn't be the first.
7:43
Speaker 3: So there were some people who only know me as
7:45
Speaker 3: a singer and a musician who are wondering, how come
7:47
Speaker 3: you don't sing more? You know, But that's how the
7:50
Speaker 3: journey has gone. So now I still do concerts, I
7:54
Speaker 3: still compose. I got the honor. I received the honor
7:57
Speaker 3: of being inducted into the Women's Songwriter Hall of Fame
8:01
Speaker 3: alongside people like Valerie Simpson, Bunny Hull, Mary Carpenter Chapin.
8:06
Speaker 4: I mean, it was just an honor.
8:09
Speaker 3: You know.
8:10
Speaker 2: You know, it's really interesting because you know you have that.
8:14
Speaker 2: You know, there's so many blessings that come your way,
8:17
Speaker 2: and sometimes in the world a lot of your success
8:20
Speaker 2: you're not seen as a writer, as a voice person
8:24
Speaker 2: in animation, and then people can go what you been
8:28
Speaker 2: doing lately?
8:32
Speaker 4: I haven't stopped so gratefully, you know what.
8:36
Speaker 3: It may not have been in front of the camera,
8:39
Speaker 3: but it's in so many facets around that allow me
8:42
Speaker 3: to keep being creative. To your point, animation, that's been
8:45
Speaker 3: a beautiful blessing.
8:46
Speaker 4: I've been doing it for more than thirty years animation.
8:49
Speaker 2: Okay, now I can't do voices. Yeah, I'm barely doing
8:53
Speaker 2: this show. Okay, how you know?
8:57
Speaker 1: You know, can you imitate people or how do you
9:00
Speaker 1: get into that force? Then? How did you start? How
9:02
Speaker 1: did you I.
9:02
Speaker 3: Don't necessarily imitate people, although I have been hired to
9:06
Speaker 3: do what's called looping additional voices for a particular actor
9:11
Speaker 3: that I can sound similar to that can't come back
9:14
Speaker 3: in to.
9:15
Speaker 4: Do their own pickups.
9:16
Speaker 3: So they bring me in to do like little additional
9:19
Speaker 3: lines to cover certain actors that I can sound like.
9:26
Speaker 1: Money Lewis.
9:28
Speaker 4: It's all possible and I can't share me check amen.
9:32
Speaker 3: But no. It started when Susanda pass of Motown fame
9:36
Speaker 3: and discovering the Jackson's and all of that. She was
9:39
Speaker 3: interested in managing me years ago, and that was before
9:42
Speaker 3: she got big into producing.
9:44
Speaker 1: So she got asked me because she was in my
9:45
Speaker 1: life on sister's sister. That's why she came into my life.
9:49
Speaker 3: She's a brilliant, brilliant and resourceful woman.
9:53
Speaker 4: So she asked me.
9:54
Speaker 3: She got the opportunity to executive produce this new animated
9:58
Speaker 3: series around.
9:59
Speaker 4: Kid and Play.
10:00
Speaker 3: Okay, so she asked me if big Kid and play
10:02
Speaker 3: the the Kidden play Chris and Chris so and asked
10:05
Speaker 3: if I would come and do a voice So I
10:07
Speaker 3: came and said, all right, well, I've done jingles, I've
10:09
Speaker 3: done all kinds of success session work, so this will
10:12
Speaker 3: be my first time doing a TV series.
10:15
Speaker 4: So I just came and imitated my niece who was
10:18
Speaker 4: a child and talk like this all the time.
10:19
Speaker 3: I was like, a kid, come on, let's go in
10:21
Speaker 3: and do this routine and it's gonna be fun.
10:23
Speaker 4: All right, come on five, six, seven eight.
10:26
Speaker 3: And that was my first gig and there aren't very
10:29
Speaker 3: many people of color in the animation world, particularly at
10:32
Speaker 3: that time, so the.
10:33
Speaker 4: Director was like, who are you? How come I never
10:35
Speaker 4: met you before?
10:37
Speaker 3: And then my name just started getting passed around from
10:40
Speaker 3: gig to gig, director to director, shows like you know,
10:43
Speaker 3: Spider Man, Hulk, she Hulk, all of It, Batman and Robin.
10:50
Speaker 4: I've been doing voiceovers ever since.
10:52
Speaker 2: So, okay, this is so funny because that's just one voice,
10:55
Speaker 2: so you just can't come in there and do the
10:57
Speaker 2: same voice for everything. So how does the castine sessions
11:02
Speaker 2: work when you're doing are your or your audition I'm
11:06
Speaker 2: sure your audition for this every now and then, yeh okay, excuse.
11:09
Speaker 1: Me, excuse your sister.
11:12
Speaker 2: Money, I said money, Okay, done, money Lewis Okay, Now.
11:17
Speaker 1: Will you do audition?
11:19
Speaker 2: Well, how does that prep work when you're just dealing
11:21
Speaker 2: with a voice?
11:22
Speaker 3: With it, when it's just a voice, You get an outline,
11:25
Speaker 3: You get what they call a breakdown of what the
11:28
Speaker 3: character is supposed to be. Is it a seventy year
11:30
Speaker 3: old Is it a seventy year old one woman? Is
11:32
Speaker 3: it a seven year old boy? Are you East African?
11:36
Speaker 3: Are you British?
11:37
Speaker 1: Okay?
11:37
Speaker 3: Are you a Caribbean? Are you a monster? Are you
11:41
Speaker 3: an alien? Are you a witch or a warlock?
11:44
Speaker 4: No?
11:44
Speaker 3: Seriously, So they give you the written outline, and every
11:47
Speaker 3: now and then they have a visual idea of what
11:49
Speaker 3: the character is going to look like, so you may
11:51
Speaker 3: see an illustration. So when you combine all of that,
11:54
Speaker 3: you sit in your spirit and come up with something
11:58
Speaker 3: that you think would sound come out of this person's mouth.
12:01
Speaker 3: And then you collaborate with the director and you say, well,
12:04
Speaker 3: what about this voice to go?
12:05
Speaker 4: No, try a little higher pitch.
12:07
Speaker 3: Make them sound younger, make make them sound older, make
12:10
Speaker 3: them sound broken down, and that's how you put the
12:12
Speaker 3: elements together.
12:13
Speaker 1: Right, Okay?
12:14
Speaker 2: Figuring of Don Lewis, you know of Different World fame.
12:17
Speaker 2: You know, I've told her myself that when she came
12:20
Speaker 2: and I met her the first time Steve Harve and
12:22
Speaker 2: I was on radio, I said, why is this actress
12:25
Speaker 2: trying to be a singer? And I've discovered she was
12:27
Speaker 2: a triple threat. Pride to being discovered on different world
12:30
Speaker 2: and different World kind of boxed you in, like people
12:33
Speaker 2: will say, that's all you can do, right and then
12:35
Speaker 2: but you launched an animated career. You're a songwriter in
12:40
Speaker 2: the Hall of fame. Now where's the book or do
12:43
Speaker 2: you have you done a book on Don Money Lewis?
12:45
Speaker 4: You know what, I have been tempted to write a book,
12:48
Speaker 4: and I start, what.
12:49
Speaker 1: Would the inspiration be behind the.
12:51
Speaker 4: Tempt the attempt?
12:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you said writing a book.
12:56
Speaker 3: But it would be the unlikely nie of somebody who
13:01
Speaker 3: was committed to having a journey, right, you know, because
13:04
Speaker 3: where I'm from, in Bedsty, you are not encouraged to
13:07
Speaker 3: think big and to have big dreams and to dare
13:11
Speaker 3: to think beyond your neighborhood.
13:13
Speaker 4: And I came up in the pub public school system,
13:16
Speaker 4: so there.
13:16
Speaker 3: Weren't any special charters or scholarships or you know, inordinate
13:21
Speaker 3: amounts of money being funded into me, like when I
13:24
Speaker 3: wrote the theme song for a Different World. Like I said,
13:27
Speaker 3: I was sixteen when I left home, so all I
13:29
Speaker 3: was armed with was what I was taught in my house,
13:33
Speaker 3: was what my mom instilled in me.
13:34
Speaker 4: And you know, truth be told.
13:36
Speaker 3: As a teenager coming up, all it did was irritate me,
13:40
Speaker 3: and that was one of the reasons why I needed
13:41
Speaker 3: to get out of the house. But now you're out
13:43
Speaker 3: of the house and you find yourself doing the exact
13:46
Speaker 3: things that your mom taught you to do and responding
13:49
Speaker 3: the way your mom taught you to respond, which is
13:52
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden, you go, Okay, I guess
13:54
Speaker 3: she wasn't as.
13:55
Speaker 4: Foolish after all, and gets it kind of made sense.
13:58
Speaker 3: But that was the big of me recognizing the power
14:03
Speaker 3: of positive input into me and into my life.
14:08
Speaker 4: Please don't go anywhere.
14:10
Speaker 5: We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
14:20
Speaker 5: Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass hosted by
14:23
Speaker 5: Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass continues online at Moneymakingconversations
14:30
Speaker 5: dot com and follow Money Making Conversations Masterclass on Facebook,
14:34
Speaker 5: Twitter and Instagram.
14:36
Speaker 1: Your character, yes, you know why did people gravitate to it?
14:41
Speaker 2: Because I gravitated to your character on Different World.
14:47
Speaker 1: Why do you think people really were enamored?
14:51
Speaker 2: I want want to use the word you enamored because
14:54
Speaker 2: with your character, because it was a Let me not
14:57
Speaker 2: give it away any hints and then I'll respond after.
15:00
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, I think people embrace the show that they
15:02
Speaker 3: weighed that they did because of the different facets of
15:06
Speaker 3: life and humanity that each of us represented. There was
15:10
Speaker 3: the bugy person, the geeky person, the seasoned citizen, and
15:14
Speaker 3: mister Gaines who didn't have a degree but was there
15:17
Speaker 3: to speak positivity and wisdom into each of the students.
15:20
Speaker 3: My character was someone who had decided she wasn't done yet.
15:25
Speaker 3: And where some people may chip it in, you know,
15:27
Speaker 3: cash in their chips and say, well, look, I'm such
15:30
Speaker 3: an age, this is all there is for me and
15:33
Speaker 3: keep it moving as best as they can. But Jalisa decided,
15:37
Speaker 3: you know what, No, there's more I want to do
15:39
Speaker 3: and I'm going to get the tools I need in
15:41
Speaker 3: order to do it. And if it means going back
15:44
Speaker 3: to school. That's what I'm going to do because I,
15:46
Speaker 3: which is one of the things we say in our foundation,
15:48
Speaker 3: the New Day Foundation, is I am my best investment.
15:53
Speaker 3: And that's what Lisa Jalisa chose. So I think a
15:56
Speaker 3: lot of people see that in themselves or want to
15:59
Speaker 3: see that in themselves. And besides that, it wasn't common
16:04
Speaker 3: to see a brown skin sis sister very comfortable in
16:08
Speaker 3: her own skin on television on a weekly basis. And
16:11
Speaker 3: then we got blessed by adding Charnelle Brown to the
16:15
Speaker 3: cast that was even.
16:16
Speaker 4: Darker skin than I was.
16:17
Speaker 3: So all of those people who weren't accustomed because I
16:20
Speaker 3: know I wasn't everyone I used to see, whether it
16:22
Speaker 3: was commercials or television, was you know, fair skin, really thin,
16:26
Speaker 3: you know, all those things which are beautiful in itself.
16:29
Speaker 3: But I was there to reflect a group of women
16:34
Speaker 3: in particular, and for men who like brown sisters, you know,
16:39
Speaker 3: to say, okay, we got some of this too, So
16:41
Speaker 3: we had some.
16:42
Speaker 4: Of everything on our show.
16:43
Speaker 3: So I am so grateful that, you know, people, as
16:47
Speaker 3: you said, were enever with me and my character as no.
16:52
Speaker 4: As they are today.
16:53
Speaker 3: And people are still black, don't crack. We been just
16:58
Speaker 3: a teen ny.
17:03
Speaker 1: You're not breaking. You may not even even bended.
17:06
Speaker 2: Okay, you know because okay, your skin tone, that that
17:11
Speaker 2: that attracted me to you.
17:13
Speaker 1: Your maturity, come on.
17:16
Speaker 4: Come on, and maturity.
17:21
Speaker 2: It was something different, you know on the show. And
17:26
Speaker 2: also your presence because when you came in the room,
17:30
Speaker 2: it was you know, you had all these other characters
17:32
Speaker 2: seemed like out of control because it was teenager mentality
17:36
Speaker 2: and you had a maturity about you that really resonated
17:39
Speaker 2: I felt, and uh, it was needed in the show,
17:42
Speaker 2: and they did a good job of.
17:44
Speaker 1: Producing that your character.
17:46
Speaker 2: So I feel that's why I resonated for Rashawn McDonald,
17:50
Speaker 2: and I think it resonated to a lot of people.
17:52
Speaker 1: Plus it was a hot mama, okay, and we as
17:55
Speaker 1: young people, needed a hot mama looking at the TV.
18:00
Speaker 2: If I could just date her, if I can just
18:02
Speaker 2: fight her, nobody care about your need.
18:04
Speaker 1: Friends tell you, boy, hit you in the back of
18:06
Speaker 1: the head, boy, shut up. She didn't even recognize you.
18:09
Speaker 2: And so, but that's one of the things, the qualities
18:11
Speaker 2: that you brought to the table, and.
18:12
Speaker 1: It lives today.
18:14
Speaker 2: But the blessing of the conversation is that you know,
18:17
Speaker 2: animation has started thirty years ago, but now you're still
18:21
Speaker 2: in the heart of the Futurama, The Simpsons, you know. Uh,
18:25
Speaker 2: and now Star Trek, lawd Decks tell.
18:27
Speaker 1: Us about that.
18:28
Speaker 3: Well, that journey continued, like you said, and gratefully. Now,
18:32
Speaker 3: in addition to the ones you mentioned, I'm on to
18:34
Speaker 3: over a dozen TV series now, House Housebroken.
18:38
Speaker 4: Craig of the of the Creek.
18:41
Speaker 3: Fairly Odd Parents, Apple and Onion, Fairly Odd Parents, Karma's World,
18:47
Speaker 3: Ludacris this series, Karma's World, and I play you know, yeah, Heartstone, Trolls,
18:56
Speaker 3: I mean, all of it, Mortal Kombat, you know, and
18:59
Speaker 3: then some Yeah, I know, I know. It's it's fantastic
19:03
Speaker 3: because I get to voice and bring to life characters
19:06
Speaker 3: that you wouldn't hire me visually to play. You wouldn't
19:09
Speaker 3: hire me to play a seven year old boy or
19:12
Speaker 3: a ninety year old grandmother.
19:13
Speaker 1: Let me hear that seven year old boy boy?
19:15
Speaker 4: Oh no you no, you no, oh my, this is
19:19
Speaker 4: second cool man.
19:20
Speaker 3: It is so fly.
19:22
Speaker 4: Yeah. So anyway, so doing doing things like that.
19:26
Speaker 3: Uh.
19:26
Speaker 4: And when I got Star Trek, I.
19:28
Speaker 1: Would never be bored with you. No, I would never
19:32
Speaker 1: never show leave me alone.
19:35
Speaker 3: Of different languages and all kinds of different accents.
19:38
Speaker 4: You know, I would never tell you shut up and
19:40
Speaker 4: leave me alone, say what you're wearing today? Kind of sexty.
19:46
Speaker 4: My god, we get bored.
19:50
Speaker 2: You're talking, you know, And so the the Lord Deck,
19:54
Speaker 2: you know, you pling Carol Freeman, right, was Carol just
19:57
Speaker 2: very important to put the captain in front of that.
20:00
Speaker 4: It shows leadership.
20:01
Speaker 3: And in the world of Star Trek in the franchise,
20:05
Speaker 3: it's me and Avery Brooks, yes as black captains, him
20:09
Speaker 3: as male, him as me as the female black captain
20:13
Speaker 3: in this legacy of excellence and diversity. And I've been
20:18
Speaker 3: a fan of the show since the very first series
20:21
Speaker 3: came on with Captain Kirk and Spock and Sulu and
20:25
Speaker 3: all of those people. And to see Michelle Nichols on
20:28
Speaker 3: camera as a child was made me hopeful that there
20:32
Speaker 3: was hope for me because she was brown skinned and
20:35
Speaker 3: she was excellent.
20:36
Speaker 4: And she was she was fiery, she could hold her
20:39
Speaker 4: own with anybody.
20:41
Speaker 3: So she was my hero, especially in the sixties where
20:44
Speaker 3: when you were watching the news, all you saw was
20:46
Speaker 3: people of color being beaten, holes, chased by dogs, marching, picketing.
20:51
Speaker 1: It was the the.
20:56
Speaker 3: Just position of where diversity stood in Gene Roddenberry's world
21:02
Speaker 3: as opposed to the real world really made me hopeful
21:06
Speaker 3: that we can do this. We can respect everyone's excellence,
21:11
Speaker 3: we can deal with each other with integrity and with
21:15
Speaker 3: inclusion and get it done and it'll be all right.
21:18
Speaker 4: It really will.
21:19
Speaker 3: So now, all these years later, for Michelle to become
21:22
Speaker 3: one of my dearest friends and mentors and get to
21:25
Speaker 3: meet some of these people that I grew up idolizing,
21:28
Speaker 3: and I did not know that what I was auditioning
21:31
Speaker 3: for was Star.
21:32
Speaker 4: Trek because they changed the name.
21:34
Speaker 3: We had to sign NDA's And when they finally hired
21:38
Speaker 3: all of us and we get to the table read
21:39
Speaker 3: and turn our scripts.
21:40
Speaker 4: Over, we all were like, whoa stop, what really Star
21:44
Speaker 4: Trek for real?
21:45
Speaker 3: And myself, Tawny Newsome the star of the show, Jack Quaid,
21:50
Speaker 3: Eugene Cordero, Noel, Well, thank you, Fred Tatters. It's the
21:56
Speaker 3: last season on Paramount Plus. That's what we like to say,
22:00
Speaker 3: because our see there you go, but our hope and
22:03
Speaker 3: our desires that we will get picked up somewhere else
22:05
Speaker 3: because the people who watch our show absolutely love it,
22:09
Speaker 3: and some people never watch Star Trek before.
22:14
Speaker 4: I do.
22:15
Speaker 3: I do, and I get to meet and engage with
22:17
Speaker 3: so many of the people that watch our show. It's
22:20
Speaker 3: insane the love that we get for our show and
22:23
Speaker 3: the people that say, if you've ever I'm not gonna
22:25
Speaker 3: give away too much. But on our show, myself and
22:29
Speaker 3: the star Tawny Newsome. Her character's name is Beckett, Beckett Mariner,
22:33
Speaker 3: and she and I do not get along. It's like
22:36
Speaker 3: any of the teenage mother and daughter kind of relationship.
22:39
Speaker 3: But as the seasons go on, you watch changes and growth,
22:43
Speaker 3: not in just our relationship but throughout the entire crew.
22:47
Speaker 4: So no, I'm a different kind of captain.
22:49
Speaker 2: You know, it's so fun. I was watching The Boys. Yes, okay,
22:52
Speaker 2: so I'm sitting up there watching the Boys.
22:54
Speaker 4: And there I am.
22:57
Speaker 2: I like, first of all, you know, first of all,
23:07
Speaker 2: you know, I'm going like you know that, you know,
23:11
Speaker 2: you know, And then then you go through your credits,
23:13
Speaker 2: you read it, you go to the cat it's it's
23:17
Speaker 2: you know, it's fascinating to be a fan of someone
23:22
Speaker 2: and then you see them in the show that you
23:24
Speaker 2: don't expect to see them the show.
23:25
Speaker 1: Not saying you can't do.
23:26
Speaker 2: That show, but when you was in it in that
23:29
Speaker 2: role that was playing and it was like that that.
23:32
Speaker 2: I'm just telling you, that's what you do to people.
23:35
Speaker 2: You have a fan base that gets excited and roots
23:38
Speaker 2: for you, loves to see you. And the fact that
23:43
Speaker 2: being on my show allows people to understand a tremendous career.
23:48
Speaker 2: It's what a force you are and so many different levels.
23:52
Speaker 1: As you started when you was a kid. You still
23:54
Speaker 1: are a.
23:56
Speaker 2: Quadruple threat now, you know, and to be able to
24:00
Speaker 2: I always talk about people with careers, you know, because
24:03
Speaker 2: you always can jump out in different world, different world?
24:06
Speaker 1: Was your launching pad to right to the world right
24:10
Speaker 1: fast forward? Twenty years, thirty years?
24:12
Speaker 2: What have you done? What has what's sustainable? And that's
24:15
Speaker 2: what I call a career. And you have a career,
24:17
Speaker 2: and you know what I'm talking about because you can
24:20
Speaker 2: you can jump out there and it just stops.
24:23
Speaker 1: Right and you've been able to keep moving forward. Tell
24:26
Speaker 1: us about that journey.
24:27
Speaker 3: You know what, again, You've got to basically quiet than
24:32
Speaker 3: they sayers by just showing up and doing the work
24:35
Speaker 3: and being able to work with people and to bring
24:40
Speaker 3: excellence to it.
24:41
Speaker 4: And I do my best to always do my best.
24:43
Speaker 3: So whether it's nine to one one, Gray's Anatomy, Veronica
24:48
Speaker 3: Mars any day Now you know any of those shows,
24:52
Speaker 3: recording with any of those people that I started to
24:54
Speaker 3: mention before, whether it's you know, Patrice Russian, Everett Harp,
24:59
Speaker 3: you know, the list just goes on and on.
25:01
Speaker 4: Grover Washington Junior.
25:02
Speaker 3: I wrote and recorded for him and Nancy Wilson, as
25:06
Speaker 3: well as doing my own and independent CD.
25:09
Speaker 4: All of it is just grace to God that he.
25:12
Speaker 3: Keeps opening doors and giving me what I need to
25:15
Speaker 3: walk through them successfully. And then having people like you
25:18
Speaker 3: who will jump up with a high pitched voice and say,
25:21
Speaker 3: oh my God, that's right, that's her, and make room
25:24
Speaker 3: for everything that I do because only more is coming.
25:28
Speaker 2: Now we're gonna talk about a New Day Foundation. I
25:30
Speaker 2: made a donation, Yes you will, many years ago. Okay,
25:33
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure that money spent well, long time, long time, So.
25:36
Speaker 1: That means that she's back.
25:38
Speaker 2: If she's back, that means donation time out of Rushan
25:41
Speaker 2: say Donald, which is no problem.
25:43
Speaker 1: Tell everybody about a New Day Foundation.
25:44
Speaker 3: A New Day Foundation is basically the ongoing work that
25:47
Speaker 3: I've been doing for almost fifteen for almost fifty years
25:52
Speaker 3: since I graduated from elementary school. It has been important
25:55
Speaker 3: to me to go back and give back cause, like
25:57
Speaker 3: I said, my teachers poured into me when I was
26:00
Speaker 3: young to help me find a brighter path for myself
26:04
Speaker 3: and my talent. So that's always been important to me.
26:07
Speaker 3: About eight nine years ago, I wanted to do national programs,
26:11
Speaker 3: and up until then I had been doing all of
26:13
Speaker 3: this on my own. So in order to get corporate support,
26:17
Speaker 3: public support, I had to form a nonprofit. So that
26:20
Speaker 3: is a New Day Foundation, which is a play on
26:22
Speaker 3: my name Dawn, a New Day where we want to
26:26
Speaker 3: be a new day of opportunity, so that where you
26:28
Speaker 3: were yesterday is not where you have to end up today.
26:31
Speaker 4: Nor be tomorrow.
26:32
Speaker 3: So we do programmatic services for teens, teen boys, mentors,
26:36
Speaker 3: teen girls, sisters.
26:38
Speaker 4: Hangout, and we do an annual conference called.
26:40
Speaker 3: Focused and fit FT which stands for Financially and technolo Knowlogy.
26:44
Speaker 4: Informed for a different World.
26:46
Speaker 3: And at that conference we give out scholarships anywhere from
26:50
Speaker 3: six to twelve of two thousand dollars each in a
26:52
Speaker 3: new laptop. That is for high school juniors and seniors
26:55
Speaker 3: and their parents and college freshmen and sophomores. That four
26:58
Speaker 3: year demographic now we sponsor two year round school programs,
27:05
Speaker 3: one called HBCU Hero, so for your HBCU audience that
27:09
Speaker 3: is listening. We have monthly workshops where any HBCU student
27:13
Speaker 3: can join in virtually with tools for entrepreneurship, career planning,
27:18
Speaker 3: economic wisdom, and marketing skills. And then we have programs
27:23
Speaker 3: in two middle schools and two high schools in Long
27:26
Speaker 3: Beach and we partner with an organization called Inspiration fifty
27:29
Speaker 3: two to do that year round program. So in everything
27:33
Speaker 3: we do, which is why your support is really so crucial,
27:37
Speaker 3: all jokes side, it's because everything we do we do
27:39
Speaker 3: free of charge. So all of our fundraising is to
27:43
Speaker 3: buy the workshop materials, to hire buses if we need
27:46
Speaker 3: to transport kids anywhere to any of these events, meals,
27:50
Speaker 3: workshop materials, admission costs, all of it.
27:55
Speaker 4: That's what it is.
27:55
Speaker 1: It is for what's the website so people interested in.
27:58
Speaker 3: Donating, The website is www dot a New Day Foundation
28:04
Speaker 3: dot net. Www dot a New Day Foundation dot net
28:09
Speaker 3: and if you have any questions, just email us info.
28:18
Speaker 4: At a New Day Foundation.
28:20
Speaker 3: Dot net and all of that information comes directly to us.
28:24
Speaker 3: So we all of our programs we can take it,
28:26
Speaker 3: as you mentioned before, anywhere across the country, and we've
28:29
Speaker 3: supported programs and done programs as far away as Raunchi,
28:33
Speaker 3: India and Guyana, South America, which is where my family
28:38
Speaker 3: is from, and New York, Chicago, Florida, Dallas, l A.
28:42
Speaker 3: You name it. We have been there and are happy
28:45
Speaker 3: to come back and create programs anywhere we are able.
28:49
Speaker 2: Wow, I want to thank you for coming on Machell
28:52
Speaker 2: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. We'll be making a contribution again
28:57
Speaker 2: and I'm gona tell you them when you say this
29:00
Speaker 2: will come back. She tracked me down get my check
29:02
Speaker 2: that get my check which I did give my gift
29:05
Speaker 2: to check to it and it was kind of got
29:06
Speaker 2: lost to the mail or something like that. But again
29:08
Speaker 2: I I it's a blessing to actually sit down and
29:11
Speaker 2: talk to you in person. And you're special, but you
29:15
Speaker 2: know that you don't survive in this industry and then
29:18
Speaker 2: have the relationship where people will call you for work
29:21
Speaker 2: instead of auditioning for work as a reputation. And that's
29:25
Speaker 2: something that people need to understand. This business and anything
29:28
Speaker 2: in life is built on relationships and also relationships that
29:32
Speaker 2: allow you to grow as a person and you've grown
29:35
Speaker 2: tremendously before our eyes and.
29:37
Speaker 1: She's a stop iconic. I did like iconic and she's
29:41
Speaker 1: team to turn to Mama. Thank you, my.
29:45
Speaker 4: Pleasure, my pleasure, Thank you so much.
29:48
Speaker 2: This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
29:51
Speaker 2: posted by me Rashawn McDonald. Thank you to our guests
29:54
Speaker 2: on the show today and thank you. I'll listening to
29:57
Speaker 2: audience now. If you want to listen to any episode
29:59
Speaker 2: I want to be a guest on the show, visit
30:02
Speaker 2: Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is Moneymaking Conversation.
30:07
Speaker 2: Join us next week and remember to always leave with
30:09
Speaker 2: your gifts.
30:10
Speaker 1: Keep winning.