AUP EP. 33 Kerri Grant: Queen of Kids Content

AUP EP#33 TRANSCRIPT

Transcribed: Cameron Blackwell

Completed: 12/25/21 

Cortney Wills [00:00:03] Hello and welcome to Acting Up the podcast that dives deep into the world of TV and film that highlights our people, our culture, and our stories. I’m your host, Cortney Wills, Entertainment Director at theGrio, and today we are talking to Kerri Grant. I am such a huge fan of this woman who is behind what I think is some of the most important animated content in my kids’ lives, in my life as a mom, and in so many of yours who are listening. Kerri was born in Jamaica, and when she was 11, she moved to New York with her family. She has been a staff writer on so many incredible kid-friendly projects like Doc McStuffins, as well as Disney’s Elena of Avalor, Mira, Royal Detective, and served as code story editor on Nickelodeon’s Nella The Princess Knight. She’s also now the showrunner and executive producer on Netflix’s new animated show Ada Twist, Scientist, and I am so honored to have her on today as our guest on Acting Up. Hi, Kerri.

Kerri Grant [00:01:15] Hi, Cortney. Thank you for having me.

Cortney Wills [00:01:16] You’re so welcome. I’m so excited. I am such a huge fan of your work, as are my kids, as are my nieces and nephews and my sister, and everyone who’s ever been lucky enough to follow these incredible inclusive animation projects.

Kerri Grant [00:01:34] Thank you so much. That means a lot. Been doing this for a long time now and just kind of thinking back on my career, starting at The Backyardigans. It feels really good to have had a part in bringing these characters to life.

Cortney Wills [00:01:48] Backyardigans, that was my jam. People who are parents know, like the kids take over in that age of like two to five to six. Like, it’s all about keeping the baby happy, keeping the baby calm, keeping the baby busy while I go take a shower for 10 minutes and so many things are so noisy or like, annoying. And I remember I didn’t have kids at the time, but I had a niece and nephew who are only a year apart. They loved Backyardigans, and I would stop and really watch it. Get into it. Laugh, love the music love. Like, Is that hippo Black? Do I hear a Black girl in there? You know, like who is Uniqua? I just thought it was so like, groundbreaking at the time and so entertaining. And I wondered, how did you even come to that project? Like back me up a little bit and get me into how you found yourself in this position?

Kerri Grant [00:02:38] OK, so I love telling this story just because I did not expect to find myself in this position at all. I think the story starts with a decision I made when I was at the end of my sophomore year in college. It goes that far back. I was an accounting major in college because I got it in my head that I have to do something sensible. And for whatever reason, I thought, Oh, I have to do something in business or law or whatever. Especially being an immigrant, you know, I felt like my parents didn’t directly apply that pressure, but I just felt the pressure to do something sensible, even though I was a writer. I started writing when I was about 13 years old, started writing poems, and so I went to college. I was like, I have to major in business. For whatever reason, I majored in accounting and I would go back to my room and write every night. But it just did not occur to me that I could be a writer for a living like it just didn’t even enter my thought process. So by the end of my sophomore year, I had a business law final and I went and got the grade and you know how they used to post your grades on the door, whatever. So I went and saw my grade. I got a 50 on the final because I had fallen asleep in it because I had been studying so hard for all of the various classes that came with being an accounting major. And I remember that day so vividly, I just made a beeline to my advisor’s office and I was like, I’m changing my major. But because I was already so late in the game, being at the end of my sophomore year, I thought, I can’t start over. So what am I going to do? I decided to keep business as my major, but I added a bunch of stuff that I liked, you know? So I found out that my school had this option to major in individualized studies. So I just added some classes I liked, you know, dance class and writing and everything creative that was not accounting or business-related. And one of the classes I decided, OK, I’m going to switch my major; what’s the most creative of the business majors? And I decided marketing was. So I switched my focus to that and then stumbled upon this year-long advertising class that at the end of it had a national student competition. So in this advertising class, at some point, we had to come up with a campaign for Hallmark. And I remember we were making up a little skit that we had to do. You know, I was hailing a cab in the skit and I was like, Where should I say I want to go? And they’re like, Just make it up. And so I said, 44th and Broadway, and this is going to come in later. So that’s what I’m telling you, this whole story. So I said 44th and Broadway. Fast forward, we won the competition and as prizes for winning, we got internships and four of those internships were at ad agencies. And by then I was like, OK, I know I do not want to do that. Nothing’s wrong with the advertising, but I just knew it wasn’t for me. But the fifth internship was at Nickelodeon, so I was like, That’s the one I want, right? So I remember I called up the internship coordinator and I said, where your office is located? And she said, 44th and Broadway,

Cortney Wills [00:05:32] Stop! Kerri!

Kerri Grant [00:05:34] I just feel like on so many levels it just feels like I’ve been exactly where I’m supposed to be. So I ended up at 44th and Broadway. The Nickelodeon offices in New York started out as an intern in the programming department. And then shortly after that, I got a job in this really small two-person department at Nickelodeon called Viewer Services, where I had to answer phone calls and fan mail. People would call about all kinds of things like you name it, people would be calling to either praise us, but mostly complain. That job was kind of crazy in terms of the complaints we would get because I was responsible for Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite and TV Land and people would write letters, you know, like little kids would write letters sometimes to the Rugrats, and I would respond on behalf of the Rugrats.

Cortney Wills [00:06:22] No way did you really do that.

Kerri Grant [00:06:23] I did, but I would say stuff. I would be and say Tommy, and Chuckie, and Phil and Lil, Suzie. They can’t write yet, so they asked me to send you a letter. That’s where this all started. And then right around 9/11, I got laid off. And so I did some odd jobs for a little while. I worked at a coffee shop. I taught second-graders in an after-school program. I did all kinds of things, but then I still had friends who worked at Nickelodeon, and my friend hired me to temp for her while she was away. And I had to do like an in-house production, and I remember the day I was sitting on a bench in Union Square in New York, and I was like, I want to be in production. I really want to pursue this writing and I want to be in production. And then a couple of weeks later, an opportunity to apply for the job as a script coordinator on The Backyardigans came out. And then so I applied for the gig, even though I had no experience like very little experience directly as a script coordinator directly. But I applied. I got the job and then I just started learning.

Cortney Wills [00:07:25] Wow. Is script coordinator kind of like an entry-level writing position in TV speak?

Kerri Grant [00:07:32] So it is a lower-level position. Your job is to support the writing team. And the executive producer of the show. So I was responsible for distributing scripts to the network and the people on the show. The animation studio so keeping track of all the stages of the scripts, distributing the scripts to everybody, managing the script’s schedule, you know, making sure the people were turning their stuff in on the deadlines and also proofreading. It was a lot of proofreading of scripts, being in certain meetings, being in it, at least on the Backyardigans. It’s different for every production, but on that production, I was also at the voice-over record sessions. The Backyardigans had like real people dancing and then the animators animated to the real dancers. So I would go to the dance shoots sometimes. I think a lot of people who do enter the industry as a script coordinator want to be a writer. So that’s sort of like your opportunity to get in there. It’s like proximity to the writing process. See how it all works. And then eventually, maybe you’ll get an opportunity to write your own script and that’s what happened. So I was a script coordinator for a couple of seasons on the show, and then came the day when I finally mustered up the courage to say, Hey, can I write my own script? And my boss at the time, Janice Burgess, shout out to Janice Burgess, who was the executive producer and showrunner of Backyardigans, and Adam Peltzman, who was the head writer at the time. They both gave me that opportunity to write my first script.

Cortney Wills [00:09:03] Couple of questions. So after that first kind of internship at Nickelodeon and once you realized, OK, I want to be creative. Were you attracted to kids’ programing and animation just because you had been at Nickelodeon or had you always had an interest there?

Kerri Grant [00:09:19] You know, growing up in Jamaica, we actually didn’t even have a TV till I was nine years old. So it’s just I laugh sometimes thinking about that because I’m like, How did I end up working in TV? And when we moved here I was about 11, and I would watch cartoons and stuff with my brother, you know, we would watch. He was he’s younger than me, six years younger, so we’d watch G.I. Joe, Jem, and the Holograms.

Cortney Wills [00:09:41] Jem was so good. They need to bring Jem back.

Kerri Grant [00:09:44] I say that all the time. They need to Jem back and I want to-you heard it here first.

Cortney Wills [00:09:49] There we go, let’s do it, girl. We’ll hang up this call and get cracking.

Kerri Grant [00:09:52] Yes. Fraggle Rock. You know, so loved all those Hercules. Like, I loved all that classic animation stuff, but I wouldn’t say I had a professional interest in making it my career until I got to Nickelodeon. And when I walked into those offices for the first time and I was like, What? You can do this for a living like the offices are bright and colorful, and it was just like a bunch of young people running around and everyone had a TV in their office. And I could be a writer and I could do something like this like it just blew my mind. It just really it was like walking into a portal, you know, like a magic portal, I was like, Wow, you can do this. So yeah, I would say. I had an early interest in animation, but never really thought I could make a career out of it or even make a career out of being a writer. So the two things kind of came together once I was at Nickelodeon.

Cortney Wills [00:10:46] When you first got to Nickelodeon as an intern and you were exposed to this whole new world of creativity, did you see anybody in those offices that looked like you?

Kerri Grant [00:10:57] A few. Not a lot. OK. I remember some very specific people. I was in the programing department as an intern, and there were these two really powerful Black women at the helm that I just my little like 21 year old, bright-eyed self really looked up to these women and the woman who ended up hiring me to work with her in viewer services as a Black woman, Sakinah Irish. She gave me my first job at Nickelodeon, so it just feels like for me, my path like cause even after I got to the Backyardigans Janice Burgess is also a Black woman helming that show. There wasn’t a lot of us. Definitely not. There was definitely a handful. But its just something about the path that I’ve taken seems to have been lined with powerful Black women.

Cortney Wills [00:11:47] I love that for you. I love that for all of us that’s so fantastic. You know, I thought the Backyardigans, for me at least, was really one of the I mean, gosh, and you said Rugrats, now I’m thinking about Rugrats. Nickelodeon itself, I think for a long time with its animated stuff has been more inclusive and more representative than the rest of the big ones at any given time. Like, I think that I even remember Doug, you know, you’re like, What race are they? They’re purple. Does it matter if some people are purple? Like, you know, the girl that he had a crush on was darker-skinned than him at a time where you never really saw that and it wasn’t a big deal, but it kind of felt like a big deal. Rugrats, I remember being obsessed with Suzie in her family whenever they would be on, and that she was like, really good at stuff. Even as a kid, I think I expected her to be because she wasn’t in every episode character, like, Suzie will come and there will be trouble. And that wasn’t it. Suzie was like the good girl, and she was good at all the competitions and the game, and she was kind and her hair was different than Angelica’s and that was OK, and I had never seen that before. When The Backyardigans came around, I was exposed to it through my nieces and nephews, and same like, these are animals, they’re not people. So there weren’t Black faces on the screen, but they moved and they talked and they sounded Black. It just made it so normal and so cool. And there were so many dance moves and music from different countries, and it was just made so normal that everybody is different and that we should appreciate all of these differences. And what were their names like Tyrone Uniqua.

Kerri Grant [00:13:27] Tyrone, Uniqua, Tasha, Pablo, and Austin!

Cortney Wills [00:13:33] The fact that these little kids, you know, pre-even going to school or hearing the names Tasha and Uniqua were and Tyrone in their homes was a big deal. You know, and 10 years later, now I have kids, they watch The Backyardigans. And I loved that for them. They’ve watched all of the shows that you have worked on, and now they have Ada Twist, and I’m so excited. Like, we did a countdown in my house for Ada Twist because they already had the books, and my son really, really loves Ada. Like he’s actually a bigger fan than my daughter is, you know? And he’s like, Let’s watch the trailer. Can we watch the previews? Like, Can I see it? Did you get it early? He was really looking forward to this. What attracted you to the story of Ada Twist, Scientist? Because there are books, this isn’t the first iteration of her. So what about her? Were you attracted to?

Kerri Grant [00:14:27] I loved her curiosity. I loved how relentless she was about it. I loved the back story that, you know, she didn’t speak until she was three. And then when she did speak, her first word was why? And I felt really connected to that because I was a kid who asked a lot of questions. Growing up, I remember I– I remember a specific story of being I was on the track team in high school and my coach would ask us to do stuff and I would always ask a bunch of questions. She would always just try to shut me down. She was great. I love Miss Coles, but she was like, why do you have so many questions all the time? You know what I mean? So that just asking questions about everything, about the world, about wanting to know about every single thing was really attractive to me. And then I also loved I thought the books were really playful and stylish. I love the style of the illustrations. I love the poetry. You know, like I told you, that was kind of my first foray into writing. So I loved I was attracted to the rhyme style. Title of the book, and I loved that her family, that Ada’s family, went through this arc themselves in the book from being really frustrated and like, you know, she’s driving them crazy, writing on the walls and everything to finally embracing her in the end and deciding to just let her be her. All of that really spoke to me.

Cortney Wills [00:15:57] So glad that it did, because now we get this show, this visual, you know, kind of more interactive iteration of Ada Twist. And she’s such a little badass, like, she’s such a little hero. I love when my kids are are watching that show, and I wonder if you really have had a chance to recognize the impact that work like this has on shaping, you know, really the lives of little kids and especially little kids of color in their in their just self-identification and self-love and feeling not othered. I think that books and shows are, I mean, they’re just they’re just huge. Like, I cannot overstate what imagery does to a little kids psyche. And do you do you even know, do you realize, do you realize what you’re doing over there?

Kerri Grant [00:16:51] I think maybe not the entire magnitude of it, but because working away on all of these shows, you just kind of get into a rhythm of working, doing the work, getting it done. But every now and then I will see, like, really see someone else send me a picture or a somehow a picture will make its way to me of a little Black kid watching the show and being captivated by it. You know, today, my script coordinator on Ada sent us a picture of her nephew watching the show and pointing at Arthur and smiling, you know? And so, yeah, moments like that, I’m like, It just never ceases to take me back a little like, throw me back a little bit when I see those images because like, I know it in theory. But to see it is a whole like it really doesn’t touches me on a whole other level. You know, like, I love that, that I that I get to be a part of that, you know, part of shaping kids lives and shining a light on amazing Black characters out there.

Cortney Wills [00:17:59] Yeah. And we’re in such an interesting time now because, you know, we’re talking about Doug and Rugrats and even Backyardigans. And fast forward to now and you know, Ada is in good company. She’s not alone, not even on Netflix is she alone. We’ve got Karma as well, which is we’ll talk about that later. But Karma’s World is a new show on Netflix, and it’s created by Chris Bridges, AKA and Ludacris, and it is very beautifully Black as well.

Kerri Grant [00:18:23]  I wrote an episode on Karma.

Cortney Wills [00:18:25] It’s so good. Karma is legit. I will talk about that next. But did you even ever imagine a world where there could be so many? I mean, right now, if I actually focus and try, I could probably name six, seven, eight, maybe 10 animation projects with and about and featuring Black kids. And that that was not the scenario, even when Backyardigans was out, right? Like, what has that been like to to see that transition and what do you think kind of influence that?

Kerri Grant [00:18:55] It’s amazing to see that transition. Let me just start there. It is beautiful to see because I think what what I’m starting to see is, I think for a long time when you would see Black characters on TV or in film, it was very narrow. Like we were kind of put into these very narrow boxes and ways of being. And so a lot of Black kids who didn’t fit into those narrow boxes felt a little left out. A lot of left out and still invisible even now. Sometimes when I watch stuff, I always watch stuff with a little bit of caution just to see how the characters are going to be treated. Not so much now as before, because now I think the difference is that there are, I think, a lot more Black creators and creators of color actually telling their own stories. And I think that there’s just been gradually over the years, more and more of that has just been opening– I feel like last summer, everything like a lot of chickens came home to roost. I guess last summer, a lot of that came to a head. And so I see a lot of corporations and businesses and stuff now are making concerted efforts to kind of put Black voices and voices of color forward. But I think it’s been as a result over the years of people just on the inside opening doors for other people.

Cortney Wills [00:20:15] How do you open doors for the people coming behind you?

Kerri Grant [00:20:19] Well, now is kind of one of the first times in my career that I’ve had any sort of real power to do that, you know, so I’m really conscientious in my hiring– hiring of the team also I like to mentor and I’m, you know, like mentor people who are coming up. Be that, you know, I’m working with a college student right now on her project, you know, and what she’s trying to put out into the world and also offering my services to this other, another student who is working on his master’s in animation and just kind of being an external committee member, you know, offering any sort of expertize guidance, whatever I can offer. And so I think in those three ways, in those two ways, hiring and mentorship definitely want to do more as I go forward with my career in both of those realms, but mostly in the mentorship realm. Sometimes it gets so it gets so it’s so easy to to just be immersed in the work. That that’s just what I’m doing. Right? But I do think it’s important to like, leave the door open for people and usher people in.

Cortney Wills [00:21:36] I mean, how wild is it even when you, I think, kind of realize what I was asking you, which is like, sis, like you’re you’re there now, like you are actually on the other side of that table of like, you know, not one, not two, but like now a legacy of projects that are so impactful like that is you now like you are a person in power and a person who has the power, I think, to really influence the people coming after you. And I just wonder, I always ask people, like, is there a moment or has there been a moment? Have you gotten to that moment where it kind of clicks that like I did like, I did this and I’m I’m actually really doing this.

Kerri Grant [00:22:18] For me? I don’t. I don’t think it’s one moment. I think it just keeps coming in waves, honestly, because even starting work on Ada, I was so focused on the creative and making sure that it’s a good show, right? Like making it just like getting myself in there with the writing, with the creative process, but also slowly waking up to the fact that, oh, I can affect these changes– like I can. I’m in a position where I can affect these changes in these ways is always kind of it’s it’s it’s like a big it’s a whenever it hits, it’s always a big feeling, you know, it’s like it kind of throws me back a little bit like, Oh, this is real, this is real. I can affect real lives.

Cortney Wills [00:23:09] You really do you affect real lives, I see it in my house every day. Gosh, I could talk to you forever, but I have got to wrap this up a little bit. What would you say now, like now that you do recognize the impact and when you have these stories that I would, I would imagine you kind of know could be really big or go really wide. Like what is the intention when you are crafting these stories? You know, like like what goes into kind of building this world that I’m describing to you, my kids see themselves in? Like, what does it take to execute that?

Kerri Grant [00:23:44] Ooh, that is a good question. It takes a lot to execute that just because there are so many different moving parts, right? So but just focusing on the stories themselves. My intention with Ada has always been to show this little smart Black girl just shining unapologetically and being her brilliant self unapologetically and also is really important for me to show her family being a loving family. Still, some of that fun sibling stuff that happens with siblings, but I really, really wanted to show this family that people could imagine themselves just have to hang out, hanging out with and having a good time. Wanted to show this Black couple her parents, you know, loving each other and being playful, raising this beautiful family. And so the story is not all the stories are focused on Ada and her family, but it’s always important to me to show that they’re in that they’re somewhere. Their presence is known. Their influence is known and shown. And for me, it was like the little subtle ways that you communicate, just like the cultural uniqueness of Black people. Right. So the show gave you an example in an episode, and this is such a small example, but this is the stuff that I think about. Dad twist, he brings out some cookies just to take to the new neighbors, and he has it in one of those, you know, those old cookie tins? Yes. You know the ones? Yeah, yeah.

Cortney Wills [00:25:31] Oh yeah.

[00:25:32] The blue ones. Yeah. Even even creating that as a prop, yeah, was really like, I just love infusing all of those little things into the show that may not be overt. Yeah, and that you may not. Nobody’s calling it out or spelling it out or whatever, but it’s just there for us to see. Yes. And appreciate and relate to and connect to. And then and then as an added bonus, you know, one thing I’ve always heard is specificity tends to be the most universal.

Cortney Wills [00:26:07] Hate when people say that, it’s so weird. I mean, like, I get it, but it doesn’t, like, if you really think about it, it doesn’t seem like it should work. It actually makes sense.

Kerri Grant [00:26:16] It’s counterintuitive. It’s definitely counterintuitive. Yeah.

Cortney Wills [00:26:19] The more specific, the more universal. And you’re like, how? And then you’re like, Yes, that is how it works.

Kerri Grant [00:26:26] Exactly. So I feel like what makes good stories is specificity is definitely one of them. And the little I love just putting the little Easter eggs, whether it be from the books or just, you know, stuff that I know, from growing up with people on my team. Yeah. So like we, it’s really important to me to that, that the team is in a good place that’s behind this and we’re having a good time. And we’re loving creating this world that we put out into the world, and I can confidently say that that is the case. You know that they we have real conversations with each other. We laugh a lot and and and we are just really all really invested in creating this amazing show, this sweet show. It’s sweet. It’s fun. It’s colorful. Hopefully, everybody wants to be Ada at the end of this, but also want to be themselves really fully the way that she is in the way that she embodies herself so fully at such a young age.

Cortney Wills [00:27:36] Yes, absolutely. I want to talk about Karma, too, because you just told me that you wrote an episode. I loved Karma. I love how she looks. Her hair looks like my daughter’s hair, and I’ve talked to Chris about this show, and I know I know what, like a labor of love that has been for him and his family. And, you know, similar with the details like, it’s not overt, but I’m telling you, Avery was watching. We were maybe on like the second or third episode of Karma and out of nowhere, she just like holds up her arm and she’s like, Mom, I’m glad I’m not white. And I actually was really blown away by that because something about watching that show, it just clicked. And it’s not like when we’re watching. I don’t know. Some show with white girls in it. She’s not like, Well, I don’t want to be Black, but something about watching Karma. Actually, I think made her feel what I what I would describe as, like pride in herself and her skin color, which I’ve never seen coming from her naturally like that, like out of thin air, just recognizing, oh, like, I’m actually glad I’m like this. Yeah. Like, yeah,

Kerri Grant [00:28:47] She felt empowered.

Cortney Wills [00:28:48] She felt empowered. And I I was weeping, like I was in tears and I told Chris that and he was weeping, too. But it was real. It was. It was so not bullshit. It was so like a light went off inside of her. And I thought that Karma’s world did a really good job. Like everybody’s colorful in that show. Like even, you know, the white kids are like, there they look real. They look like real kids. The way that they interact, the family, the music, it’s very fun. And I wondered, what episode of that did you write and what do you like about Karma? Because we talked about what you liked about it and what did you like about Karma? Because I, I love them both, and they are kind of different.

Kerri Grant [00:29:27] I wrote the Garden- well, when I wrote it was called Garden Party. It may have been changed.

Cortney Wills [00:29:32] No it’s not, it’s called Garden Party.

Kerri Grant [00:29:34] Yeah, yeah. That’s the one I wrote.

Cortney Wills [00:29:36] That’s a good one.

Kerri Grant [00:29:37] Thank you! What I love about what I loved about Karma was her being a writer, her being a poet, essentially like, you know, her being writing rhymes in her little notebook, in her room. That was me. You know, when I was growing up writing poems in, in my notebook, in my room, so I felt directly connected to that. I just like the world that they were creating with her family. Yeah. And where they were growing, you know, the vibe of that of the environment they were growing up in and just her being a leader, you know, her being a leader, but also being inclusive and cool. But mainly for me, the thing that attracted me the most was just her with her notebook writing her thoughts.

Cortney Wills [00:30:23] Yes. And that she actually like she sees the power in her notebook. I think she loses it one episode and she’s like, yall, like, I need this thing. But this is how I  express myself, this is how I communicate with the world and just that seeing that like that level of self-knowledge in a little kid is cool because we think we all have that and we don’t always know that it’s OK to feel good about yourself. When you’re young, you know, you might like, don’t show off or don’t tell anybody like. Don’t be proud of that, but I think both of these shows have leads and characters who are very appropriately proud of themselves, proud of where they excel, Karma can wrap. Ada is smart as hell. She, you know, and it’s celebrated. That’s like a a superpower. And I like that better. I think it’s more impactful than the other things my kids watch where people have actual superpowers and they’re flying. That’s cool, too, but kind of teaching them to recognize the superpowers that they actually possess, I think is just so, so powerful. And I’m so grateful to you and the work that you do.

Kerri Grant [00:31:40] Thank you so much. I feel like the power of words is what you were just saying. Reminds me how powerful words are and how powerful it is to show a character knowing that power, embodying that power and not being– not feeling the need to hide it in any way. Not feeling the need to be something else. To be something that they’re not because I think a lot of kids feel that pressure. So modeling the opportunity to model just unapologetic whatever you are, I feel I feel grateful. I feel grateful honestly, for this career that has started way back then with the Backyardigans. And here we are with Ada Twist.

Cortney Wills [00:32:20] So here we are. Yeah, thank God for that and I cannot wait to see what is next from you. It’s such a pleasure speaking with you today, and I hope we talk again soon.

Kerri Grant [00:32:30] Take care.

Cortney Wills [00:32:33] Thank you for listening to Acting Up. If you like what you heard, please give us a five star review and subscribe to the show wherever you listen to your podcast and share it with everyone you know. Please email all questions, comments and suggestions to podcasts@theGrio.com. Acting Up is brought to you by theGrio and executive produced by Cortney Wills and produced by Cameron Blackwell. For more with me and Acting Up, check us out on Instagram @ActingUp.Pod.