A subject I'm particularly passionate about is the criminal justice system and almost all of the policies that impact people's lives are determined on a local level.

I'd like to think that in any circumstance I'd say, "You know what? Screw this. Kill me. I'm done. I'm not going to grovel."

It's important for us to vote in mid-term off year elections in the times where state legislators and mayors offices are being vacated. These are the elections that actually impact the way we live oftentimes more than the President. So we have to pay attention to those things as well.

People talk about Jim Crow as if it's dead. Jim Crow isn't gone. It's adjusted. Look at the disproportionate sentences meted out to blacks caught up in the criminal justice system. There's a problem when people profit from putting and keeping African Americans in prison. We need to do a better job as a nation understanding the real values the country's built upon in terms of fairness, equality and equal opportunity.

I was homeschooled until I was 14, and then when I was 14, I began attending college. Mom was not playing about that education. She always said, "Acting is a privilege not a priority. Education is the priority. If you're not bringing home As and Bs, you can't go on the audition."

Some of my job consists of me drafting and making technical drawings. So everything I did back then has materialized into something substantial for me today. Whatever kids are into, that might be their thing.

It's crazy how intelligent kids can be at a very young age and how they know what they know.