I'm always ready and willing to just keep pushing and working and going because it's in my spirit.

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.

Regardless of the project, whenever you're working on something, the best you can hope for is to be around good people.

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.

Now, I actually have to a degree, a responsibility to ensure that it doesn't happen again.' I felt pride. When you're up there [in the noose] it does give you pause but I'm no stranger to degradation and dehumanization. I felt a lot of pride to be a part of showing something like this because a lot of people don't know and haven't been exposed to these types of historical experiences until they see it depicted on our show [Underground].

I was too young to understand who Sam[uel L.] Jackson was or who Bruce Willis was, who Jeremy Irons was at the time. All I knew was that they were good to me then.

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."