We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tierra Matthews. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tierra below.
Tierra, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?
Ultimately, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love the talent I’ve been blessed with and it’s my mission to share it with the world. To be an artist, the same as love, is a choice we make every single day. Period.
Thoughts of only maintaining a ‘regular job’ come to me at the deepest valleys of jealousy. Your day job should also “fill your cup”, but remind you of your overarching passion. However, delayed gratification is a lesson I’m learning as an actor. The last time I felt this was not too long ago. I found myself getting bogged down with my day job, fantasizing about hitting corporate milestones, while accidentally putting my creative ventures to the side, because I see non-creatives finding their happiness this way. All while getting a new round of ‘No’s from past auditions, seeing people book gigs & have success around me, further lowering my self-confidence and energy. That cycle over a period of a few months is enough to make you quit, then I remember that’s where and why most people quit. And I ask myself, “Are you one of those people”?
I am very fortunate to have a ‘day job’ that keeps my lights on, but more importantly, it reminds that that I, Tierra Matthews, have a bigger purpose. What I really care about and what I really wanna do doesn’t exist in a 9 to 5 boundary. It has countless hours on sets, onstage with scripts, fellow artists and more. As long as I have that foundation under me, I’m set. I have bigger missions that drive bigger impact. As I get older and learn more about this industry, the definition matures.
One of my favorite, most impactful, acting teachers told me during my undergrad that no one and nothing makes you stop being an Actor. You either stop auditioning or you die.
Tierra, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m Tierra Matthews. I am a 24-year-old actress who can sing and dance (enough) who is ready to change theatre and film representation statistics. I studied Theatre and minored in Mass Communications during my undergrad in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I reside in Chicago, IL and I want to eventually win an EGOT. I love to perform, tell stories, spread love, share inner warmth and be along those who do the same regardless of their medium.
Since I was a little girl, I knew that I wanted grandeur, drama and most importantly performance to be part of my life. However, I didn’t know exactly where my ‘focus’ was. My first love was music, with little music classes or life experience, I began writing songs and plucking out which chords I recently taught myself for whatever my favorite songs were at the time. With supportive parents, I was given the instruments as long as I kept my end of learning all that I could about them. I taught myself beginner piano and guitar chords to get myself by before any formal training came along. This stage in itself reminds me of the heart of a creative, it’s deniable, it can be traced to your true inner child (if that’s when your love began).
At 10, I was thankful to be accepted into a performing arts school in Oklahoma, where there were majors, similar to college. Remember the bit about not knowing my area of focus? Well at this prime age I felt like it was do or die (it clearly wasn’t) but this was a ripe opportunity for me to actively choose where I wanted to grow the most. I choose “Drama’, as opposed to Dance, Vocal, Instrument, etc. From then throughout high school, I was taught the basics about theater performance and developed my core admiration for the craft I pursue today. I had very caring theatre teachers. I managed to get into guitar classes and choir classes through my secondary education. In high school, I learned about ‘after-hours’ dedication and began private dance lessons and vocal lessons. None of which would be possible without my devoted, supportive Mother and late Father. I can’t thank my parents enough for their time and money, by no means well off, but damn it investing what we can.
As more faith became instilled in me, the more I believed in myself and the more skilled I became, the bigger I began to fantasize. I felt like I could take on the world by the time I graduated high school. I felt like a moderately skilled Musical Theatre performance artist. While every school I auditioned for said no, one college, Oklahoma City University, asked if I had seen myself as ‘Actor’ first. I denied it, heavily because I had been crafting myself to a triple threat and yearned to be seen as such, but they weren’t far off. By my sophomore or junior year, I had fully enveloped myself in a talent that came so naturally. I was flexing a set of muscles I didn’t know I had, compound those with my past training, I felt like I was becoming complete. However, I knew Oklahoma wasn’t my only stop, I have the world to conquer (and still do), I couldn’t stay there. My senior year I made the decision to further my acting career in Chicago, IL. I feel like this city has a little bit of every thing, theatre enthusiast, comedy enthusiast and even a few film projects roll through. It felt perfect for 22 year old Tierra. After 2 years, It still rings true. So far, I am a performing artist but who knows which other hyphenates are to come!
Though I have not quite conquered my greatest achievements yet, I await the blessings. “The World’ is always on my to-do list. I have sooooo much more learning to do as an artist and many more rejections in between the progressively empowering yeses. I anticipate these lessons.
So far, I’m proud of myself for making the strides I have regardless of self-doubt, confusion and mostly defiantly loss. I’m learning to integrate myself in a market that’s new to me, build community and sharpen my skills while I learn about myself and the environment I’m in.
I grew up so inspired, revived, enthusiastic by the few black women I saw on my screen and I so desperately want to invoke that spark within others.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I want to inspire those who look & feel like me.
As a young black woman in 2025, I am lucky to witness and be inspired by a very specific generation of performing artists, Whoopi Goldberg, Gabrielle Union, and Audra McDonald to name a few. Women who recognized the boundary made before them, actively trying to widen it and then break it down for themselves, really keeps me going. Through each generation, we add another bold hue to the vivid spectrum of what Black actresses can do when we’re on the stage or screen! I am determined to add to that definition by bringing my authentic self and joy. I want to tell stories that voice that unvoiced and shine light on the unseen. I want to reimagine classic roles and add my signature hue to new ones.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
We can support each other, not just monetarily but through creating connections, guidance, sharing advice and even verbal encouragement.
For some artists, their fellow community is their chosen family. You never know the impact that buying that print, promoting that event, going to their performance, etc. could do for that persons confidence. I meet so many creatives who have little to no support system or happen to be misunderstood within their immediate circle. We make art for ourselves but it is meant to transform something bigger than us, add to an ever growing definition.
A good actor should also be an amazing audience member. It’s honorable to empower others by being a receiver in the feedback loop. We don’t have to always be the effector of the message, participating and spiritually receiving the creative endeavors of another is mutually enriching.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://tierraammatthews.wixsite.com/tierra-matthews?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAadbBIM75IpJ3DFEHNIpOtVJlW1cah1xy9QWp2qK6gUq_2RED_KcaZjfzS0Spw_aem_BXfatNDT9F6wbfNnlXNW8Q
- Instagram: tierramatt
- Twitter: @tierramatt
Image Credits
Headshot by Juli Del Prete
Production Shots: Oomphotography & Michael Anderson