We were lucky to catch up with Bryshan White recently and have shared our conversation below.

Bryshan, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

Let me preface with this; my parents are a many things. What they aren’t is perfect and I love them for it. Not only have my parents helped usher in the validity of my self acceptance and expression, but they respect me (even when I know I’ve given them a hard time). For a while, I was fearful of my father. Fearful of his reaction to me being gay. Same goes with my mother. In fact, for years, that was single handedly the one thing I felt they’d be actually be dissapointed in me about. Turns out, like most things, the other side of my truth wasn’t all too bad and all the worry and stress was nothing more than a tale in my head, feeding all the negative self talk and doubt that swirled my brain. My parents have supported me as an Artist and have accepted me as the man that I am. And for that, I couldn’t have asked for anything more. That level of love and acceptance from the people who birthed you is a status of unconditional love that I hope many others get to feel.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was a child actor throughout middle/highschool and that was my solid introduction into the arts. As someone who has always had something to say, an opinion to give, and a story to dramatically tell, it was only right that my Leo self wanted to work in Arts/Entertainment. As a black male Actor, Writer, and Podcast Host, I find it essential to continue to strive for my truth, and the essence of creative community. I feel like in the millennial age, we’ve been able to witness the likes of Isa Rae, Todrick Hall, Quinta Brunson (to name a few) harvest meaningful, promising careers based off of two things; living their truth and embracing their communities. And I can’t help but want to be in alignment with the same sentiment. Especially when actors/content creators of color have blockage thrown against us or are pushed into tiny boxes that don’t allow us to shine at maximum. It’s part of the reason I started my podcast “The Intellituals Podcast” co hosted by Nzinga Martineau. We have the space and freedom to provide ourselves with platforms of our own and have seen time and time again that the value is within us. Truly.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

A paycheck or booking a gig. Well for most anyway. As cliche as this sounds though, my fufilment with acting is learning from an audition. Being in the room. Constantly auditioning for the same casting director’s because it means you’re doing something good. Im a big proponent of enjoying your creatuve journey in general so that has probably been the most rewarding. Knowing that through my trials and tribulations, my “NO’s”, the rejections or downfalls, I’ve remained grateful for it all.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

“Okay, seriously, explain it to me ONE more time…?”

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bryshanjw/
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/theintellitualspodcast/

Image Credits
Chase Anderson Photo Ida John Photo