Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cecily Gooden. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Cecily, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
When I was about 6 years old, I already knew I wanted to be on tv but I took it a few steps further. I use to read Stephen king and ghoosebump books and watch scary movies. That made me write my own scary stories which had my mama very concerned lol she thought something was wrong with me because of the content but was reassured I was just being a kid. I use to create soap opera stories for my Barbie’s. I had my own radio and talk show. I just loved creating at the age. Plus I was the only child
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
It took me a while to realize I’m not just one thing. I put myself in a box for years thinking I can only do one thing at a time and that’s completely false. I got my start in the industry as an actress. I have movies on Amazon prime and Tubi. I’m a series regular on Always Consequences and a huge project coming soon called Captured that will be on Tubi. I’m a writer and will be executive producing my first feather film I wrote under Urbancineplex later this year. I have a podcast for the last 4 years called Lux Talk Podcast. I have a sunglasses online shop called Luxury Lewks. I’m a creator director for photo shoots, music videos, etc. I’m into music, that’s something I’ve been secretly into since I was a kid. I put out my first rap and music video a few months ago! I’m a motivational speaker as well! I’m an an overall Creator./Visionary. I have these amazing ideas and I bring it to life. I’m a mogul in the making. I’m like the female Jamie Foxx. I’m known for doing it all, that’s my brand.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
My whole life is based on being resilient and it took me a long time realize that. Resilience is what I like to call a special skill What really showcased that was 2019/2020. I was coming out of a 6 year relationship and I had so much misfortune during the relationship I found myself completely broke: I’m talking under broke Lol I had to stay with someone I thought at the time was a true friend (the lie detector test determined they was lie) I was turning 30, I was in between jobs. Didn’t have a car. I’m like lawd I ain’t got no man no job no money no career and turning 30. That’s not at all how I envisioned me turning 30. My acting career had slowed down so the only thing I had going was my podcast which was fairly new and I just started selling sunglasses. Then when 2020 hit, I got a new job and lost it after 2 days. I fell asleep during orientation but to my defense they had us sitting doing nothing for hours. So I decided to take a trip to Cali to visit one of my acting buddies so I can get inspired to get back into acting and decided I was going to make that Cali move. I got back home to Detroit was ready to start saving and planning just to find myself homeless and then the world shut down immediately after. It was the pandemic! While the world was shut down I was living in hotels everyday! Luckily one of my friends mom who was a realtor for a previous house was able to work things out for me to live there! It was my first time in my whole life I was completely on my own, having no help on rent or bills and i was making like 300 a week at a temp agency. But I vowed to never be homeless again so i made sure I had other streams of income. I door dashed, picked up a second job and sold my sunglasses during the pandemic.!My podcast audience grew too! I was starting to feel like myself again. Then out of nowhere I lost two of my closest friends back to back and my whole world stopped. I’ve never lost anyone that close before. I stopped doing everything. Sometimes you need to sit still and that’s something I struggle with but grieving you have to. I wanted to give up everything but I know for a fact my friends would want me to keep going because they were huge supporters of my career. So I have to keep going for them and I have to keep going for that little girl with the big dreams. I realized I can only depend on God and me and its either I continue to fall or I rise above and because I’m blessed to see another day Im going to keep rising. Now I’m working on my own production company, writing, doing everything I love and set out to do and I’m still working a full time job at Ford because hey, I gotta finance the dream but it’s worth it!
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Unpopular opinion but somebody decided to one day tell the entire universe that you should only focus on ONE thing at a time and the world went with it and I totally disagree! I am a firm believer that you can do multiple. Should everyone do it? No. Is it possible? Yes! It all boils down to what those things are and how you execute them. You have to be disciplined, you need structure and schedule. I tried so many different things last year including stand up comedy! now that I know im talented in multiple ways I decided to narrow it down to things that wont run into each other. As an actress Im booked in advance so I know my schedule, im not working on a set every single day and for ME thats fine because remember Cece is not just an actress. I have my podcast that i can do anytime because I own my own Equipment. I make time for my writing. Listen it can be done it just have to be done right and make sense to you and only you. Google Debbie Allen!
Contact info
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/CeceGooden
Image Credits
Skai Photography Wacky Wigs – Hair