We were lucky to catch up with Shanita Brown recently and have shared our conversation below.
SHANITA, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally was when I was managing my daughter. My daughter was having a hard time in school and I didn’t know how to help her. She came home from school every day unhappy, so I decided to put her in modeling. She became a hot commodity. Because she was a minor I had to travel everywhere with her. All the crew members and other actors thought that I was there to act as well. It took a few times but I had to convince them that I was only there as a manger to my daughter. Apparently I had the look. I was already in love with the way things worked behind and in front of the camera so it gave me a reason to move forward with acting. After my daughter grew out of the modeling/acting stage I started acting.
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 born and raised in Daytona Beach Florida. I am the only girl out of six children. Growing up my dream was to become a lawyer then a judge so I attended college and received my master’s degree in pre-law. I really wanted to go on a get my juris doctorate degree and take the bar exam, but God had other plans for me During college I was raising 3 kids, 2 girls and a boy. Later I met my husband and had my 4th child. When we met I had 2 girls and 1 boy, and he had 2 boys and 1 girl. People often called us the Brady Bunch. While my oldest daughter was in middle school she was having issues with other kids. I told her how beautiful she was and how I loved her every day. As I said before I became her momager. This is when I first entered the entertainment industry. she became a hot commodity and because she was a minor I was right by her side. For years we rubbed shoulders with celebrities and other models/actors. She was a stand-in multiple time for Karrueche Tran. Every time I was on set with her, I would be mistaken for one of the talents. There were days when she didn’t want to get up and model but when we got to set, she was a natural. This prompted me to open the management company by the name of Naturally Talented Management Group. I started managing other people who were inspiring models, actors and singers. I’ve managed over 15 people. For years I donated to St. Jude’s Childrens Hospital and fed the homeless. In my spare time I like to focus on charity. In 2015 I was dealt a devastating blow with my health, and I looked back at my life and knew a life could change in an instant. I knew whatever life is thrown at you, you have to roll the dice of life. I started the clothing line Dice Life Clothing. I have multiple designs for t-shirts, leggings, sweatpants, hoodies, hats and more. There will be more to come from DLC. In 2016 I started acting and taking it seriously. I am still acting to this day. I was an actor on the show Judge Mom on Nosey Tv and was a background actor on the new Brad Pitt film coming out soon, I have acted in a lot of films. My daughter acts every now and then but not as much as she used to. She is now married with 4 children. I love my son-n-law and grandchildren. During covid I wrote a song called “Manifest” that you can find on YouTube. There were a lot of people struggling mentally and financially and I wanted to give some inspiration. In high school I was an avid writer. I wrote, poems, stories, screenplays and more. I decided to write my first movie since high school. I wrote the film “Mine Since Birth” and entered it into a film challenge. It was accepted. The challenge gave us 2 months to turn my script into a finished 10-minute film. If completed it will be shown at a local theatre. It was a great experience for me, but it was also a learning experience. I had a small crew, so I found myself taking on multiple jobs on set. The next film was a big difference. I had a full crew, and everyone had a job to do. Since then, I have entered 6 film challenges and 44 film festivals. I have completed 8 short films and won a total of 14 awards, 3 finalist awards and an honorable mention. Ironically my very first film has won the most awards. I currently have a program where I allow one child to come on my film set and I teach them a few aspects of filmmaking. I have been in the local newspaper twice and multiple magazine articles. I want potential clients, actors, models and crew members to know that I am a hard worker but also a fun person. I like to give new talent a chance to showcase their talent. I am no longer managing talent but am focused on filmmaking. I am also rebranding my clothing line Dice Life Clothing. If you are interested in any of my talents, please connect with me on social media. @shanitabrown
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
A particular goal that’s driving my creative journey is the goal to direct other writer’s films. I have been creating my own films for over a year and I love doing it. I feel like it’s easier to bring my words on paper to life because I know what I want. Having the ability to take someone else’s words on paper and bring them to life on screen is more rewarding. I love to teach children and young actors the craft of filmmaking. That is my goal.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
Something that non-creatives will struggle to understand about my journey is that this is not a hobby for me. This is something that I want to do full-time in Hollywood. Even though there may be a lot of people who are doing this as a hobby that doesn’t mean that everyone is. I am passionate about this craft and am working every day to turn this dream into a reality. I also think non-creatives struggle to understand that as an independent filmmaker/actress it requires money to create our own films. We are responsible for raising the money or putting up our own money to make a film. The longer the film the more money it requires. I know films that were completed with little, or no budget and they looked as if they had a huge budget but then there are films completed with enough money to satisfy every aspect of the film and the film wasn’t of the best quality. In my opinion completing a film is all about mindset. If you have the right mindset you can accomplish what you set out to accomplish as a filmmaker.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://shanitaabrown.wixsite.com/shanita
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/shanitaabrown
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shanita.a.brown/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanita-brown-m-s-59492346/
- Twitter: https://x.com/shanitaabrown
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@shanitaabrown
- Other: http:www.instagram.com/dicelifeclothing
Image Credits
Kris D’sha
Aneisha Brackens
Orinthius Brown
Jazzmen Gentle
Joseph Mitchell