Who is your favorite actress/actor?

Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Viola Davis, Jake Gyllenhaal

What is something that nobody knows about you?

I love drinking apple juice and whip cream – it’s the new wave, I’m claiming it. (lol) But on a serious note, though, I don’t think many people know that I was born a triplet. I’m the sole survivor, which is where part of the meaning of my first (Dante) and middle (Khalid) name comes from and it was prophesied while still in my Mom’s womb, that I would reach millions… talk about fulfilling a heavy destiny, right?

How did you get into being both an actor and spoken word poet?

Acting is something I’ve always done. I have been doing commercials and print since I was a tot. As for spoken word, I’ve been writing poems, since I could form real sentences. I’d say since about 2nd or 3rd grade. I got even deeper into poetry and writing when we relocated from Chicago out here to LA – I guess it was a great way for me to write down my thoughts after having to leave my cousins and lifelong school mates, wrestling mates, neighborhood friends and transitioning to an environment from a culturally diverse Chicago to like Studio City, where often times I was the only minority in my class or sometimes in situations where I felt like a fish out of water, with many of the kids wanting to “pat my fro” because they hadn’t seen one in real life before type of things. So about 4th/5th grade, I delved more into poetry and expressing my inner thoughts on paper, as I guess you could say, as a way of coping. I think acting and spoken word are similar in some ways because when I’m doing an acting monologue, it requires some of the same emotions needed if performing your spoken word, even though in one situation the words are actually mine, written by me (spoken word) vs. a performing a monologue, which often times comes from an existing screen play, stage play or is written by someone else.