Film, TV, and stage actress, Maya Lynne Robinson plays Michelle on the sitcom The Unicorn on CBS. Her long road to success has taken a lot of hard work, discipline, and perseverance. Maya Lynne shares how she made the big move to Los Angeles and all the ways her early actions helped her to succeed.
To assist everyone who works in performing arts and entertainment across the country, The Actors Fund is collaborating with the community to help navigate these challenging times.
SHOW NOTES
2:05: How do you know Jen?
- 2:53: Where are you calling from?
- 3:53: When did you finish the first season?
- 6:10: Was your lifestyle growing up anything like your lifestyle now?
- 8:25: Have you been back to OU to talk to students there?
- 10:00: Did you go to New York straight from school?
- 11:35: What was your survival job?
- How to begin a Human Resources career
- 13:40 What made you move to New York?
- 21:40: Did you get an agent or manager in L.A.?
- The difference between agents and managers
- Maya Lynne in Disgraced at Coachella Valley Repertory Theatre
- Dead Women Walking
- Ashton Sanders
- Hagar Ben-Asher
- Dale Dickey
- Runaway Home
- Future Sex, Inc
- Streetcar Named Desire
- Maya Lynne on Mom, Season 6
- 31:27: Were you working a survival job?
- 36:52: What are the rent rates like in LA?
- Pilot Season
- 41:48: What is the biggest risk you have had to take in your career?
- 47:38: Do you think you’ve made it?
- 53:50: Whose career did you see that made you think you could do it?
- 55:25: Did you feel you had the support you needed as a black woman in college?
- 65:38: What advice do you have for students?
- 66:07: Recommendations
KEY QUOTES
- I slept on a pull out couch, in the dining room, for eight years. It was not easy.
- I beat out every single girl who auditioned in New York for that role.
- I played a lot of little girls…funny now because I play a lot of Moms.
- If you want to ditch your back up plan, get an assistant who’s hungry.
- She pushed and pushed for me to get Dead Women Walking and that role changed my life.
- If you don’t brag on yourself, who will?
- My luck has been very different from a lot of people.
- I feel like what is meant for you is yours, but you have to be so strong and clear.
- This is not an industry for people who can’t take rejection or criticism.
- You have to leave you, your ego, at the door.
- I’m still an unknown. I could walk down a street and no one knows it’s me. It’s the best of both worlds.
- To be able to rise up with my friends…being able to share in that journey together. I never thought I would be able to do that.
- This is show business and I’m shocked by how much of a business it is.
- My younger self would be so shocked to see that I am still me.
- I want to be the change that I want to see.
- I was a lot of white people’s first black friend.
- If someone is not going to give you the opportunity, it’s your job to create the opportunity.
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DYBP theme song, “Ditch” © 2020 by Dean Keith