Please introduce yourself. What do you do? Why? What do you want people to know about you?
My name is Mia Speight and I am an actor, voiceover artist and missionary. My latest achievement is narrating my first audible book for a best selling author from my hometown, for Amazon. Why I do what I do is because at a very age I was engaged in this as my life calling to use theater and acting as a teaching tool to impact others lives.
I want people to know about me to encourage people like me to use their gifts to impact the world in cause much greater than acting in and of itself. To help me promote programs for inner city youth and African school age kids in Kenya to have the same opportunities that were afforded to me.
What qualities make you different and unique from everyone else in the industry?
The qualities that make me different is that I grew up in one of THE toughest but most beautiful cities in United States of America, Baltimore, Maryland. I was able to overcome many obstacles to become the first generation to graduate college, to travel overseas as missionary to teach in Thailand, Haiti and Kenya, to be the first business owner in my family, even as the last born. I am a female who has overcome teen pregnancy, street violence and gone on to solo travel to a few countries to study life outside of the US.
Describe THAT moment when you realized you’re doing what you were born to do.
The exact moment I realized that I wanted to be an actor was at 6years old as I performed a stage play at my church. My character was named “Kiwi” from the galactic alliance, a robot that was sent to deliver a message of some sort to people on earth. I didn’t know why I was chosen to be the character, but what I do remember was that after performing my friends teased me endlessly!!
As a child I really didn’t know why, but it didn’t bother me at all. All the adults said that I did a great job and I should keep it up. But all my agemates never stopped talking about my character. I was too young to realize it at the moment, however later in life I gathered that, in order for people to learn something without them reading it and it to leave an indelible mark in their minds is to, ACT It OUT. To make whatever lesson real to the audience so that they feel apart of that story, so they can identify with it in some sort of way.
What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve had to go through and how did you grow through it?
The biggest challenge I had to overcome was losing my house that I had purchased at 23 years old during the subprime loan crisis and having to start all over again at 35 years with almost nothing. Also going a season of being homeless while working. Most people want o talk about how far removed from struggle they are and paint a lavishly rosy picture of how they are untouchable and thriving.
However choosing a life of being self employed, being and actor has up and downs that few want to remember or share with others. My season of homelessness taught me that i need to be the agant of change to help in the push for affordable housing for the forgotten in America. Those that weren’t bailed out financially like the big banks that thrived off the demolition of the working class.
It showed me that a new goal to be a developer that could help people avoid pitfalls of financial ignorance and home ownership. I grew through this hardship with help of friends and family. I re-educated myself on debt, I studied how other countries had very few mortgages, I lived below my means in a super radical way and vowed to be debt free, to own everything outright that I acquire in the future to prevent this from ever happening again. Also to educate those from other countries on an individual basis about the economic structures of the west and to avoid the pitfalls of debt peonage.
Who are the TOP 3 people you’d want to meet?
The top three people Id like to meet to elevate my career or business is Dangote the richest man in West Africa to talk to him about affordable housing in America and Africa, Ava DuVernay regarding filmmaking and casting actors of color from across the globe in international projects, and Lastly Elon Musk, to talk about technology infrastructure to provide sustainability for affordable homes that run off grid and create income and not debt.
Drop your social media links.
IG: @miaspeight
FB: Mia Speight
Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miaspeight/