# Uplift: She discusses A Different World and her groundbreaking role as a Black female captain in Star Trek: Lower Decks.

An episode of [Money Making Conversations Master Class](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1264705641), 3 May 2025, 27 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/b1db7263-d1a3-4d00-8976-af62012aab44/02a7eccf-85b5-47af-ae82-b3f0016755e1/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=35a10561-3e1b-4d05-a529-af62012aab6a

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Dawnn Lewis. Summary of the Interview On Money Making Conversations Masterclass, Rushion McDonald interviews Dawnn Lewis—iconic actress, singer, songwriter, voice actress, philanthropist, and founder of the A New Day Foundation. The conversation traces her extraordinary career, starting from her childhood as a singer, dancer, and actor, through her rise to fame on A Different World, her decades-long voiceover career (including The Simpsons, Futurama, Star Trek: Lower Decks), and her ongoing philanthropic work supporting youth nationwide. Dawnn discusses the challenges of being a multi-talented artist in an industry eager to box people into one lane, how A Different World both elevated and pigeonholed her, and how animation opened a vast new chapter for her that has lasted more than 30 years. She shares her philosophy on longevity, discipline, relationships, and the responsibility to give back. The interview also highlights her foundation’s programs supporting students, HBCUs, and underserved communities. Purpose of the Interview 1. Celebrate Dawnn Lewis’s multi-decade, multi-disciplinary career The interview showcases the depth of her talent—from singing and songwriting to acting, animation, and Broadway. 2. Highlight representation and legacy Dawnn discusses the cultural impact of A Different World and her groundbreaking role as a Black female captain in Star Trek: Lower Decks. 3. Inspire audiences with her journey from Bed-Stuy to global success Her story emphasizes perseverance, big dreaming, and ignoring limitations others impose. 4. Promote the A New Day Foundation Dawnn details programs empowering youth, HBCU students, and underserved communities. 5. Provide insight into surviving and thriving in entertainment She shares the importance of relationships, versatility, and constant self-improvement. Key Takeaways 1. She was a “triple threat” long before Hollywood discovered her Singing, dancing, and acting from age 7–11, she began performing professionally at 10 and even launched her own musical theatre degree program at the University of Miami. 2. A Different World brought fame but also typecasting While it launched her into global visibility, it also led people to underestimate her songwriting, music, and voiceover abilities. 3. Her voice acting career spans more than 30 years She has voiced characters on The Simpsons, Futurama, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Craig of the Creek, Fairly OddParents, Mortal Kombat, and many more. Her entry into animation came from imitating her young niece for a role. 4. Representation matters deeply to her Seeing Nichelle Nichols on Star Trek inspired her as a child; today, Dawnn is one of the very few Black captains in the Star Trek universe. 5. The industry rewards resilience and relationships Dawnn emphasizes that her longevity comes from consistently doing excellent work and nurturing her professional network. 6. She founded the A New Day Foundation to uplift youth Her programs serve teens, HBCU students, and communities nationwide, providing mentorship, laptops, scholarships, and life skills training. 7. Dawnn’s journey is one of intentional growth and constant reinvention She never stopped expanding—into Broadway, television, songwriting, animation, philanthropy, and leadership. Notable Quotes (All quotes from the uploaded transcript.) On talent and early…

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Welcome to my show.
[0:01] Speaker 2: I'm Rashon McDonald, a host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
[0:04] Speaker 2: where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
[0:07] Speaker 2: stories and start planning your own.
[0:09] Speaker 1: Now.
[0:10] Speaker 2: You don't want to miss an episode, so please take
[0:12] Speaker 2: a moment right now to follow or subscribe to Money
[0:14] Speaker 2: Making Conversations Masterclass.
[0:16] Speaker 1: It's free.
[0:17] Speaker 2: You can follow me on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
[0:21] Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your podcast. New money Making
[0:24] Speaker 2: Conversations Masterclass episodes drop daily. I want to keep you
[0:28] Speaker 2: on alert because my guests provide tips on how you
[0:30] Speaker 2: can uplift your community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or
[0:34] Speaker 2: advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Now, let's
[0:38] Speaker 2: get this podcast started. For decades, my guest has used
[0:41] Speaker 2: her a celebrity platform for mentoring, lecturing, giving concerts, and
[0:45] Speaker 2: donating her time and talents to causes across America and
[0:48] Speaker 2: abroad on behalf of organizations such as UNISEF, UNCF, Congressional
[0:53] Speaker 2: Black Hawkers Against HIV AIDS, and American Heart Association. She
[0:58] Speaker 2: is amazing, she really is. Please Welcome to Money Making
[1:00] Speaker 2: Conversation Masterclass. The iconic and very very funny, Don Louis,
[1:05] Speaker 2: how you doing?
[1:05] Speaker 1: Don? What should I say?
[1:08] Speaker 2: Tina Turner, Mama, let's last ever we talk you Broadway
[1:16] Speaker 2: turn of MoMA doing your thing and you say you're
[1:18] Speaker 2: having a great time, but you know your your your
[1:20] Speaker 2: whole career.
[1:20] Speaker 1: Thank you for coming on the show.
[1:21] Speaker 3: First of all, my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
[1:23] Speaker 1: Now you know you I go back with you.
[1:27] Speaker 2: We're not talking about television. We first kind of met.
[1:29] Speaker 2: I was manager Steve Harvey. You came into the radio studio.
[1:32] Speaker 2: He was doing music, you was singing. So you had
[1:34] Speaker 2: all these different layer layers in your life, you know, actress, singer,
[1:40] Speaker 2: voss over work, activist, philanthropists. Let's start talking about dicing
[1:46] Speaker 2: up these different levels. Okay, what came first? Acting or singing?
[1:51] Speaker 3: Between the two of those, Singing came first, but between
[1:55] Speaker 3: singing and acting was dancing. I started singing it for
[1:59] Speaker 3: dancing at seven, acting at eleven, and I've been doing
[2:02] Speaker 3: all three professionally since I was about ten years old.
[2:06] Speaker 2: So okay, so we got so he gave me the
[2:08] Speaker 2: trivector right there. I didn't even say dancing. They're dancing, acting, singing. Okay,
[2:13] Speaker 2: so what jumped at first? You know, I say, you know,
[2:16] Speaker 2: there's always a talent that leads the way, and then
[2:19] Speaker 2: everybody started recognizing these other skill sets.
[2:21] Speaker 3: It would be singing. So I really thought I was
[2:24] Speaker 3: going to be a recording artist. I was lead singer
[2:25] Speaker 3: in a band. By the time I was fourteen. I
[2:28] Speaker 3: was a songwriter, so my music was getting recorded by
[2:31] Speaker 3: other artists. I was a session singer, singing background vocals
[2:35] Speaker 3: for different artists people, everyone from Patrice Russian to Vanessams. No,
[2:41] Speaker 3: not not at fourteen. That was after I graduated from college.
[2:45] Speaker 3: But before then I was recording. I had my own
[2:48] Speaker 3: single out, I was charting on Billboard. I was doing
[2:51] Speaker 3: shows off and on Broadway. I had done a couple
[2:54] Speaker 3: of TV pilots, but none of them had gotten picked up.
[2:58] Speaker 3: One of them had a release as a special holiday special.
[3:02] Speaker 3: It was called Crummy Movie Show while I was in college,
[3:04] Speaker 3: and the movie was so bad you would turn channels
[3:07] Speaker 3: to see the commercials, and we were the quote unquote
[3:09] Speaker 3: commercials sketches. So when I graduated college, I went back
[3:13] Speaker 3: to doing theater off and on Broadway, and Hinton invited
[3:16] Speaker 3: me to sing with him on his first solo album
[3:18] Speaker 3: that was produced by Quincy Jones. Ok So I'm doing that.
[3:21] Speaker 3: We finished that, all these.
[3:22] Speaker 1: Great names just dancing around.
[3:25] Speaker 3: That has been my journey. I am so blessed to
[3:28] Speaker 3: have been in the company of these amazingly talented people
[3:31] Speaker 3: that always encouraged me to do better and be better.
[3:34] Speaker 3: And I was always the youngster in the group because
[3:36] Speaker 3: I was sixteen when I started college. So all of
[3:39] Speaker 3: this is happening before I meant six When I started college,
[3:42] Speaker 3: I left New York. I went to the high school
[3:44] Speaker 3: Music and Art of Fame Fame, graduated and they had
[3:48] Speaker 3: danced and sing and doing all of it. And went
[3:50] Speaker 3: down to the U and actually started my own degree program.
[3:53] Speaker 3: I was singing opera, playing cello, acting and dancing. Okay,
[3:57] Speaker 3: so the musical theater degree program that now flourishes at
[4:00] Speaker 3: the U. I'm the founder and first graduate.
[4:03] Speaker 2: You know, when I hear a person like you, I
[4:05] Speaker 2: remember a couple of times in Hollywood somebody slowed down.
[4:08] Speaker 1: You're doing too much, you know.
[4:10] Speaker 2: I remember my first agent, he said, you know, we
[4:13] Speaker 2: got to keep you on the train tracks because you
[4:15] Speaker 2: keep getting off the train tracks. You keep going to
[4:17] Speaker 2: do this and that. Did you feel that people were
[4:21] Speaker 2: boxing you in or people told you you were doing
[4:24] Speaker 2: too many things because you were talented at so many
[4:26] Speaker 2: different things.
[4:27] Speaker 3: You know. When I was coming up, I was always
[4:30] Speaker 3: taught you had to be a triple threat in order
[4:32] Speaker 3: to work in the industry and to survive in the industry,
[4:35] Speaker 3: multiple incoming, multiple strings, whether and even if it was
[4:39] Speaker 3: just one doing musical theater. When you look back at
[4:41] Speaker 3: old movies, almost every major actor you can name sang,
[4:45] Speaker 3: dance and act, everyone from Judy Garland to Frank Sinatra
[4:49] Speaker 3: to Bing Crosby, Bob ho everybody was doing everything. So
[4:53] Speaker 3: that was what I was always taught. The journey was
[4:55] Speaker 3: supposed to be, but I actually didn't start getting pigeonholed
[4:59] Speaker 3: until I did it different world. So I moved from
[5:02] Speaker 3: live performing into doing Now this what would becose. I
[5:07] Speaker 3: was just going to say, but you talk about when
[5:09] Speaker 3: do people start telling you you're doing too much or
[5:11] Speaker 3: your skill set is too broad and try to put
[5:13] Speaker 3: you in a box. That was when it started, because
[5:16] Speaker 3: I went from being uh uh able and open to
[5:21] Speaker 3: be this multifaceted person to now I'm doing a TV series,
[5:25] Speaker 3: which ended up being one of the most successful television
[5:28] Speaker 3: series then and now. But now you're oh, well, now
[5:32] Speaker 3: you're just an actress, or you're a comedic actress, or
[5:35] Speaker 3: you're a sitcom actress. And then I went from being
[5:37] Speaker 3: the youngest to play in the oldest person when I
[5:40] Speaker 3: was actually younger than a lot of people around me.
[5:43] Speaker 3: I was just taller than everybody playing the older person.
[5:46] Speaker 3: Huh about five seven, but I look long. I look
[5:49] Speaker 3: taller because I have long legs, and well, you know everybody,
[5:54] Speaker 3: so you know. But that's when people started saying and
[5:58] Speaker 3: when I when I got cast to do a different world.
[6:01] Speaker 3: The musical director from The Cosby Show also knew me
[6:04] Speaker 3: as the singer, songwriter musician that I am, and he
[6:08] Speaker 3: invited me to write the theme song for the show.
[6:11] Speaker 3: So that's how I ended up writing the theme song
[6:13] Speaker 3: and being cast in the show because I wasn't in
[6:16] Speaker 3: a box yet. So I was able to bring both
[6:19] Speaker 3: those gifts and blessings to one show and they had
[6:22] Speaker 3: no idea they had hired the same person.
[6:24] Speaker 1: Here's the funny part about it.
[6:25] Speaker 2: I shouldn't say funny, you know, because you know I
[6:28] Speaker 2: met you when I knew you as an actress, and
[6:31] Speaker 2: I remember when you came into the studio. We're talking
[6:34] Speaker 2: about the studio chief Howard and I was doing the
[6:35] Speaker 2: radio show in LA and you was promoting your music
[6:39] Speaker 2: and I just looked at you as an actress.
[6:40] Speaker 1: I go, oh, she's trying to sing that.
[6:42] Speaker 3: She's trying to sing that. That's one folk and that's
[6:44] Speaker 3: what people do. You know. I am grateful for the
[6:48] Speaker 3: blessing of how people came to know me, but it
[6:50] Speaker 3: was just just one small But it's okay. You wouldn't
[6:55] Speaker 3: be the first. So there were some people who only
[6:57] Speaker 3: know me as a singer and a musician who wondering,
[7:00] Speaker 3: how come you don't sing more? You know, But that's
[7:02] Speaker 3: how the journey has gone. So now I still do concerts,
[7:06] Speaker 3: I still compose. I got the honor. I received the
[7:10] Speaker 3: honor of being inducted into the Women's Songwriters Hall of
[7:13] Speaker 3: Fame alongside people like Valerie Simpson, Bunny Hull, Mary Carpenter Chapin.
[7:19] Speaker 3: I mean, it was just an honor. You know.
[7:24] Speaker 2: It's really interesting because you know you have that, you know,
[7:27] Speaker 2: there's so many blessings that come your way, and sometimes
[7:30] Speaker 2: in the world a lot of your success you're not
[7:34] Speaker 2: singing as a writer, as a voice person in animation,
[7:39] Speaker 2: and then people can go what you been doing lately.
[7:44] Speaker 3: Yeah, I haven't stopped so gratefully, you know what. It
[7:49] Speaker 3: may not have been in front of the camera, but
[7:52] Speaker 3: it's in so many facets around that allow me to
[7:55] Speaker 3: keep being creative. To your point, animation, that's been a
[7:58] Speaker 3: beautiful blessing. I've been doing it for more than thirty years.
[8:01] Speaker 1: Animation.
[8:02] Speaker 2: Okay, Now I can't do voices. Yeah, I'm barely doing
[8:06] Speaker 2: this show. Okay, how you know?
[8:10] Speaker 1: You know, can you imitate people or how do you
[8:13] Speaker 1: get into that voice? Then? How did you start? How
[8:15] Speaker 1: did you talk?
[8:15] Speaker 3: I don't necessarily imitate people, although I have been hired
[8:19] Speaker 3: to do what's called looping additional voices for a particular
[8:23] Speaker 3: actor that I can sound similar to that can't come
[8:27] Speaker 3: back in to do their own pickups. Okay, So they
[8:29] Speaker 3: bring me in to do like little additional lines to
[8:32] Speaker 3: cover certain actors that I can do like.
[8:39] Speaker 1: Money Lewis.
[8:40] Speaker 3: Okay, it's all possible, and I can't share me check amen,
[8:45] Speaker 3: But no. It started when Susanda passed of Motown fame
[8:49] Speaker 3: and discovering the Jackson's and all of that. She was
[8:52] Speaker 3: interested in managing me years ago, and that was before
[8:55] Speaker 3: she got big into producing.
[8:57] Speaker 1: So she got asked me because it was in my
[8:58] Speaker 1: life on Sister Sister.
[9:00] Speaker 3: She's a brilliant, brilliant and resourceful woman, so she asked me.
[9:07] Speaker 3: She got the opportunity to executive produce this new animated
[9:11] Speaker 3: series around Kid and Play. Okay, so she asked me
[9:14] Speaker 3: if Big Kid and play the the Kidden play Chris
[9:17] Speaker 3: and Chris so and asked if I would come and
[9:19] Speaker 3: do a voice. So I came and said, all right, well,
[9:21] Speaker 3: I've done jingles, I've done all kinds of scess session work,
[9:24] Speaker 3: so this will be my first time doing a TV series.
[9:28] Speaker 3: So I just came and imitated my niece who was
[9:30] Speaker 3: a child and talk like this all the time. I
[9:32] Speaker 3: was like a kid, come on, let's go in and
[9:34] Speaker 3: do this routine and it's gonna be fun. All right,
[9:37] Speaker 3: come on five, six, seven eight. And that was my
[9:40] Speaker 3: first gig and there aren't very many people of color
[9:44] Speaker 3: in the animation world, particularly at that time, so the
[9:46] Speaker 3: director was like, who are you? How come I never
[9:48] Speaker 3: met you before? And then my name just started getting
[9:52] Speaker 3: passed around from gig to gig, director to director. Shows
[9:55] Speaker 3: like you know, Spider Man, Hulk, She Hulk, all of it.
[10:02] Speaker 3: Batman and Robin I've been doing voiceovers ever since.
[10:05] Speaker 2: So okay, this is so funny because that's just one voice,
[10:08] Speaker 2: so you just can't come in there and do the
[10:10] Speaker 2: same voice for everything. So how does the castine sessions
[10:15] Speaker 2: work when you're doing all your or your audition?
[10:18] Speaker 1: I'm sure your audition for every now and then? Yeah, okay, excuse.
[10:22] Speaker 2: Me, excuse your sister money, I said money, Okay, done,
[10:27] Speaker 2: money Lewis.
[10:28] Speaker 1: Okay.
[10:29] Speaker 2: Now when you do audition, well, how does that prep
[10:33] Speaker 2: work when you're just dealing with a.
[10:35] Speaker 3: Voice with it, when it's just a voice, you get
[10:37] Speaker 3: an outline, You get what they call a breakdown of
[10:40] Speaker 3: what the character is supposed to be. Is it a
[10:42] Speaker 3: seventy year old? Is it a seventy year old one woman?
[10:45] Speaker 3: Is it a seven year old boy? Are you East African?
[10:49] Speaker 3: Are you British?
[10:50] Speaker 1: Okay?
[10:50] Speaker 3: Are you a Caribbean? Are you a monster? Are you
[10:54] Speaker 3: an alien? Are you a witch or a warlock? No? Seriously,
[10:58] Speaker 3: So they give you the written outline, and then every
[11:00] Speaker 3: now and then they have a visual idea of what
[11:02] Speaker 3: the character's going to look like, so you may see
[11:04] Speaker 3: an illustration. So when you combine all of that, you
[11:07] Speaker 3: sit in your spirit and come up with something that
[11:11] Speaker 3: you think would sound coming out of this person's mouth.
[11:14] Speaker 3: And then you collaborate with the director and you say,
[11:17] Speaker 3: well what about this voice to go? No, try a
[11:19] Speaker 3: little higher pitch, make them sound younger, make make them
[11:21] Speaker 3: sound older, make them sound broken down. And that's how
[11:25] Speaker 3: you put the elements together.
[11:27] Speaker 2: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
[11:29] Speaker 2: money Making Conversations Masterclass. Now, I need for you to
[11:33] Speaker 2: do me a favor right now to follow or subscribe
[11:36] Speaker 2: to money Making Conversation. It's free and you can find
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[11:48] Speaker 2: or subscribe money Making Conversations. Welcome back to Money Making
[11:55] Speaker 2: Conversations Master Class, hosted by me Rashawn McDonald. Money Making
[11:59] Speaker 2: Conversation Masters Class continues online at Moneymaking Conversations dot com
[12:03] Speaker 2: and follow money Making Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, X and Instagram. Okay,
[12:08] Speaker 2: figuring to Don lewis you know of different world fame?
[12:11] Speaker 2: You know, I've told her myself that when she came
[12:14] Speaker 2: and I met her the first time, Steve Harvey and
[12:16] Speaker 2: I was on radio, I said, why is this actress
[12:19] Speaker 2: trying to be a singer? And I've discovered she was
[12:21] Speaker 2: a triple threat. Pride to being discovered on Different World
[12:25] Speaker 2: and Different World kind of boxed you in, like people
[12:27] Speaker 2: will say that's all you can do, right and then,
[12:30] Speaker 2: but you launched an animated career.
[12:32] Speaker 1: You're a songwriter in the Hall of Fame.
[12:36] Speaker 2: Now where's the book or do you have you done
[12:38] Speaker 2: a book on Don Money Lewis?
[12:39] Speaker 3: You know what, I have been tempted to write a
[12:42] Speaker 3: book and I've start.
[12:43] Speaker 1: What would the inspiration be behind.
[12:45] Speaker 3: The tempt the attempt?
[12:48] Speaker 1: Yeah, if you said writing a.
[12:50] Speaker 3: Book, it would be uh, the unlikely journey of somebody
[12:55] Speaker 3: who was committed to having a journey, right, you know,
[12:58] Speaker 3: because where I'm from and sty you are not encouraged
[13:02] Speaker 3: to think big and to have big dreams and to
[13:05] Speaker 3: dare to think beyond your neighborhood. And I came up
[13:09] Speaker 3: in the pub public school system, so there weren't any
[13:11] Speaker 3: special charters or scholarships or you know, inordinate amounts of
[13:16] Speaker 3: money being funded into me, Like when I wrote the
[13:19] Speaker 3: theme song for a Different World, Like I said, I
[13:21] Speaker 3: was sixteen when I left home, so all I was
[13:24] Speaker 3: armed with was what I was taught in my house,
[13:27] Speaker 3: was what my mom instilled in me. And you know,
[13:29] Speaker 3: truth be told. As a teenager coming up, all it
[13:33] Speaker 3: did was irritate me, and that was one of the
[13:35] Speaker 3: reasons why I needed to get out of the house.
[13:37] Speaker 3: But now you're out of the house and you find
[13:39] Speaker 3: yourself doing the exact things that your mom taught you
[13:42] Speaker 3: to do and responding the way your mom taught you
[13:44] Speaker 3: to respond, which is and all of a sudden, you go, Okay,
[13:48] Speaker 3: I guess she wasn't as foolish after all. It gets
[13:51] Speaker 3: it kind of made sense. But that was the beginning
[13:54] Speaker 3: of me recognizing the power.
[13:57] Speaker 1: Why do you think people really or enamored?
[14:01] Speaker 2: I want to used to wear you enamored because with
[14:04] Speaker 2: your character because it was a let me not give
[14:07] Speaker 2: it away any hint, and then I'll respond after.
[14:09] Speaker 3: Okay, Well, I think people embrace the show that they
[14:12] Speaker 3: weighed that they did because of the different facets of
[14:16] Speaker 3: life and humanity that each of us represented. Okay, there
[14:19] Speaker 3: was the bugy person, the geeky person, the seasoned citizen,
[14:23] Speaker 3: and mister Gaines who didn't have a degree but was
[14:26] Speaker 3: there to speak positivity and wisdom into each of the students.
[14:30] Speaker 3: My character was someone who had decided she wasn't done yet,
[14:35] Speaker 3: and where some people may chip it in, you know,
[14:37] Speaker 3: cash in their chips and say, well, look, I'm such
[14:40] Speaker 3: an age, this is all there is for me and
[14:43] Speaker 3: keeping moving as best as they can. But Jalisa decided,
[14:47] Speaker 3: you know what, No, there's more I want to do,
[14:49] Speaker 3: and I'm going to get the tools I need in
[14:51] Speaker 3: order to do it. And if it means going back
[14:53] Speaker 3: to school, that's what I'm going to douse I which
[14:56] Speaker 3: is one of the things we say in our foundation,
[14:58] Speaker 3: the New Day Foundation, is I am my best investment.
[15:02] Speaker 3: And that's what Jelisa chose. So I think a lot
[15:06] Speaker 3: of people see that in themselves or want to see
[15:09] Speaker 3: that in themselves. And besides that, it wasn't common to
[15:14] Speaker 3: see a brown skin sis sister very comfortable in her
[15:18] Speaker 3: own skin on television on a weekly basis. And then
[15:21] Speaker 3: we got blessed by adding Charnelle Brown to the cast
[15:25] Speaker 3: that was even darker skin than I was. So all
[15:28] Speaker 3: of those people who weren't accustomed because I know I
[15:30] Speaker 3: wasn't everyone I used to see, whether it was commercials
[15:32] Speaker 3: or television, was you know, fair skin, really thin, you know,
[15:36] Speaker 3: all those things which are beautiful in itself. But I
[15:39] Speaker 3: was there to reflect a group of women in particular,
[15:45] Speaker 3: and for men who like brown sisters, you know, to say, okay,
[15:49] Speaker 3: we got some of this too. So we had some
[15:51] Speaker 3: of everything on our show. So I am so grateful that,
[15:55] Speaker 3: you know, people, as you said, were enever with me
[15:58] Speaker 3: and my character as they are today and people we've
[16:07] Speaker 3: been just a teen it's been.
[16:13] Speaker 1: You're not breaking it. You may not even bend it.
[16:16] Speaker 2: Okay, you know, because okay, your skin tone, that that
[16:21] Speaker 2: that attracted.
[16:22] Speaker 1: Me to you.
[16:23] Speaker 3: Your maturity, come on, all right, come on, and maturity.
[16:31] Speaker 1: It was something different, you know, on the show.
[16:36] Speaker 2: And also your presence because when you came in the room,
[16:40] Speaker 2: it was you know, you had all these other characters
[16:42] Speaker 2: seemed like out of control because it was teenager mentality,
[16:45] Speaker 2: and you had a maturity about you that really resonated.
[16:49] Speaker 2: I felt, and uh, it was needed in the show,
[16:52] Speaker 2: and they did a good job of producing that your character.
[16:56] Speaker 2: So I feel that's why I resonated. For Rashaun McDonald,
[17:00] Speaker 2: I think it resonated to a lot of people. Plus
[17:01] Speaker 2: she was a hot mama, okay, And we as young
[17:04] Speaker 2: people needed a hot mama right then looking at the TV.
[17:07] Speaker 3: Go oh oh see, okay.
[17:10] Speaker 2: If I could just date her, if I can just
[17:12] Speaker 2: fight her, nobody care about your need.
[17:14] Speaker 1: Friends tell you, boy, hit you in the back of
[17:15] Speaker 1: the head. Boy, shut up.
[17:17] Speaker 2: She didn't even recognize you. And so, but that's one
[17:19] Speaker 2: of the things, the qualities that you brought to the table,
[17:22] Speaker 2: and it lives today. But the blest thing of the
[17:25] Speaker 2: conversation is that you know, animation has started thirty years ago,
[17:29] Speaker 2: but now you're still in the heart of a futurama,
[17:32] Speaker 2: the Simpsons, you know, Star Trek, Lord Decks.
[17:35] Speaker 3: Tell us about that, Well, that journey continued, like you said,
[17:39] Speaker 3: and gratefully. It's fantastic because I get to voice and
[17:42] Speaker 3: bring to life characters that you wouldn't hire me visually
[17:46] Speaker 3: to play. You wouldn't hire me to play a seven
[17:48] Speaker 3: year old boy, right or a ninety year old grandmother.
[17:51] Speaker 1: Let me hear that seven year old boy voice.
[17:52] Speaker 3: Oh no, no you no, oh my, this is second
[17:56] Speaker 3: cool man, this is so fly. So anyway, so doing
[18:02] Speaker 3: doing things like that, and when I got Star Trek.
[18:06] Speaker 1: I would never be bored with you.
[18:07] Speaker 3: No, I would never never alone of different languages and
[18:14] Speaker 3: all kinds of different accents. You know, I would never
[18:16] Speaker 3: tell you shut up and leave me alone. Say what
[18:19] Speaker 3: you're wearing today? Looking kind of sexy? Get bored.
[18:28] Speaker 2: You're talking, you know, And so the Lord deck, you
[18:31] Speaker 2: know you plaing Carol Freeman, right, Carol, which is very
[18:35] Speaker 2: important to put the captain in front of that chose leadership.
[18:38] Speaker 3: It shows leadership. And in the world of Star Trek
[18:42] Speaker 3: in the franchise, it's me and Avery Brooks, yes as
[18:46] Speaker 3: black captains, him as male, him as me as the
[18:49] Speaker 3: female black captain in this in this legacy of excellence
[18:54] Speaker 3: and diversity. And I've been a fan of the show
[18:57] Speaker 3: since the very first series came on with Captain Kirk
[19:00] Speaker 3: and Spock and Sulu and all of those people. And
[19:04] Speaker 3: to see Michelle Nichols on camera as a child was
[19:08] Speaker 3: made me hopeful that there was hope for me because
[19:11] Speaker 3: she was brown skinned, and she was excellent, and she
[19:15] Speaker 3: she was fiery, she could hold her own with anybody.
[19:19] Speaker 3: So she was my hero, especially in the sixties where
[19:22] Speaker 3: when you were watching the news, all you saw was
[19:24] Speaker 3: people of color being beaten, holes, chased by dogs, marching, picketing.
[19:29] Speaker 1: It was the the.
[19:34] Speaker 3: Just position of where diversity stood in Jean Roddenberry's world
[19:40] Speaker 3: as opposed to the real world really made me hopeful
[19:43] Speaker 3: that we can do this. We can respect everyone's excellence,
[19:49] Speaker 3: we can deal with each other with integrity and with
[19:52] Speaker 3: inclusion and get it done and it'll be all right.
[19:56] Speaker 3: It really will. So now, all these years later, for
[19:59] Speaker 3: Michelle to become I'm one of my dearest friends and
[20:01] Speaker 3: mentors and get to meet some of these people that
[20:04] Speaker 3: I grew up idolizing. And I did not know that
[20:08] Speaker 3: what I was auditioning for was Star Trek because they
[20:11] Speaker 3: changed the name. We had to sign NDA's And when
[20:14] Speaker 3: they finally hired all of us and we get to
[20:16] Speaker 3: the table read and turn our scripts over, we all
[20:19] Speaker 3: were like, WHOA stop? What Really? The people who watch
[20:22] Speaker 3: our show absolutely love it, and some people never watched
[20:26] Speaker 3: Star Trek before I do. I do, and I get
[20:31] Speaker 3: to meet and engage with so many of the people
[20:33] Speaker 3: that watch our show. It's insane. The love that we
[20:37] Speaker 3: get for our show and the people that say, if
[20:39] Speaker 3: you've ever I'm not going to give away too much,
[20:41] Speaker 3: but on our show, myself and the star Tawny Newsome,
[20:45] Speaker 3: her character's name is Beckett Beckett Mariner, and she and
[20:49] Speaker 3: I do not get along. It's like any of the
[20:51] Speaker 3: teenage mother and daughter kind of relationship. But as the
[20:55] Speaker 3: seasons go on, you watch changes and growth not in
[20:59] Speaker 3: just our relationship ship, but throughout the entire crew. So no,
[21:02] Speaker 3: I'm a different kind of captain.
[21:04] Speaker 1: You know. It's so fun that I was watching the Boys.
[21:06] Speaker 2: Yes, okay, so I'm sitting up there watching the Boys
[21:09] Speaker 2: and then and.
[21:10] Speaker 3: There I am like, first.
[21:21] Speaker 2: Of all, you know, first of all, you know, I'm
[21:23] Speaker 2: going like you know that, you know, you know, And
[21:26] Speaker 2: then then you go through your credits, you read it,
[21:29] Speaker 2: you go to the cat it's it's you know, it's
[21:33] Speaker 2: fascinating to be a fan of someone and then you
[21:37] Speaker 2: see them in the show that you don't expect to
[21:40] Speaker 2: see them show. Not saying you can't do that show,
[21:42] Speaker 2: but when you was in it, in that role that
[21:44] Speaker 2: was playing and it was like that that I'm just
[21:47] Speaker 2: telling you that's what you do to people.
[21:50] Speaker 1: You have a fan base that.
[21:52] Speaker 2: Gets excited and roots for you, loves to see you,
[21:56] Speaker 2: and the fact that being on my show allows people
[21:59] Speaker 2: to understand a tremendous career is what a force you
[22:04] Speaker 2: are and so many different levels as you started when
[22:08] Speaker 2: you was a kid. You still are a quadruple threat now,
[22:13] Speaker 2: you know, and to be able to I always talk
[22:16] Speaker 2: about people with careers, you know, because you always can
[22:19] Speaker 2: jump out in a different world.
[22:20] Speaker 1: Different world. Was your launching pad, total right to the world.
[22:25] Speaker 1: Fast forward twenty years, thirty years?
[22:27] Speaker 2: What have you done? Has what's sustainable? And that's what
[22:30] Speaker 2: I call a career. And you have a career, and
[22:33] Speaker 2: you know what I'm talking about because you can jump
[22:36] Speaker 2: out there and it just stops right and you've been
[22:39] Speaker 2: able to keep moving forward.
[22:40] Speaker 1: Tell us about that journey.
[22:42] Speaker 3: You know what, again, you've got to basically quiet than
[22:47] Speaker 3: they sayers by just showing up and doing the work
[22:50] Speaker 3: and being able to work with people and to bring
[22:55] Speaker 3: excellence to it. And I do my best to always
[22:57] Speaker 3: do my best soul, whether it's nine to one one,
[23:01] Speaker 3: Gray's Anatomy, Veronica Mars any day now, you know, any
[23:05] Speaker 3: any of those shows, recording with any of those people
[23:08] Speaker 3: that I started to mention before, whether it's you know,
[23:11] Speaker 3: Patrice Russian, Everett Harp, you know, the list just goes
[23:15] Speaker 3: on and on. Grover Washington Junior, I wrote and recorded
[23:18] Speaker 3: for him and Nancy Wilson, as well as doing my
[23:21] Speaker 3: own in independent CD. All of it is just grace
[23:26] Speaker 3: to God that he keeps opening doors and giving me
[23:29] Speaker 3: what I need to walk through them successfully, and then
[23:32] Speaker 3: having people like you who will jump up with a
[23:34] Speaker 3: high pitched voice and say, oh my God, that's right,
[23:37] Speaker 3: that's her, and make room for everything that I do
[23:41] Speaker 3: because only more is coming.
[23:43] Speaker 2: Now we're going to talk about a New Day Foundation.
[23:45] Speaker 2: I made a donation, yes you will, many years ago. Okay,
[23:48] Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure that money spent well, long time, long time, So.
[23:51] Speaker 1: That means that she's back.
[23:53] Speaker 2: If she's back, that means donation time out of Rushanathald,
[23:57] Speaker 2: which is no problem.
[23:58] Speaker 1: Tell everybody about a New Day Foundation.
[23:59] Speaker 3: A New Day Foundation is basically the ongoing work that
[24:02] Speaker 3: I've been doing since I graduated from elementary school. It
[24:06] Speaker 3: has been important to me to go back and give
[24:08] Speaker 3: back because, like I said, my teachers poured into me
[24:11] Speaker 3: when I was young to help me find a brighter
[24:14] Speaker 3: path for myself and my talent. So that's always been
[24:17] Speaker 3: important to me. About eight nine years ago, I wanted
[24:20] Speaker 3: to do national programs, and up until then I had
[24:23] Speaker 3: been doing all of this on my own so in
[24:26] Speaker 3: order to get corporate support, public support, I had to
[24:30] Speaker 3: form a nonprofit. So that is a New Day Foundation,
[24:33] Speaker 3: which is a play on my name Dawn, a new
[24:35] Speaker 3: Day where we want to be a new day of opportunity,
[24:39] Speaker 3: so that where you were yesterday is not where you
[24:41] Speaker 3: have to end up today nor be tomorrow. So we
[24:44] Speaker 3: do programmatic services for teens, teen boys, mentors, teen girls,
[24:48] Speaker 3: sisters hangout, and we do an annual conference called Focused
[24:52] Speaker 3: and fit FT which stands for Financially and Technolology Informed
[24:56] Speaker 3: for a Different World. And at that conference give out
[25:00] Speaker 3: scholarships anywhere from six to twelve of two thousand dollars
[25:03] Speaker 3: each and a new laptop that is for high school
[25:06] Speaker 3: juniors and seniors and their parents and college freshmen and sophomores,
[25:09] Speaker 3: that four year demographic. So in everything we do, which
[25:13] Speaker 3: is why your support is really so crucial all jokes
[25:16] Speaker 3: side is because everything we do we do free of charge.
[25:19] Speaker 3: So all of our fundraising is to buy the workshop materials,
[25:23] Speaker 3: to hire buses if we need to transport kids anywhere
[25:27] Speaker 3: to any of these events. Meals workshop materials, admission costs,
[25:32] Speaker 3: all of it. That's what it is.
[25:34] Speaker 1: It is for what's the website, so people interested in donating.
[25:38] Speaker 3: The website is www dot a New Day Foundation dot net.
[25:44] Speaker 3: Www dot a New Day Foundation dot net and if
[25:48] Speaker 3: you have any questions just email us info at a
[25:57] Speaker 3: New Day Foundation dot net. You know, all of that
[26:01] Speaker 3: information comes directly to us, so all of our programs
[26:04] Speaker 3: we can take it, as you mentioned before, anywhere across
[26:07] Speaker 3: the country. And we've supported programs and done programs as
[26:10] Speaker 3: far away as Raunchi, India, and Guyana, South America, which
[26:15] Speaker 3: is where my family is from, and New York, Chicago, Florida, Dallas, LA,
[26:21] Speaker 3: you name it. We have been there and are happy
[26:24] Speaker 3: to come back and create programs anywhere we are able.
[26:28] Speaker 1: Wow. I want to thank you for coming on. Michael.
[26:31] Speaker 2: You're special, but you know that you don't survive in
[26:34] Speaker 2: this industry and then have the relationship where people will
[26:38] Speaker 2: call you for work instead of auditioning it for work
[26:41] Speaker 2: as a reputation. And that's something that people need to understand.
[26:44] Speaker 2: This business and anything in life is built on relationships
[26:48] Speaker 2: and also relationships that allow you to grow as a person.
[26:52] Speaker 1: And you've grown tremendously before our eyes.
[26:54] Speaker 3: And she says.
[26:57] Speaker 1: I did, and she's tea to turn to mama.
[27:01] Speaker 3: Thank you, my pleasure, my pleasure. Thank you so much.
[27:05] Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to this episode. Now, I need
[27:08] Speaker 2: for you to do me a favor right now to
[27:10] Speaker 2: follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversations. It's free and
[27:14] Speaker 2: you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
[27:19] Speaker 2: or wherever you get your podcasts. Please do me that favor,
[27:23] Speaker 2: follow or subscribe Money Making Conversations.
[27:26] Speaker 1: Keep winning

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