T'Keyah Crystal Keymah

There's no more important bonding thing than a mother doing the daughter's hair. We sit at our mother's knee and learn who we are.

I am thrilled to return as Honorary Captain of the GREEKs for HBCUs Team. I reflect fondly on my days at Florida A&M University, and how visible and active all of the sororities and fraternities were. Membership in Black Greek letter organizations on college campuses is preparation for a lifetime of service.

I don't remember ever deciding to become a performer. I just always was. I began performing by mimicking the performers on the new television that first took the attention away from me as the baby of the household. I continued performing to put a smile on my grandmother's face and always considered her when accepting or declining roles.

I'm inspired every time I see a role I'd like to play, an actor turn in a well crafted performance, a story I'd like to tell, direct or produce.

If I knew how to operate a DVR, you'd find episodes of 'The Tavis Smiley Show,' 'Democracy Now!' and lots of stuff from TV Land. What you can find now on my Hulu account are Korean soap operas, 'Grey's Anatomy' and films from the Criterion collection.

I wrote my first play as extra credit for my fourth grade English class. 'Can Helen Stop Smoking' was a satire on the ill effects of cigarette smoking. My friend Vicki Haugabrook played as Helen and I directed the show. At the time, my brother Vince was leading the campaign to get our grandmother to quit.

Adults sometimes think children don't think. That's what propels them to order children around. But children do integrate thoughts and make sense of them. When I was a child, I thought about everything in the universe.

I would just die if some little girl saw me jump into bed with someone in the movies, and then she did it and got AIDS and died.

I have such a dancer's spirit that I tend to leap around the house. Once I leaped onto my bed and landed on the floor. But I danced more for myself than I did for other people.

With acting, I've always gotten by in life acting in situations. I'm a small person. I didn't have a chance to be a bully. But I could always act myself out of tough situations.