Meet Angel Davis | Actor & Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Angel Davis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Angel, what’s the most difficult decision you’ve ever had to make?
The most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make (thus far), was to remarry and move forward after the death of my late husband, Brad. To have an open heart at all was scary in itself. Brad and I had a daughter who was four when he died. I had to consider the impact of what getting into a new relationship would have on her as well. In the end with the support of my family and Brad’s family, I did fall in love again and ended up moving from the midwest to California where my current husband was already living. It helped that he also knew my late husband and was and still is gracious when it comes to my grief, and my daughter’s. It ended up being a good decision. We love California and we now have a son as well.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I remember being in the 9th grade and seeing the movie, “The Godfather,” for the first time. I found it so interesting that I was watching this Italian family and hurting for them, being angry with them, being excited with them. How broken I was for Vito when Santino “Sonny” was gunned down. I was in awe of the color of the film and how real it all seemed. How could a young black girl in Oklahoma be so drawn in by a fictional Italian family in New York? All I could think was I want to learn to bring a story like that to life. I want to become a storyteller. From that age forward, that’s what I set out to do. I competed in acting tournaments and one act competitions in high school, winning several awards. My best friend and I, Jamie Marchi (Anime VO queen..you should look her up) even won our high school talent show our Senior year with a humorous duet sketch, a title usually given to dance squads or musical acts. I went to college feeling good about majoring in theatre until I began to have less than favorable experiences.

I received a scholarship for the theatre program at the University of Oklahoma. One of the things that won me over about the school was their embracing of what they called “blind casting.” They wanted their program to be diverse, which was exciting to me. I didn’t want to be pigeon holed into only doing characters that said things like , “No suh,” Yessum,” and “When I was a slave…” I should have known with only one black professor, who was often chastised by the other staff members, and a handful of bipoc students, that’s EXACTLY what I was going to get. Factor in favoritism, nepotism, and sexism and my college career became more about managing politics than creative expression, which in itself was still an education. It’s not like politics go away once you move up in the industry. LOL. To be clear, I’m not criticizing the school as a whole. This was my experience during that time and with the staff that was there. I think it has gotten better since then. Anyway, I left college slightly deflated but still in love with my craft.

Luckily I knew enough actors and directors to do pretty well in community theatre and enjoyed it. Not wanting to be a starving artist, I held a 9-5 corporate job for many years and that was convenient for theatre not so much for film. Film being more of a passion for me, sometimes having a locked in job felt like a set back. Unlike a lot of my colleagues, I had a lot of “life” happen along the way that demanded my attention. After college I eventually got married. Shortly thereafter my husband, (Brad), was diagnosed with a rare tumor that would cause issues for 11 out of the 14 years we were together. My eldest brother (who was a dancer/actor) died a year after I got married and was a devastating blow to our family. That took the sails out of my creativity for a while. I became a mom and diverted a lot of energy towards that instead. I even became a certified Life Coach and had a private practice for a little while which brought me a lot of joy. I loved working with people in figuring out their blocks in order to bring peace and empowerment back into their lives.

As an artist, I feel you never are really free of it. Every time I’ve tried to throw in the towel or divert from it, to quote Michael Corleone, “It pulled me back in.” When my daughter turned two I began getting serious about theatre again. I started a small company with my husband and produce a few shows. I was still a Life Coach and it felt good to get the creative juices flowing again. Just when everything felt balanced, my husband’s illness took a sudden turn for the worse and he died. Our daughter (or our Neverending Story as I like to call her) was 4 at the time. No more balancing priorities after that. She became the ONLY priority.

I never was a true “single” mom though. Between my family, my late husband’s family and our friends, I didn’t have to tackle that time in my life alone. This allowed me the space and luxury to grieve in a healthy way. I was lucky. I am lucky because I still have all of those people in my life. I continued my coaching practice and focused on finding ways to create joy and stability for my daughter and me. It felt like trudging through mud sometimes. I loved Brad dearly and doing life without him was heartbreaking. Still, I kept my heart open through it all. I felt like I had to live my life to the fullest since Brad was no longer able to. In time I found myself in a relationship with a mutual friend of both Brad and I, Peter, who I had known as long as I had known Brad. Not long after that, with the blessing of Brad’s family and my own, Peter and I got married.

Peter (a cinematographer) was living here in California at the time. I wanted a fresh start for my daughter and I and chose to move here as well. Even though I was now in the Mecca of places for film actors, I still continued my coaching practice. Honestly, I resisted the urge to get back to acting. I was not going to be a news statistic. “In today’s news, LA inherits yet another non-native who hopes to someday become a working…..wait for it….ACTOR!” It was actually Peter who recognized that between the waves of grief and building a new client roster, I really needed a creative outlet. He suggested I take a couple of acting classes just to drum up some fun, and that was it. I came clean with myself and admitted that acting wasn’t just a hobby for me, It was my passion and perhaps lifelong dream. I quite my practice and decided to devote my full attention to acting.

Well, in true Murphy’s Law fashion, life got more complicated. Peter and I decided to add a second child into the mix but our first attempt resulted in a miscarriage, followed by the deaths of one of our cats, my father, his mother, my best friend’s dad, and my grandmother all within the same year. Compound grief stole the show for a while, as you can imagine. We still refer to that time as the “Year of death.”

A year later I got pregnant again and successfully brought our son into the world. With the encouragement of my acting teachers, I continued to take acting classes here and there but really my son took most of my time and energy during that time. When he reached the age of two, I was ready. I wrote a one woman show. I got an agent. I couldn’t wait to introduce myself to all of of LA and then Covid happened (cue sad violin music). No show. No classes. No nothing. AND I got diagnosed with Alopecia…(yay 2020, am I right)? I was determined not to get stalled again. I took that time to change my show from a stage production to a web series. I did acting classes over zoom to stay sharp and decided to diversify by taking voice over classes as well. Peter and I created a space for my self-tapes and VO booth and for the first time I really felt empowered in the face of what looked like another diversion.

Fast forward to now. I’ve added several bookings to my resume. I’ve found an acting studio that I love and my career is solely that of an actor. My kids are 13 and 5 now, and yes sometimes there’s an interruption wherein I have to switch from my acting hat to my mom hat. However, a brief interruption is drastically different from disruption, so I will take it. Peter and I started a small production company and have begun working on shooting my web series which we hope to have wrapped by the end of the year.

It’s been a challenging road. I think probably all roads an artist walks down is filled to the brim with challenges. I’m a bold, bald, black woman still putting herself out there despite the many rejections actors face on the daily. During the career gaps I’ve learned a lot and have developed a certain amount of patience. I’m in a constant practice of trust. Trusting that I’m on the right path, that time will be on my side, that I’ll get cast in stuff…hahahaha. Trust is one of the things that makes me a good actor, I think. That and my ability to listen. I track that from my coaching days. I have the ability to listen and hold space for people, really taking what they are saying, or NOT saying, in. I also listen for what’s missing, either in translation or an awareness around something that if brought to life can be transformative. I bring all that into my work. The way I listen to other actors in a scene and the way I listen for what’s really going on in the text.
Thank god for the acting coaches I’ve had over the course of my career. Every single one of them have told me that I have the chops to do this work. That is my mantra when it feels like I’m getting nowhere. A lot of what we do rests in the hands of luck. My goal is to stay ready so that I don’t miss an opportunity when luck comes a calling.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Well if there’s time, I’d certainly do the trifecta: Beach, Mountain and Desert. I live pretty close to Big Bear and Idylwild that it would seem foolish not to spend a day there. Depending on the time of year, I would definitely do an overnight or two in Palm Springs. Coming from the plains of the Mid-West, seeing so much nature is so serene. In the heart of the city would be a night at the Hollywood Bowl, a quick drive through the hills to find the best neighborhood to capture the Hollywood sign (because for some reason that silly sign is just magical. It doesn’t quite have the historical weight of the Stature of Liberty, but it feels monumental anyway), grab small bites at Bacari in either Glendale or Silverlake or maybe both because you’ve got the Americana in Glendale and beautiful patio of Silverlake. I love Rosebud Coffee in Pasadena because it’s spacious, has a parking lot and tasty food/coffee. I love the tide pools in San Pedro. I would certainly find some hiking trails, like Millard’s Falls. I would offer staples like Disneyland, Santa Monica Pier, or the Observatory, but I prefer quaint spots, hence why we live in Monrovia.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I don’t think you have enough space here for people I would credit for where I am today. First and foremost I would thank my husband Peter Hermes, my family, the Allen family and the Hermes family. There are too many friends to count so I would say my Mid-West Crew and my West coast Crew. My agent Carrie Macy, My acting Studio: About the Work Studios which includes instructors: Murisa Harba and Savannah Schoenecker. Branding instructor Mark Atteberry. My dance/movement instructors Tanita Ligons and Harout Aristakessian.

And the books: Finding Me by Viola Davis and Just As I am by Cicely Tyson. These books inspired me to find my voice again and to not give up on my career as an actor, despite the ups and downs that will inevitably happen along the way.

Website: www.theangeldavis.com

Instagram: @theangeljdavis

Other: Production company: www.beautifulmessproductions.com

Image Credits
Headshot photos courtesy of Tandem Photo.