Persia White
Encyclopedia
Persia White is an American
actress and musician
. White is known for playing free-spirited professional student Lynn Searcy on the long-running sitcom
Girlfriends
. She is also a member of the industrial rock
band XEO3 and a solo singer, releasing her debut album Mecca in 2010.
, U.S. and raised in Nassau, Bahamas
, and Miami. At the age of three, she earned a scholarship to the Nassau Civic Ballet Company. At age eight, she joined the Miami Coconut Grove Children's Theater. As a teen, White studied dance, acting, singing, and painting.
She has appeared in various independent films, including Red Letters (opposite Peter Coyote
) and the cult
horror Blood Dolls
. She starred in the made-for-TV movies Operation Sandman (opposite Ron Perlman
), and Suddenly, opposite Kirstie Alley
. Her television work includes guest starring roles on Angel
, NYPD Blue
, The Steve Harvey Show
, Brooklyn South
, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as a series
regular role on Breaker High
with co-star Ryan Gosling
. In 2008, White appeared in The Fall of Night, as the character Dawn. She can also be seen in Chrisette Michele
's video, "Be OK".
In addition to acting, White also co-produced the award-winning documentary
Earthlings
, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix
. In July of 2011, Persia won the award for Best Performance By An Actor in the American Black Film Festival
for her work in Dysfunctional Friends.
and animal rights
advocate
, and environmentalist
. She was honored by PETA
as a 2005 Humanitarian of the Year. She is a board member for the Humane Society of the United States
, and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. She is also an active member of Global Green and Farm Sanctuary
.
blog that she married her boyfriend, musician Saul Williams
. (On "Girlfriends," Williams portrayed her love interest Sivad.) On January 17, 2009, White announced via her MySpace blog that she and Williams were no longer together.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress and musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. White is known for playing free-spirited professional student Lynn Searcy on the long-running sitcom
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
Girlfriends
Girlfriends
Girlfriends is an American comedy-drama sitcom that premiered on September 11, 2000, on UPN and aired on UPN's successor network, The CW, before being cancelled in 2008...
. She is also a member of the industrial rock
Industrial rock
Industrial rock is a musical genre that fuses industrial music and specific rock subgenres. Industrial rock spawned industrial metal, with which it is often confused...
band XEO3 and a solo singer, releasing her debut album Mecca in 2010.
Early life and career
White was born in Miami, FloridaMiami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, U.S. and raised in Nassau, Bahamas
Nassau, Bahamas
Nassau is the capital, largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has a population of 248,948 , 70 percent of the entire population of The Bahamas...
, and Miami. At the age of three, she earned a scholarship to the Nassau Civic Ballet Company. At age eight, she joined the Miami Coconut Grove Children's Theater. As a teen, White studied dance, acting, singing, and painting.
She has appeared in various independent films, including Red Letters (opposite Peter Coyote
Peter Coyote
Peter Coyote is an American actor, author, director, screenwriter and narrator of films, theatre, television and audio books. His voice work includes narrating the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics and Apple's iPad campaign. He has also served as on-camera co-host of the 2000 Oscar...
) and the cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
horror Blood Dolls
Blood Dolls
-Plot:Virgil Travis is a wealthy, soulless psychopath who lives in seclusion in his mansion home with his dwarf butler and maniac right hand man. Tortured and forcibly mutated as a child by a woman who put him through body transforming procedures, Virgil has an abnormally sized head...
. She starred in the made-for-TV movies Operation Sandman (opposite Ron Perlman
Ron Perlman
Ronald N. "Ron" Perlman is an American television, film and voice over actor. He is known for having played Vincent in the TV series Beauty and the Beast , a Deathstroke figure known as Slade in the animated series Teen Titans, Clarence "Clay" Morrow in Sons of Anarchy, the comic book character...
), and Suddenly, opposite Kirstie Alley
Kirstie Alley
Kirstie Louise Alley is an American actress known for her role in the TV show Cheers, in which she played Rebecca Howe from 1987–1993, winning an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award as the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1991...
. Her television work includes guest starring roles on Angel
Angel (TV series)
Angel is an American television series, a spin-off of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series was created by Buffys creator, Joss Whedon, in collaboration with David Greenwalt, and first aired on October 5, 1999...
, NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...
, The Steve Harvey Show
The Steve Harvey Show
The Steve Harvey Show is an American sitcom that aired for six seasons from August 25, 1996 to February 17, 2002 on The WB Television Network. It was created by Winifred Hervey and directed by Stan Lathan.-Synopsis:...
, Brooklyn South
Brooklyn South
Brooklyn South is an American ensemble police drama series that aired on CBS for only one season during the 1997-98 television season. The series was co-created by Steven Bochco, Bill Clark, David Milch and William M. Finkelstein. Bochco is the creator of many well-known police dramas such as Hill...
, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as a series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
regular role on Breaker High
Breaker High
Breaker High was a Canadian teen comedy-drama series that ran from 1997 to 1998, airing on YTV in Canada and on UPN in the United States.-Synopsis:...
with co-star Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling
Ryan Thomas Gosling is a Canadian actor and musician. He first came to public attention as a child star on the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club and went on to appear in other family entertainment programmes including Are You Afraid of the Dark? , Goosebumps , Breaker High and Young Hercules...
. In 2008, White appeared in The Fall of Night, as the character Dawn. She can also be seen in Chrisette Michele
Chrisette Michele
Chrisette Michele Payne , known professionally as Chrisette Michele, is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter....
's video, "Be OK".
In addition to acting, White also co-produced the award-winning documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
Earthlings
Earthlings (documentary)
EARTHLINGS is a 2005 movie about humanity's use of animals as pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and for scientific research. The film is narrated by Joaquin Phoenix features music by Moby, directed by Shaun Monson and co-produced by Maggie Q, all of whom are practicing vegans.-Synopsis:Covering...
, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Rafael Phoenix , formerly credited as Leaf Phoenix, is an American film actor. He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and his family returned to the continental United States four years later...
. In July of 2011, Persia won the award for Best Performance By An Actor in the American Black Film Festival
American Black Film Festival
The American Black Film Festival is an independent film festival that focuses primarily on works by Black members of the film industry. It has been called “the nation’s most prominent film festival.” The festival is held annually and features full-length narratives, short films, mobile...
for her work in Dysfunctional Friends.
Advocacy
White, who is a vegan, is also a human rightsHuman rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
and animal rights
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
advocate
Advocate
An advocate is a term for a professional lawyer used in several different legal systems. These include Scotland, South Africa, India, Scandinavian jurisdictions, Israel, and the British Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man...
, and environmentalist
Environmentalist
An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...
. She was honored by PETA
Peta
Peta can refer to:* peta-, an SI prefix denoting a factor of 1015* Peta, Greece, a town in Greece* Peta, the Pāli word for a Preta, or hungry ghost in Buddhism* Peta Wilson, an Australian actress and model* Peta Todd, English glamour model...
as a 2005 Humanitarian of the Year. She is a board member for the Humane Society of the United States
Humane Society of the United States
The Humane Society of the United States , based in Washington, D.C., is the largest animal advocacy organization in the world. In 2009, HSUS reported assets of over US$160 million....
, and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. She is also an active member of Global Green and Farm Sanctuary
Farm Sanctuary
Farm Sanctuary is an American animal protection organization, founded in 1986 as an advocate for farm animals. It promotes laws and policies that support animal welfare, animal protection and vegetarianism/veganism through rescue, education and advocacy...
.
Personal life
White has one daughter, Mecca, from a previous marriage. (Mecca appeared on one episode of Girlfriends as the granddaughter of Maya's mother's boyfriend.) On February 29, 2008, White announced on her MySpaceMySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
blog that she married her boyfriend, musician Saul Williams
Saul Williams
Saul Stacey Williams is an American poet, writer, actor and musician known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop and for his leading role in the 1998 independent film Slam.-Biography:...
. (On "Girlfriends," Williams portrayed her love interest Sivad.) On January 17, 2009, White announced via her MySpace blog that she and Williams were no longer together.
Filmography
| Film | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
| 1994 | Blue Chips Blue Chips Blue Chips is a 1994 drama film about basketball, directed by William Friedkin, written by Ron Shelton and starring Nick Nolte as a college coach and real-life basketball stars Shaquille O'Neal and Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway as talented finds.... |
Uncredited | |
| 1996 | Frankie D. | ||
| 1999 | Blood Dolls | Black Baby | |
| 2000 | Stalled | Leanne | |
| Red Letters | Vanessa Cody | ||
| 2005 | Earthlings Earthlings (documentary) EARTHLINGS is a 2005 movie about humanity's use of animals as pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and for scientific research. The film is narrated by Joaquin Phoenix features music by Moby, directed by Shaun Monson and co-produced by Maggie Q, all of whom are practicing vegans.-Synopsis:Covering... |
|
Co-producer |
| 2007 | The Fall of Night | Dawn | |
| Everyday Joe | Gina | Co-producer | |
| 2009 | Spoken Word | Shea | |
| Television | |||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1996 | NYPD Blue NYPD Blue NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan... |
Margie | Episode: "These Old Bones" |
| Malibu Shores Malibu Shores Malibu Shores is an American primetime teen drama/soap opera that aired from March to June 1996 for ten episodes on NBC. Created by Aaron Spelling and starring Keri Russell and Tony Lucca, the program followed the exploits of Southern California teens.... |
Listener | Episode: "Hotline" | |
| Saved by the Bell: The New Class Saved by the Bell: The New Class Saved by the Bell: The New Class is a spin-off of the Saved by the Bell series which ran from September 11, 1993 to January 8, 2000. The series lasted for seven seasons on NBC as a part of the network's TNBC Saturday morning line-up. It was the fourth incarnation of the franchise... |
Heather | Episode: "Little Hero" | |
| Goode Behavior Goode Behavior Goode Behavior is an American sitcom that premiered August 26, 1996 on UPN. The series was cancelled after its first season, airing its last episode on May 19, 1997, for a total of 23 episodes.-Synopsis:... |
Trish | Episode: "Goode Grades" | |
| Suddenly | Trina | Television movie | |
| 1997 | Weird Science Weird Science (TV series) Weird Science is a mid-1990s American comedy series made for television, based on the 1985 film of the same name.-Plot:The series follows the adventures of Gary Wallace and Wyatt Donnelly , two socially inept high school students in an unspecified town in California... |
Kim | 1 episode |
| The Burning Zone The Burning Zone The Burning Zone is a television drama broadcast on the UPN network as part of its 1996–97 lineup. It ran for 19 episodes. The series was rerun on SciFi Channel in the mid to late 90's.... |
Episode: "Critical Mass" | ||
| Sister, Sister Sister, Sister (TV series) Sister, Sister is an American television sitcom about identical twin girls Tia Landry and Tamera Campbell , who were separated and adopted at birth, when one day they come face-to-face after 14 years apart.... |
Anya | Episode: "Three the Heart Way" | |
| The Parent 'Hood The Parent 'Hood The Parent 'Hood is an American sitcom that aired on The WB airing from January 18, 1995 to July 25, 1999. The series starred Robert Townsend and Suzzanne Douglas.... |
Alexia | "Tango & Cash" | |
| Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction is an American television anthology series created by Lynn Lehmann, presented by Dick Clark Productions, and produced and aired by the Fox network from 1997 to 2002. Each episode featured five stories, all of which appeared to defy logic, and some of which were... |
Molly | Episode: "On the Road" | |
| 1997–1998 | Breaker High | Denise Williams | Unknown episodes |
| 1997–2003 | Buffy the Vampire Slayer | Girl #3 Aura |
Episodes: "Welcome to the Hellmouth Welcome to the Hellmouth "Welcome to the Hellmouth" is the series premiere of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This episode and "The Harvest" were originally aired as a two-part series premiere on The WB Television Network... " "The Harvest The Harvest (Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode) "The Harvest" is the second episode of season one of the WB Television Network television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was written by executive producer Joss Whedon and directed by John T. Kretchmer. The episode originally aired in feature-length format alongside part one, "Welcome to the... " "Unaired Buffy the Vampire Slayer pilot" |
| 1998 | Brooklyn South Brooklyn South Brooklyn South is an American ensemble police drama series that aired on CBS for only one season during the 1997-98 television season. The series was co-created by Steven Bochco, Bill Clark, David Milch and William M. Finkelstein. Bochco is the creator of many well-known police dramas such as Hill... |
Cinnamon | Episode: "Cinnamon Buns" |
| Malcolm & Eddie Malcolm & Eddie Malcolm & Eddie is an American television sitcom that premiered August 26, 1996 on the UPN Network, and ran for four seasons. This series starred Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Eddie Griffin in the lead roles. This show was canceled after its fourth season, and aired its final episode on May 22, 2000... |
Sharon | Episode: "Bowl-a-Drama" | |
| 1999 | The Steve Harvey Show | Monique | 1 episode |
| Clueless Clueless (TV series) Clueless is a television series spun off from the 1995 teen film of the same name . The series originally premiered on ABC on September 20, 1996 as a part of the TGIF lineup during its first season... |
Veronica | Episode: "My Best Friend's Boyfriend" | |
| Another World Another World (TV series) Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 years. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J... |
Kineisha 'K.C.' Burrell | Unknown episodes | |
| 2000 | Operation Sandman | Private Winslow | Television movie |
| 2000–2008 | Girlfriends | Lynn Searcy | 172 episodes |
| 2001 | Angel Angel (TV series) Angel is an American television series, a spin-off of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series was created by Buffys creator, Joss Whedon, in collaboration with David Greenwalt, and first aired on October 5, 1999... |
Agnes "Aggie" Belfleur | Episode: "Over the Rainbow" |
| 2005 | Unscripted Unscripted Unscripted is an American comedy-drama series that aired on HBO in early 2005. Its title referred to the fact that the series was largely improvised by its performers... |
Flirty Girl | 1 episode |
| 2012 | The Vampire Diaries The Vampire Diaries The Vampire Diaries is a young adult vampire horror series of novels written by L. J. Smith. The story centers around Elena Gilbert, a high school girl torn between two vampire brothers. The series was originally a trilogy published in 1991, but pressure from readers led Smith to write a fourth... |
Abby Bennett | Episode 12 |
Award nominations
| Year | Award | Result | Category | Series |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | ALMA Award Alma Award The American Latino Media Arts Award, or ALMA Award is a distinction awarded to Latino performers who promote positive portrayals of Latinos in the entertainment field... |
Nominated | Outstanding Female Performance in a Comedy Television Series | Girlfriends |
External links
- Official site
- Persia White's Facebook Profile
- Persia White's biography on filmbug
- Persia White Interview on The Gregory Mantell Show
- Persia White's Youtube Channel
Music
- XEO3 Official Site
- XEO3 at Last.FMLast.fmLast.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....