Sanya On-Air
Sanya On-Air hosts intentional conversations with celebrities and influencers unpacking their celebrity pivotal moments while simultaneously sharing tools/resources on how to provide pipelines to access for marginalized communities.
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Sanya On-Air
Zatima Actor Ameer Baraka: From Drugs and Prison to Purpose
Explore the transformative journey of Ameer Baraka, the acclaimed actor known for his compelling role as Jeremiah in Tyler Perry's BET series, Zatima. Join me, Sanya Hudson, as we unravel Ameer's incredible story from a challenging childhood and prison to his rise in the acting world. Discover how his personal experiences, combined with faith and perseverance, have shaped not only his career but also his commitment to empowering marginalized communities. Through candid conversations, Ameer shares the systemic challenges he faced within the education system and the passion that drove him to success, offering listeners a profound narrative of resilience and hope.
We dive into the complex world of method acting and the emotional intensity it brings, particularly in Ameer's portrayal of characters with deep struggles. Hear firsthand about his experiences working alongside renowned actors like Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett, and how these encounters have refined his craft. Ameer's journey is a testament to the power of personal connections in acting, and he emphasizes the importance of selecting roles that resonate with his lived experiences. This episode sheds light on the spiritual side of acting, revealing how Ameer balances purpose-driven choices with financial independence, allowing him to follow his true passion with integrity.
Ameer's story is not just about personal triumph but also about redemption and giving back. His candid reflections on his troubled past, marked by drugs and violence, highlight a path toward forgiveness and transformation. Through speaking engagements and community involvement, particularly in his hometown of New Orleans, Ameer strives to uplift others, embodying a life dedicated to service and inspiration. Tune in to Sanya On-Air for an enlightening conversation that promises to leave you inspired, offering invaluable insights into the power of faith, purpose, and redemption in both life and the arts.
What is the purpose? What am I trying to do? People are giving you keys, giving you gems, creating pipelines to access, talking to influential people icons about how they've done it and sharing the tips so that you can enter into that space. One thing that I do know about marginalized communities is that the Pipeline to Access is often limited. Now, if you cleaned up on Saturday mornings and your parents played old school music, then this show is for you. Welcome, welcome, welcome. You are now tuned into another amazing edition of Sonia on Air. I'm your host, sonia Hudson. Do me a favor Before we get to anything else, make sure you subscribe, like share and leave a comment.
Speaker 1:If you're watching this on YouTube, not only subscribe like share, leave a comment, but make sure you hit the notification bell. That way, every time I upload an old, new Sonia On Air conversation, you'll be the first ones to know. Now, before I say anything else, let me just say never would have made it. Never would have made it. We are in 2025 and a lot has happened, so make sure that you stay tuned to whatever news outlet there is out there giving you real news, not the fake news, because we are living in such critical times, dangerous times and once again, shows like this. Times, dangerous times, and once again, shows like this, shows like mine. Signing on here is making sure that you have real information, real tools, real access to make sure that you make it from step a to step b, all the way to step b, okay.
Speaker 1:So today's guest I'm really excited about today's guest. You've seen him as jeremiah in the hit Tyler Perry series, zatima and I got a question to ask this guest too. This guest is named Amir Baraka. Like I said, he plays Jeremiah on the hit series Zatima on BET by Tyler Perry. Now we know Jeremiah to be a crackhead. Now this is such a relatable story because everyone knows a crackhead. Everyone knows a crackhead. Everyone knows a friend of a crackhead. You may have a crackhead in your family, but I didn't know. You know what. I'm not going to tell you what I know yet. I'm going to wait until Amir joins me in the studio and we are really going to have an in-depth conversation in the studio. And we are really going to have an in-depth conversation not just about his character, but about him, the actor, the man, where he came from, how he got to be on the TEMA and his future aspirations. So make sure that you stay tuned, because this is going to be a very enlightening conversation, I guarantee you. I guarantee you, after this conversation you're going to be saying I never knew that, I never knew that. And this is what I do on Sonya on air. I want you to walk away saying, wow, I never knew that, but now I know. Or wow, she just gave me some information, she just gave me some tools. Now I can access a door that I never had access to before. So we're going to just do a quick commercial break and we'll be right back with Tanya on air and my special guest, amir Baraka from Tyler Perry's Hit BET series, zatina. Stay tuned and make sure you subscribe and hit the notification bell. I'll be right back.
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Speaker 2:Yes, I can.
Speaker 1:Good.
Speaker 2:How are you? I'm doing exceptionally well. How about yourself?
Speaker 1:I'm blessed and highly favored because I woke up this morning. Amen to that. You better believe it. You better believe it. Yes, we're living in dangerous times. Every day that we get to experience life is such a blessing. So once again, I thank you for carving out time to bless my show, sonia on air Absolutely so. My first question is I want to tell you that I'm a huge fan of yours. How does it now feel when people tell you that they are a fan of your work on Tyler Perry's hit show, the Tima on BET? How does it feel?
Speaker 2:It feels great. It feels great I put in a lot of work. You know, people see the results but they don't see the work. I've been in the game for a very long time. I've had some great coaches. I've been in the game for a very long time. I've had some great coaches. I'm Emmy nominated and, and, and. You know this is just my time, this is just my season. When I got out of prison, you know I was acting while I was in prison and when I got out and went to school and and and just worked, and, worked and working, I tell you it's been a long, long journey. When people say that, you know they see the end results but they don't see the journey, it's been a very long journey for me, a very, very long journey. So, you know, the only thing I want to do is and it feels good to hear people say that, but what I do know is it's always about the work. I just want to continue to do great work.
Speaker 1:Yes, and that you're doing, but I didn't know that you're Emmy nominated. What was the Emmy nomination for?
Speaker 2:For Bronx SIU. It's a show that we shot in New York. In New York. We did three seasons out in New York.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's talk about that journey, because I'm a firm believer, once again, again, that people will always talk about the glory, but they don't know your story. So we're going to talk about your story and also your journey. Talk about the moment where you decided that you really wanted to become an actor well it, it.
Speaker 2:it happened like so I'm dyslexic. So throughout my, my entire journey in school, uh, I couldn't read or write, and so I always escaped through plays. Doing plays at school, that was my way to escape. I had to be good at something and, uh, I was really good at it and I enjoyed it. But I was, I didn't have the proper guidance, so I was incarcerated.
Speaker 2:I was doing four years for drug distribution and I start doing plays in the prison for the warden, because he would have kids come off the streets, so we have to do these skits for them. And I just fell in love with it again. Right, I got passionate about it. My one of my favorite actors at that time was Charles Dutton. He himself did time in prison and start acting while in prison and I said you know what I'm going to emulate, charles Dutton. And so I just stuck with it and kept rehearsing and doing plays while in prison, writing my visions down, telling my vision throughout the prison, and a lot of dudes used to laugh at me and I went back in those same prisons and it was like man, you really did it.
Speaker 2:But it's been a very long road. It's been a very, very long and tough road. Many times I wanted to give up because, you know, you look at this talented guy and you say, well, why, why didn't someone see this years ago? Well, I've been doing the same thing, but I guess it's just timing, right? I say this all the time. Here's what makes a great actor. Right has to be a great script. The writing has to be good. Right, the actor must be familiar with the character that he or she is playing. They have to have the right producer to believe in them, to give them the opportunity to play the role right. And fourth, it has to be on the right platform so the world could see. Fortunately enough, the Lord that we serve, the Most High God, lined that up with me with Jeremiah. I don't know if you're aware of this. I was on heroin and cocaine 14, 15, 16 years old, and so I had all those nuances in my toolbox, right, and this was just the perfect. This was just the perfect role for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah Wow, this was just the perfect role for me. Yeah, Wow. You know you really briefly mentioned something about being incarcerated, but yet and still, you didn't let that stop you from pursuing what was ultimately in your heart, and that's a testimony for a lot of people listening in, because oftentimes they let their environment determine their next steps. So I'm glad to hear that you weren't kind of dismayed or sat down or shut down, but you knew what was in your heart and you pursued your purpose and your passion. Now you mentioned dyslexia. I'm an educator for over 25 years here in New York City public schools and charter schools and I know yeah, over 25 years and I know the story about how black and brown children are often disserviced and undiagnosed in these schools. At what age did you find out that you were dyslexic?
Speaker 2:I was serving a four-year prison sentence at 23 years old. I found out when I was in prison. 23 years old, I found out when I was in prison.
Speaker 1:So all of those years in school, your teachers never informed you that you had a learning disability.
Speaker 2:No, so what would they say? That's still going on to this day, right? So the thing is, is that if you, if public school systems use the word dyslexiaia, it's, it's the burden lies upon them to get the kid remediated. And they don't have the funds right, so they won't use that terminology, so they'll just throw you in a special ed class and say you have some mental issues, you're kind of slow, right, because they can't address the issues.
Speaker 2:Teachers are not skilled in the area of teaching children who are dyslexic, but those are some of the brightest minds. So you have Steve Jobs, you have Richard Branson, whoopi Goldberg, tom Cruise I mean Leonardo DiCaprio, I mean the list goes on and on and on. Great doctors, great scientists, great lawyers are dyslexic. It does not impact the intelligence, but how it can impact the intelligence. I would say, when you grew up around an environment that's not conducive to learning, and, like my mother did, she was a single parent. Mother called me stupid and dumb. Sit your stupid ass down. You'll never be nothing. Because I was acting out and this was acting out of frustration because I could not compete in the classroom while my brothers and sisters excelled and went on to college, and so I showed this antisocial behavior, which she thought was connected to me being dumb or stupid, but that wasn't the case.
Speaker 1:So we talked about navigating what you didn't know was dyslexia, or a learning disability, and the conditions of your home. Those two things combined, is that what kind of triggered you to seek out solace? And using cocaine at the age of 13 and then heroin at the age of 14? Were those two major contributing factors?
Speaker 2:I would completely concur. I don't think anything forces you to use drugs. But what happens is your environment does not control your thinking, but it impacts your thinking. So if you have poor morals and poor values and a distorted picture of yourself, right and self-imposed limitations that's a lot of self-imposed limitations I can't do this because I can't read I'll never be nothing because I can't read. Those are self-imposed limitations that you place on yourself with distorted thinking. And so it paralyzed me and I said to myself what am I going to do? I'll never be nobody anyway, so I might as well get high, right, and so I numbed myself. I just completely started numbing myself and, uh, some people numb themselves through alcohol. I, I numb myself through drugs. Some people numb themselves by by poverty, just just going into the streets and saying you know what? I don't want to work. It's all different types of ways. People numb themselves through eating uh, it's various ways, but but Satan had a plan for me through through drugs and in the street life, which almost cost me my life.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow. So when was the moment that you decided that you wanted to leave all of that alone and also maybe to address your learning disability? What was the moment that you changed.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, it happened like when I got behind the prison doors right and those cell bars rang, and there were times when I was waiting to go to trial, there were young men where I was 23 years old when I went to jail. There were men my age and younger coming back getting 40 years, 50 years life. And then the lights came on. I'm like Amir, this is very serious. I was facing 60 years because I was a multiple offender and I was guilty. I had that cocaine, I did those crimes that those people said and I never forget. I told God I was fasting. My grandmother was a religious lady, she loved the Lord, jesus Christ, and she would always tell me Amir, god can make a way for you, you don't have to do that. I'm like Ramon won't hear that man, god ain't going to help me, right? And so I recall vividly. She told me. She said you're going to have to stand on God's word, amir. And I went on a five-day fast or a seven-day fast, I can't recall, and I stayed in my cell with a sheet over my head and I never forget. I put the Bible on the floor in the cell and I said God, I want to stand on your word. I'm going to trust you to get out of here. If you deliver me from this, I'll change my life. I'll help kids. I'll never sell dope no more. I won't use dope no more. I'll never sell dope no more. I won't use dope no more.
Speaker 2:And it began to slowly happen. I started getting a desire to want to learn to read and after I got found guilty of a lesser charge by the grace of God, that's a whole nother story. That could take us 30 minutes. But I went to trial, I got found and I was only facing five years. The judge gave me four and I never forget this.
Speaker 2:This woke me up so clearly. I was on my way to the penitentiary. It was a three-and-a-half-hour drive from New Orleans to a voice correctional facility and this prison houses about 2,000 men and there was a work camp where you went out and you picked tomatoes, cotton. You worked, you worked your ass off, excuse my vulgarity. You worked and I was going down this long road. It was 32 men on a bus and this long road that leads up to the prison and we got about a mile, maybe about a mile and a half, from the prison and on both sides it was big fields and I saw all these black men with holes, swinging holes, cutting down grass, picking tomatoes, and I said God, I have placed myself in slavery.
Speaker 2:Now my ancestors came here was forced into slavery. Now my ancestors came and was forced into slavery. I gave them my slavery by my own volition, by breaking the law, and I realized that I was a slave and I said to myself I never want to be a slave again. Now, the only way that I could get out of my mental incarceration because there's a I wasn't worried about the physical, it was the mental incarceration that had me. I said I must teach myself to learn to read and for four years what I did was I wrote down that yesterday, tomorrow, I had thousands and thousands of notebooks of words that I memorized to learn to read, the spell and and and the.
Speaker 2:You know, I was going from different prisons and I, four years, right at the tail end, I took the GED test. I took the GED test about three, four times, failed it, but I kept at it and the last time I took it I passed. And there was this there was this joy that was unspeakable that I had accomplished my GED and I realized that I am somebody. I am not stupid, I am not dumb, I am who I am. I am a mirror, I'm a child of the most high God, I'm a kingdom citizen, I'm from a royal priesthood, I'm chosen.
Speaker 2:I began to see myself that, like I'm somebody and I never thought that I was somebody because I couldn't read and I couldn't write and I had a mother that told me I wasn't nothing, and so all of that impacted me and pushed me and made me feel unworthy. And so I tell young people all the time you are somebody, irregardless of you can't, irregardless of the fact that you can't read, irregardless to I don't care if your mama was on drugs, it doesn't matter. As a man think it so easy and so I am a proponent of that. I proselytize that around the country. That man listen, shake yourself, wake up, because the Calvary is incoming. You got to help yourself. Wake up because the Calvary is incoming, you got to help yourself.
Speaker 1:Amen, amen. That was so powerful, so powerful, and I know that your story is going to resonate with so many people. It's actually resonated with me. I currently have a cousin who's more like a brother, who is currently incarcerated, battling addiction, and I'm just making sure that I'm his support system because I know that he needs someone. He also, you know, was going through a learning disability in school, undiagnosed. So now he's being confronted with his demons and I'm just praying for him. We come from a very praying family and you know now that we know yeah, we know that God is on our side and you know, with him on our side, we know that we're going to win. So I know he's going to come out of this victorious. I have ultimate faith in that. So thank you for sharing that testimony as well. But on top of your mother giving you that type of blurred love or encouragement, on top of the learning disability, on top of the drug addiction you also sold drugs with your father. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, my dad and I my dad was a heroin user and my dad was up in Chicago and my dad was up in Chicago, his pops had died, left him 100,000. And so my dad came back to New Orleans to retrieve that money. And so all the while, like, my dad just walked out on us and he was just going like a fart in the wind, from the age of until I was three, until I was 19 years old, he just disappeared. And yet he was right there in chicago and he only came back for the uh, the money. And so I was dealing dope by now right, so I'm dealing half, half a bird's birds you know I'm flipping it and he had a hundred thousand.
Speaker 2:And so we put our money together. He knew a guy in california got to connect, and so now I'm moving keys. We just we're working, we're selling dope together and we're using dope together. And so this reminds me of what my mom on Zatima was doing. I mean that's what we did. I mean this character was perfect. It was almost as if Tyler saw my story and said I want that guy. Yeah, it was perfect. Yeah, my mother and I on the show used drugs, sold drugs, but my dad and I in real life used drugs and sold drugs. It was just the perfect combination.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I'm so grateful. Here's what's amazing.
Speaker 1:Here's what's amazing what the enemy tried to destroy me with and brought shame to my life. With. God has gotten the glory out of it. Amen. He's gotten the glory out of it yeah.
Speaker 2:It's an amazing thing, oh, god brings out good man, but it's only in the kingdom. You can only get this in the kingdom. That's why I tell people come to Christ, seek holiness and righteousness and purity. You know what I'm saying? Because we're kingdom citizens. We seated in heavenly places, above principalities and power. Satan has no dominion over our lives unless we give it to him. So I can't do nothing but prosper. You can't do anything but prosper if you're living in holiness and righteousness and the fear of the Lord. Praise God. He'll explode your life, because that's how he's going to be glorified. Yeah, because you're going to have a testimony and you're going to tell the world I didn't do it, he did it.
Speaker 1:You know people often ask me. They're like you know what's the ingredient to your success. How did you do it? I'm like it wasn't me. You know I allow God to use me as a vessel for his story and his success. I take no credit for anything. I just said God, I'm an obedient service and through you, your will will be done. So it is not me. I give him all of the credit. But you know, once again, just your character, jeremiah. This is more than a performance. This is personal. How were you even introduced to the script so that you could audition for the character of Jeremiah?
Speaker 2:Hey, I was, my agent called me up. I'm with the People Store in Atlanta. They have a connection, they have a pipeline with Tyler right, because they're a big agency there. And I was actually what the director Courtney who's a fantastic director he told me. He said listen, man, he said they didn't have any plans for you. You was just supposed to come in and just do your three episodes and you know advantage. But it was like to me your work was just so profound so I mean it was just like they wanted me to come in, play this guy.
Speaker 2:Knock on the door, talk to the team about my brother. You know he had, you know he been in prison. I had, I had been to prison, right, right, I mean, think about this. Jeremiah had been to prison, I've been to prison. It was just when I saw the script I said I got this and I don't know where they're going to take it at. But it was up to me to do such a great job. And I'll never forget, when season one was over, I was walking off and Tyler called me and said hey man, listen man, I like what you did. I'm going to bring you back for season two. And it's just been a wrap from there. It was just auditioning, plainly just auditioning for it. Boom did it and they just started writing for me. I knew that if you do great one thing about Tyler, if you do great work, he's going to write for you.
Speaker 2:And he told us that he said if you do great work, we're going to write for you. And so it's just been writing for me, man, and it's just been. It's just been just scene after scene, where I've just been bringing it in. My co-stars are very supportive Val and Crystal, Zika, Belinda, Gibacht, Alt Cam. All these guys, man, these guys are very supportive, you know, because it takes a team right. Teamwork makes the dream work. So they give me what I need to make this guy come out.
Speaker 2:And I want to say this I said I thought about this, I was ruminating on this the other day. I said there was something that Crystal told me from the inception of this show that put a fire under me, that was unquenchable five years, because what she told me was something that was you know, it was, it was something profound, it was, and I took it very serious, but it made me go to a whole nother level. So I want to thank her, I really want to thank Crystal. I'm telling you and I'll say I'll say years from now I don't think it's the right time to say it, but you know, I want to thank her for that years from now.
Speaker 1:I don't think it's the right time to say it, but I want to thank her for that. No, that's confirmation for me, because I was listening to Sarah Jakes Roberts the other day driving into work and the sermon was just about sometimes, when you get messages, it's just for you and you can't tell everyone else. And I kind of struggled with that because I was like, hey, I got this good news, I want to share it with everyone else and tune into the sermon. It was like no, no, no, that was just for you. So I understand because, as I was questioning God, like God. But I want to say something. I heard the sermon. Now I hear it from you. That's confirmation. So I'm going to respect that. I'm going to respect that and honor that. So when was the moment that you were very vulnerable and transparent and told your other castmates about your past history and how it is parallel to your character, jeremiah?
Speaker 2:I think it was in. What I did was the guy Courtney came on, he's the director. Uh, he was director and he's been doing some writing. And so I was, uh, I was telling, no, no, I think I divulged it first to the barber. Tyler Perry has a personal barber. He's an older guy and he was just watching me and he was like, man, you really into your work.
Speaker 2:And I said, man, yeah, I'm taking this serious because this is personal to me, and I so I sent him a news clip of, uh, it was a show I was on here in new orleans called like father, like son, channel eight, channel eight did a story on it and uh, it got like rave reviews, like an eight minute piece. Uh, like talked about my dad and I as a story about my dad and I and how we got started in the drug game, using drugs, etc. And I sent him that and I don't know what he did with that, but I sent it to courtney as well, because I was trying to tell courtney hey, courtney, listen this he was director and that was, uh, that was last season. I'm like this story is like this is my story, man, I'm like I'm on it. And so Courtney really believed in my work and allowed me to have this liberty with everything being creative, which I stuck to the script, of course, right, I got to stick to the script, but he just trusted me. It's something about having a director that trusts you, right, they believe in you because most directors they like to direct. You know, they've seen things out of their own peripheral, or out of their own lens, rather, and they want it done the way they want it done.
Speaker 2:But you can't tell me how to play this character, because that character is me. I am the character. How can you tell me how to live my life? You can't tell me how to live my life. This is my life. And so he understood that. And tp understood it as well, because he directed season two and he tp directed that, so he understood it as well. I think they knew. I think tyler is smart enough to realize who's around him, right, and and probably just a back digging and said you know what I'm gonna let this guy do? You know, uh, do what he does. Uh, I would like to know that. That same question as well, uh, but I, I did divulge. I would like to know did they know? How did Tala know Right, how do you know? But I guess you'll say that years from now.
Speaker 1:So are you in any way ashamed of your past story or do you just? Are you confidently living in your truth? I kind of know the answer to that, but I want you to say it out loud.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the only, the only regret that I have is the people that I hurt. I hurt a lot of people, you know, I hurt a lot of people. Uh, I've shot people, uh. There was a person, uh, that I took a person's life. We had a shootout. I sold crack. You know, when I was in jail I recall I used to sell crack to this lady and she had kids. I used to take all her food stamps. I didn't care about the kid, just give me your stamps. That type of thing I regret. You know. I've forgiven myself. Of course the Lord has forgiven me. But if I can take anything back the people that I hurt I would take that back.
Speaker 1:Well, we know that we can't often undo history or take things back. However, we can live life differently and pay it forward in the universe. So in what ways have you been paying it forward in order to make amends for your past? What have you been doing?
Speaker 2:Well, I go throughout the prison systems here in Louisiana. I speak around the country with dyslexia. I have five engagements set up now and everywhere I go I tell them listen, make sure I go to a school or make sure I go to a youth prison. I always try to do that and so if I catch people in the airport young people in the airport and in the stores, I'm always pouring into people. I go into the hoods. I'm always pouring.
Speaker 2:Everybody knows me in New Orleans, in New Orleans, as one that goes into the hoods. I'm always going to the hoods. I'm always fighting for some, for some, for some kid, and so that's what. That's how I pay it forward. I mean, it's not like I'm doing it to pay it forward, it's innately. It's just lying there in me. It's an innate thing. I have to do this because the kingdom now has came Right, so I'm living in the kingdom. This is what you do when you're in the kingdom you exalt others higher than yourself, right? Like my castmates, man, I, I exalt my cast mates, I exalt them, I praise them because I want to show everybody, on this show and wherever I go, that this is how a kingdom man operates amen, amen to that.
Speaker 1:So you talked about we were talking about your character, jeremiah, and I know that the script was written already. Were you able to? What layers were you able to add to Jeremiah that weren't wasn't written by the writers?
Speaker 2:Well, the deal was this right, the writing was perfect, because an actor cannot be a great actor without writing. Yeah, everything that they put on that page. That was me, really. I was able. That was that. That was the dialogue, it was. The writing was superb. The performance was just there. I made it look easy because the writing was there, I kid you not. And that's all a good actor needs. Just give me some great writing. That's all I need. That's all you need. I need a great script. I know how to break down. I know how to find the character. That's all any great actor needs is a great script. So everything was done. I mean, I didn't have to do anything, but come in and prepare, you know, prepare myself and and go there, find, find him, isolate myself. Deval, and I talked. Well, deval, and the director talked about this. Yesterday I heard that we didn't speak my I.
Speaker 2:I literally came across in season one, season two and season three as a person who was perhaps could have been read as uppity, uh uh, uh, a person who was arrogant. But I wasn't. It was just the fact that I had worked with kathy bates in american horror stories. I was able to talk to her, I was able to watch her performance and what she did when she came on the soundstage. She never talked Her and Angela Bassett never talked in Crossing on that show because there were enemies. And she said to me this is, this is how you must work. I mean, I talked to these people, I studied on the Captain Bay's Jessica Lane, angela Bassett, I worked with Forrest Whitaker, I worked with some talented people, so being around these people and I watched these people and so I didn't do much talking and so it could be read as oh, he think he's all that, but I'm not. I am just deep through my character. Jeremiah didn't like anybody.
Speaker 2:Jeremiah was frustrated. He was anybody. Jeremiah was frustrated, he was angry, he was jealous, he was full of rage, he had an addiction. He loved nothing but the drugs that he was putting in his arm, and so so now I think you know so me and Deval had this thing where we didn't really talk. He went his way, I went my way, right. But when we got on the soundstage, the tension was there. It was always. You saw the tension.
Speaker 1:And that's why it had to be organic.
Speaker 2:I am not there to please anybody on that set. I am there to do the work. Tp gave me a check to say listen, I want you to do this work. I am there to do the work. Tp gave me a check to say listen, I want you to do this work, I am paying you for it. I don't care how you get there, just get there. And so I had to internalize that and do that and that's just the way it is, man. And one other thing to dovetail into that conversation I was just listening to an actor when Denzel played the film when he was a drug dealer, uh, uh, nikki. Was that Nikki Bones? I think it was Nikki Bones.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, american gangster.
Speaker 2:American gangster, One of the actors. It was a white guy who played the police officer.
Speaker 2:So they got into a scene together, right, and he forgot his line. So the cat the director came up to him, right, because they had changed the lines and he said he was talking to Denzel and he forgot his line. So the cat the director came up to him, right, because they had changed the lines and he said he was talking to denzel and he put his hands on denzel. And denzel said mother effa, get your hands off of me, because denzel was. He was the dope dealer. A police has no business putting his hands on him, right. And so he was like he was shocked, but Denzel was in character yeah, yeah, you know, I'm sorry, just just off topic.
Speaker 1:You know, uh, I just have a reference of association because you did mention, uh, denzel Washington, an American gangster, playing Frank Lucas. Last night I went to the museum, the Whitney museum. I'm just a museum buff, I'm just a museum buff, I'm just anything about learning. And I'm currently on crutches and a cane just trying to get around because I tore my meniscus. And as I'm walking down the street of New York City, my daughter says you look like Frank Lucas, an American gangster, walking with that cane. So it was just a funny thing. And then when you mentioned his character, so I just wanted to mention that. But you know, you are doing so well with the character of Jeremiah. It is so deep and once again it's helping me navigate. How do I support a family member who is currently going through addiction and incarceration? Was there ever a moment when the director yelled cut that you were so triggered that you had to take a moment just to kind of reset before you rejoined? Were you ever triggered by any of your scenes?
Speaker 2:Yes, listen, that happens constantly, because you're always there, you're there, you're, you know, know, you're, you're in the moment, it's, it's, it's, it's. I recall one time in particular we did that, we did the scene where, uh, we did the scene where, um, we were going to see the doctor, the psych, the, the psychiatrist guy, right, and myself, guy right and myself Deval Crystal, and my mom was there. I'm there and I'm high and I just recall like I'm just there and I'm not really paying attention.
Speaker 1:He froze. Well, amir will be joining us back again. Technology happens, um, the phone froze. Shout out to iphone all this money for an iphone, new iphone every other season, and look at what happened. Look at hi iphone, hi apple, yeah.
Speaker 1:So once again, amir, if you can listen, this is what I'm going to have you do. I'm going to remove you from the studio and then I want you to log out and then I want you to come back. In Matter of fact, just bear with me a few moments. People in them. What I'm going to do is I'm going to text Amir real quick. So, just bear with me, bear with me, bear with me real quick. So, just bear with me, bear with me, bear with me. So, amir, log out and then rejoin the studio.
Speaker 1:So, once again, amir's performance on Tyler Perry's hit show Zatima on BET. It's not just a performance. This is personal Watching him each and every single season, each and every single week, because I stay tuned in, I'm tuned in, I'm locked in. I did not know his backstory, and this is, once again, the purpose of Sonya on air. I don't want us to always glamorize over these celebrities and place them in categories that are not aligned with the human experience, because oftentimes we try to place people on pedestals and that's not often the case. But once again, Amir's performance, it's not just a performance, it's personal. Amir, are you there? Yes, I am, I can't see you. It's dark. There you go. I said look at blame Apple and iPhone. That's all it is. But you were talking about the moment that you were triggered, when your character and crystal and deval and the mom when you were talking to the psychiatrist. Talk about that.
Speaker 2:Right, and so I just recall where I was just zoned out. It is amazing how you can create that high, like when I used to be high. You can create that right, you can tap back into that. All those emotions live within you, right, and those feelings. And I was just there just ducking, right. You could, you can tap back into that. All those emotions live within you, right, and those feelings. And I was just there just ducking.
Speaker 2:I knew my lines, so I'm not paying attention, I'm just, I'm listening to the conversation, but I'm high and I'm thinking like I remember when I was high and I'm feeling this high, and so tyler said cut, but I'm still there. They got up and I'm still there. And so Tyler said cut, but I'm still there. They got up and I'm still there. I'm just still there. Wait, you just go Listen. Acting is spiritual. I'm telling you, you got to be like some performances. I won't even do, some characters I won't even play, because you have to be that in order for it to be real. It's got to be real, you have to have that in your briefcase, your internal briefcase, and so some things I won't even expose myself to.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to expose myself to certain things.
Speaker 1:That's kind of surprising for me, because yet you willingly played a character that was so personal and close to home to your life story, but yet instead you are selective with the other types of roles that you will play. So what type of roles will you just not play?
Speaker 2:anything that I have not lived, anything that I have not lived, anything that I have not lived, because if I have not lived, it won't be real.
Speaker 1:It won't be real. So let's assume that a casting agent wanted to give you the role of a superhero and it paid, let's say, a a few million dollars. Would you take that role, even though, even though you know that you've never really been a superhero well, you probably have been. But would you take a role like that as a?
Speaker 2:I am a superhero I am a superhero, right I am I'm, I am doing superhuman things right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You see. So it's just, it's just. It's. For instance, let's say hypothetically this right, I wouldn't play a person that was a molester, that had to molest children. Got it Because you have to think, that, you have to feel, that you have to get yourself into that spirit. It's dangerous, very dangerous. You better watch what you're doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I know it is for me. I'm method, I'm method, I'm there. You can't fake this.
Speaker 1:You froze?
Speaker 2:again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it went black again.
Speaker 2:That camera is going to see everything.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes. So you know you are really embodying the term and it's not just a term. People have these catchphrases, these taglines all the time, but you meant, you mean what you said. It's just not a performance. This is all personal for you and it's just not limited to your role as jeremiah. It's limited to any type of role that comes across your radar. If it's not something that you've lived, then you just won't accept it. I'm glad to hear that, because you know money is the driving force for a lot of people. What's your driving force?
Speaker 2:well, my driving force is this I'm not attached to money because I know how to make money I can. I'm into real estate, I'm into the market, right, I flip houses, so I to make money I can. I'm into real estate, I'm into the market, right, I flip houses so I make money. One of the things that God has called me to do is is to preach the gospel. I am, I'm telling you this is, this is my calling, acting as a job. But the bigger purpose is as you grow, you draw people to you. Now, what are you going to give them? I want to give them the kingdom. That's what I want to give them. I want to give them the good news. That's what I want to give them, right. So a man who desires to be rich follows the diver's lesson temptation. When you desire to be rich is the diver's lesson temptation. When you desire to be rich. Hollywood will make you rich.
Speaker 1:It's gonna come with a cost yes, yes, and sometimes, often, that cost is people's soul. So you know, I'm glad that you are living a purpose-driven life, because I know for myself too, whenever I have conversations with individuals, my purpose is. I want us both to walk away with food for thought. I want us to both walk away better than we first entered into the conversation. I want you to walk away thinking, thinking about how you and yourself can be better. I just don't enter into conversations for just any reason at all. So what do you hope that audiences take away once they watch you as Jeremiah on Tyler Perry's hit show Zatima? What do you want them to take away?
Speaker 2:One of the things I want audience to take away is how to respect someone, irregardless to where they are in life. There's always redemption. My personal life is a testament to that and I'm sure at some point, jeremiah, his life, will be a testament to that as well, because I don't think he's going to remain an addict, right. Secondly, I want people to take away that. You know you get people always talking about tyler perry actors tyler perry this and tyler perry that right. I want them to know that this show that I'm on, that tyler perry, has some serious actors on the show. They take the crap very serious. Uh, there's, it's a stellar cast. And personally, I want them people to know that Amir Baraka is here. I'm here now. I'm here. I was the one that was in the wilderness and I'm here. Wow, I'm here and I can work with the best of them. I can work with the best of them and I can work with the best of them.
Speaker 1:I can work with the best of them. So working with the best of them. What's next for Amir Baraka? What's next for you? Career-wise, action-wise.
Speaker 2:I have a show that's coming out this year with Taja from Taja, she's from the Oval. It's a new show, it's a spinoff show. I was on a show titled House Divided. I was on there for two seasons. Then they didn't. They picked me up on the spinoff and I play a character named Brother James who's a religious assassin. He's a killer. And he kills people for righteousness, and so it's a good show show. Taja does her thing first time being a lead on the show and she does her thing.
Speaker 2:Now I got that coming out. We did eight episodes, but all black nice. So I'm not going to show you about for a couple of shows, a couple other shows did some auditions for those and looking to hear back from that, but uh, I think I got it, I think I got it. I think I got it, I think I got it you got it, my brother.
Speaker 1:We just want to speak it into the universe. It has already been written, it's just there. It's just there waiting for you. What is your, what is your dream role, though?
Speaker 2:My dream role. My dream role is I would definitely like to be like a superhero. Okay, I would love to do something like that. You know, I would love to do something like that, to be a superhero. You know, and I wanna work with the young lady Ebony from Sisters. She was just in Sixth Grade.
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, oh my gosh, the way that she bodied that role. Let me tell you Tyler Perry and this is the first time I've heard people call him TP, you know that's how you know that you're really close and personal to him but he has created such a lane for his cast on Sisters and on Zatima and just to see you as actors once again just obtaining these magnificent roles. He has really opened up so many doors to allow people like me to get to know people like you. I was so impressed by your story. For me it wasn't about the character of jeremiah. I wanted to really get to know you, the many layers of you. So I learned a lot about you. I just learned that you would take a role as a superhero, so that role will be waiting for you, um, very, very soon for you to grab um. So I do have one final question. This has been a question that I've been thinking about since Zatima came on air. Why is the show called Zatima, but you all call her Fatima? Why?
Speaker 2:I think it was Fatima. I think her name is Fatima. Zach name is zach, right, so they put those two together some kind of way oh yeah, that's a real simple answer.
Speaker 1:I get it. I was like, well, maybe he originally named uh's character Fatima, but they kept calling her Fatima. Now I get it, it's Zach and Fatima. I want to say something.
Speaker 2:I want to correct you on something. I want to correct you on something. You said that I call Tyler TP, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Tyler is from New Orleans, grew up about five blocks away from me, right? Oh. Tyler is from New Orleans, grew up about five blocks away from me, right oh, I am not friends with Tyler. Tyler and I are not close. I just work for him. You know Tyler's a dude, that he's on another stratosphere, right, and every time I see him, every quarter, I'll see him. Atp man, thank you for the opportunity. Okay, you need anything. No, I man, thank you for the opportunity. Okay, I mean, you need anything? No, I'm good. Okay, boom. And so we never really develop a relationship. But I respect that brother. That brother's from my hometown. He's doing his thing and maybe we'll never develop a relationship where we're intimate like that, but I value and appreciate him giving me the opportunity to work and that's enough for me.
Speaker 1:That is definitely enough for me man. I hear that. Well, you know we are at the end of this conversation. Do you have any final words that you would like to give to one aspiring actors and two for any individual who's watching this show who is currently battling addiction?
Speaker 2:Okay, cool, those are good. So one thing I want to say is this I have a book out new book out titled Undiagnosed the Ugly Side of Dyslexia on Amazon. It's a great read. It lays out my life dealing with dyslexia as a kid up until an adult. For those who are flirting with the idea that you want to be an actor or an actress, I would say this is that. Make sure this is something that you want to do.
Speaker 2:This is a very tough business. It's not like you can go to Yale and then come out and get a job, like if you had gone to be an attorney or an engineer or a dentist. Right, it's not based on that. This is not based on that. Right, it's not. It's based on a lot of nepotism and, god's favor, right, it's a very tough business.
Speaker 2:I will not tell my child to get in this business no kind of way, unless they just knew that they were born to do this and they had a greater purpose, right? So my purpose is, my desire is to act for a purpose. My desire is to act for a purpose. See, I'm acting for a bigger purpose than myself. So that keeps me driven, because I know if I stop acting. Thousands of kids will never hear my story. I can't encourage people in prison, right? I can't right, because people want to see successful people. We all want to see successful people. We all want to see successful people. Nobody wants someone that's not successful, talking to them Right. And so that's why I keep acting and that's why I keep going into the prisons.
Speaker 2:A person who's dealing with substance abuse Listen, sister, brother, look at me. I was a person that knows the sickness, the feeling of being on drugs. I understand that no one is coming to help you no one. No one is coming to help you. But Christ came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. He came to defeat drug addictions, pornography, masturbation, porn. He came to defeat all sin. He came to defeat it. Your weaknesses. He came to take your weakness and give you his strength. That is where the help is at. That's where your joy will come from. That's where your peace will come from. That's where your peace will come from. That's where your victory will come from, knowing what he did for you.
Speaker 2:He called you into his kingdom to live royally. He called you to live in a place of victory, not a place of defeat. But you choose to live in that place. You choose to live there. So I beg you, man, I beg you, sister, I beg you repent. I beg you to give your life to Christ. I beg you to look into the rich treasures of the Lord and see all the wealth that's there the joy, the peace, the prosperity, the healing, the forgiveness. Everything that you need is in him. I beg you, man, don't delay. Don't delay. You were not created to live below your privileges as a human being. You were created to go out and dominate and rule.
Speaker 1:So, with that being, said man.
Speaker 2:I ask you, Father God, to strengthen those, Father God, who will watch this Holy Spirit impact their spirit. Draw them to the cross that they might receive life in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:Amen. Let me tell you how this was so purposeful, because I asked you a question to give advice, and after that I was going to ask you to end it with a prayer, but that happened automatically. Because this is what happens when you invite God into the space he just takes over and he leads, and we are just obedient servants. I thank you so much for your story. I thank you so much for your time. I thank you so much for what you are about to do. I thank you so much for what you are about to do. I thank you so much for being obedient. I thank you so much for being you wonderfully made. Continue blessings, my brother, because this is just the beginning. It has already been written. Thank you once again for blessing this platform. I really appreciate you, thank you.
Speaker 2:Minitans, for having me. I do value that. I really appreciate you. Thank you, Minitans, for having me. I do value that.
Speaker 1:I do value that, no problem. Well, I'm going to end this conversation and I'm going to continue with the show, but continue blessing Amir. Thank you so so much. Take care.
Speaker 1:So there you have it, amir Baraka, who stars as Jeremiah on Tyler Perry's hit series Zatima on BETP. Let me tell you something. I really did have that question for so many years. At the onset of Zatima, I was like why is the show called Zatima, but they're calling her Fatima, did not realize had a blonde moment for years that they were combining the two main characters named Zach and Fatima. Hence you get Zatima Duh. So if you had the same conundrum, the same question, the same like what is this confusion? Leave a comment. Leave a comment.
Speaker 1:Let me know that I'm not alone, but wasn't that an amazing conversation? Wasn't it such a purposeful conversation? Wasn't it a testimony? I'm so inspired by people who have gone through something honestly, because when they battle through storms and they've acquired the success story and the strength, I want to hear about it. I want to hear about how you made it over. How you made it over, because maybe your story is something that can resonate with me, or I can remember your story in case I need to share it with someone else.
Speaker 1:So to know that, going through school and with a learning disability and no one said a thing. Like I said, I've been in education for over 25 years and that's a true thing and one thing that I'm going to say for any parent that's listening in who has a small child in either elementary school, junior high school or high school stay on top of your child's education. You give educators so much free range. It's because they got a little degree, so you think they know everything, and then you take a backseat to your child's education, letting people dictate how your child will be educated. So this man, amir, went through his entire life. It wasn't until he was incarcerated in his 20s that he learned that he had dyslexia. So oftentimes I remember remember growing up in the 80s we always saw the bad kids, the bad kids in school. We already knew that they had a lot of learning disabilities because they were in rooms that were all the way in the back, or there were kids in our classes and the general education classes and we saw them acting out and no one said a thing. They just failed the kid, left them behind, or either failed the kid and just pass them along to the next grade. Because guess what's important in education? The data. That's all it's about. Even if the data was tainted, misconstrued, lied, falsified, it's all about the data. So please stay on top of the education system. One thing I do realize as an educator who is also a journalist it's an ism. It's an ism. Any type of institution education, healthcare, politics in my opinion, it is bombarded with a whole bunch of isms, and the ism that I'm referring to is racism. So when we look at schools and educators and marginalized communities, those are the people you need to be watching. Trust me on this one. Sonia's not going to lie to you because I've been in the system for over 25 years. You better watch them. So Amir Baraka stars as Jermai on Tyler Perry's hit show Zatila on BET, going through school battling what he didn't know was dyslexia.
Speaker 1:At the age of 13, and also growing up in a household where his mother often called him derogatory names, english N-word MF. 13 years old, starts using cocaine, and by then I think that he was also selling it by the age of 14. In just one year, heroin. He's not only selling it himself, he's selling it with his father and they're both also using the drug. He gets incarcerated for drug possession and murder, beat the murder charge by the grace of God and only had to deal with a possession charge. But while he's incarcerated he's still in battle and addiction. He is still remembering God's purpose over his life and in prison he's acting for the inmates. Now let me tell you something. What we know about environments where not everyone has it up here, environments where not everyone has it up here. I can only envision him acting in some sort of prison system and being made fun of because not everybody gets it. Not everybody gets it when you're trying to do something right, when you're in a place for people who've done nothing but wrong, but not all of them know wrong, but not all of them are Acting.
Speaker 1:For years, emmy nominated and then, lo and behold, one day he gets access to a script and he looked at it and he said this is my life. So it once again speaks about. Sometimes we don't just have to chase things, but we have to be fully present in our moment so that when the blessing comes, we are aware of the blessing and it doesn't look like it's disguised by anything and we can say this is for me. So Amir said that the writing was just so exceptional that there wasn't really much he had to do to the role except act. That's how you know that something is for you. You don't have to add extra sazon, adobo, black pepper, garlic. You ain't got to do all those things. You just step into it and you go to work.
Speaker 1:So this is what I'm going to encourage all of you to do, no matter what your current circumstance is. Prayer is powerful, but without the work it is pointless. I want you to be fully present in your moment so that, when the blessing comes, you are able to step confidently into the space and do the work. Amir Baraka is a testimony of God's awesomeness. It is a testimony of doing the work. So do the work, child, and make sure you subscribe, like, share and leave a comment. If you're watching this on YouTube, not only like, subscribe, share and leave a comment, but make sure you hit the notification bell. That way, every time I upload an all new Sonia On Air celebrity interview, you'll be the first ones to know. Make sure you also visit Eden's T-shirts and More LLC so that you can get customized T-shirts, charcuterie boards, passports just about any type of accessory, just about any type of item, eden's more and t-shirts can customize just about anything. So make sure you go to the description section of this episode and get your shop on and throw it in the bag.
Speaker 1:And make sure you stay tuned in to Zatima each and every single week so that we can see how Jeremiah develops. The character of Jeremiah develops Because if you are tuned in every single week, who saw the recent episode, did you realize? Or if it was just me? So, when jeremiah showed up to his mother's funeral, who remembers gator samuel l jackson's character in jungle fever? I believe jeremiah was acting like gator samuel jackson's character in Jumble Feet. Amazing job, amazing job. So this has been another amazing edition of Signing On Air with my special guest actor, amir Baraka. Make sure you stay tuned in to Satina and Signing On Air. I love you much. Y'all, muchis, take care.