Portraits of Atlanta

It’s more important to understand someone than to judge them. We think the first step to understanding someone is asking them the fundamental questions about who they are and how they became the person they are today. Understanding and empathy are essential building blocks for a better, more compassionate world. We’re incredibly fortunate to be able to ask these questions each week through our interview series. Below you’ll find inspiring interviews from in and around Atlanta.

Rachel McNab

I grew up in Nashville in the US and now live in St Albans, UK with my husband and our daughter. My whole career has been looking after people. I spent about 20 years in operations across retail, hospitality, events, corporate and the non-profit sector and was the person everyone came to when something wasn’t working. Then life changed. Read more>>

Ahmad Duplessis

The Story Behind Swift and Shine Cleaning Services LLC My story is one of loss, healing, perseverance, and turning something I never expected into something I could call my own. Growing up, my stepfather was the person who cleaned, cooked, and took care of so much around the house. Honestly, I used to hate cleaning. Read more>>

MALENA

I started making music as a therapeutic way to process and express my emotions. I began to take it seriously in 2020 during COVID. That’s when I wrote my first full song (“BOTH”) and recorded at a studio. I released it shortly after and got way better feedback than what I was expecting. Read more>>

Sankofa Nyame

My name is Sankofa Nyame. I was born in Baltimore, Maryland. But I moved to Atlanta when I was fairly young, so I’ve been here since a child. I was raised here. Before everyone flooded the city. I’ve always been around music because my father rapped & produced growing up. So I was also around music & influenced by it. Read more>>

Frances Wallace

I’ve always been a creative person in general. My first musical memory is playing a kid’s keyboard writing a song to play at a ‘homegoing service’ for a pet ladybug me and my sister caught when I was maybe 5 years old. Read more>>

Stephen Batten

“5” Generations of our family have lived & farmed on this land along Satilla River in Atkinson County Georgia. We produced timber, cattle, hogs, corn, soybeans, peanuts, corn and tobacco. As a small family farm steeped deep in history and tradition and trying to stay profitable we transitioned to citrus! Finally a of our late father’s vision had came to realization! Read more>>

Chris Priddy

My path has been a little unconventional, which is probably why I’ve enjoyed it so much. I started out programming throughout high school and college, then went into the U.S. Army and served during Operation Iraqi Freedom, which is about as far from 3D visualization and automotive design as you can get. Read more>>

Jihan Oliver

Born in New York raised in Baltimore, Maryland. my father is a Public Enemy group member and has been all my life.. He ia a great dad but was often on tour. He and my mother are still married with 6 children. Im the oldest girl answered Child. I always had a go against the grain personality, out spoken. Read more>>

Tiana Vee

I’m a Florida Atlantic University grad, where I studied Film, Video and New Media. I’ve always been a creative. Growing up, I was into dance, art, photography, making videos, and eventually started posting on YouTube when i was 15. As I got older building a career in the creative field started to feel unrealistic. Read more>>

Andrea Bryant

My story has unfolded at the intersection of faith, mental health, business, and service. I was born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in Buffalo, New York, by two entrepreneurs. My parents invested in real estate, and my father was a serial entrepreneur—always starting something, pursuing a passion, or imagining what he could build next. Long before I understood entrepreneurship, I was watching it happen. Read more>>

Ian Schrift

I’ve been into cameras since high school. It started freshman year making videos for a youth group, and I was hooked after that. From there I filmed everything – the school news, home videos with my siblings, stuff out in the streets of Pittsburgh. Anything I could point a camera at. Read more>>

Andrew Paranavitana

I have been a photographer of sorts for as far back as I can remember; always in charge of taking photos or passed a camcorder to record family memories as a child and teenager. My creative journey however, began in 2008, when I was gifted my first digital camera and took it on a six-month trip around the world. Read more>>

Lebron Williams

My name is Lebron Williams aka “Brondakidd “ I started off making music at 15 years old , at first it was just for fun because my friends just always told me I could freestyle but then I would say my family and my brothers Mario , aj quail and more made me realize I can do some special things with this Read more>>

Ibrahim Taqqee

My name is Ibrahim Taqqee and I was born in Alabama originally, and my family moved to the Northside of Georgia when I was around 5 years old. Being from a town in the south that was so inclined to music and frequency and everyday interaction. I have always loved the arts and studied the innovative aspects of nuance and culture. Read more>>

Lauren DeYoung

My honey business started with a dream to own my own company. My father has been a beekeeper for over 15 years and his entrepreneurship inspired me to do the same. Read more>>

Ariel Sesay

I grew up on the Westside of Atlanta (Bankhead) in the Grove Park neighborhood in the early 90s. I am a professional musician today all because I was beefing with my 4th grade Social Studies teacher at Grove Park Elementary School. I couldn’t stand him and he couldn’t stand me. Read more>>

Makaley Warren

Absolutely! I’d make it feel personal and tell the story of how you went from cosmetology school to building a career and clientele you genuinely care about: My journey into the beauty industry started with a love for making people feel confident and beautiful, but it quickly became so much more than just doing hair. Read more>>

Musa Miyamoto

I started making music during my teen years but I’ve making art for way longer than that. I had a friend in primary school who taught me how to draw and that was around the same time when Dragonball Z had my generation in a frenzy. Read more>>

Nicole Cush

My story began at the intersection of education, creativity, and community. I started my career in New Jersey as an educator, teaching English, broadcasting, speech, debate, and cultural media literacy. I also worked with social-emotional learning and equity initiatives through Rutgers University and Northeastern University. Even in those early years, I was interested in more than academic achievement. Read more>>

Shaquita Starks

I’ve been a nurse for almost thirty years, and it started with observing my community, especially the women in my hometown of Grenada, Mississippi. The women raised the children, cooked the food, ran the church, and ran the community. Read more>>

Shanna Coulter

I am a lifelong artist continually searching for the balance between creativity and responsibility. I have done creative work throughout my adult life to support my family by painting murals, decorative finishes, commissioned paintings and drawings. As a SAHM of five, I struggled to orchestrate my own creative practice, and then went into education at 40 to become an art teacher. Read more>>

Elizabeth Chicoine

My story started on an August evening after my mother went into spontaneous labor with one continuous 20 minute contraction and I was born en’caul before the midwife could get there. Read more>>

Kimberly ‘Kiba’ Alexander

Peace y’all, I’m Kimberly Alexander, but you can call me ‘Kiba’. A New York native living my life in Decatur, GA: wifey to my hubby, mama to two dope ‘baby adult’ daughters, and grandmother to an absolute ray of sunshine housed in the body of the most adorable 3-year-old little man. Read more>>

Darien Phillips

I started playing the piano self taught when I was 10 years old. My grandmother bought me a Yamaha keyboard for either my birthday or Christmas, I can’t remember but that’s what really made me gain interest in learning how to play music. Two years later in middle school I joined the band and wanted to play the saxophone. Read more>>

Passion Lewis

Content creation started for me way back in the day on a social media site called Black Planet. I was in middle school during that time. From Black Planet I migrated to Myspace and started experimenting with HTML. I created graphics and layouts for my profile which caught the attention of my peers at school. Read more>>

Shanna Clark

I’ve always been a dreamer, but I’ve also learned that dreams don’t build themselves. My journey has really been about faith, hard work, love, loyalty, sacrifice, and building brick by brick—even when the dream was bigger than the money in my pocket. Read more>>

Althea Burnett-Helper

Well, my love of real estate started with breaking and entering with my mom at a young age. Any time we passed a house that looked vacant, she would look through the windows, walk the property, and check to see if doors were unlocked. She would talk about all the things that could be done, what she thought was DIY, and what needed a professional. Read more>>

Angela Lopes Gomez

I’m Angela, a content creator, wife, and mom of three based in Virginia. My journey started in 2016, shortly after I moved to the United States from Germany. I was in a new country, far from everything familiar, and I started filming makeup routines from my living room floor during nap time as a way to keep myself busy and feel like myself again. Read more>>

Kelly Wiemann

I think I got started the way a lot of travel advisors do—I genuinely loved planning trips. Not just for myself, but for my family and extended family too. There was something exciting about taking all the research, little details, and moving pieces and turning them into an experience people would still be talking about years later. Read more>>

Adam Washington

I’ve always loved making people laugh. Before I could sing, before I stepped on any stage or behind any bar, I have always wanted to make people smile. I believe that if I can make you smile I can make an impact, even just for a moment. Read more>>

Marcus (Marc-Baze) Bazemore

I grew up in Bushwick, Brooklyn, as the youngest of four—two older sisters, an older brother, and me. My mom is originally from Limón, Costa Rica, but grew up in New York City, so our household was always a melting pot of cultures. Read more>>

Anacia Lofton

My journey into sales started in MLM sales then I decided to get into corporate retail sales, where I discovered that I had a natural passion for connecting with people, understanding their needs, and helping them find the right solutions. After becoming a top performer, I knew I wanted to take those skills even further, which eventually led me into remote Tech sales. Read more>>

Emanuel Chichester

It all started in 2017 when I decided to purchase a camera with the intention of becoming a vlogger. But after realizing that talking to a camera in public just wasn’t for me, that idea ended almost as quickly as it started. I still had a camera in my hands, and I was determined to figure out what I wanted to do with it. Read more>>

Lissa Sévigné

I’m Lissa Sévigné, a Montreal-based entrepreneur, artist, and author with a background in psychosocial intervention and nearly two decades of experience working with people affected by substance use and social vulnerability. My professional life has always been connected to people, human behavior, creativity, and the search for meaning. Read more>>

Catherine Turner

I started Eufloria Flower Studio officially in 2023, but I have been doing floral design for almost 10 years. 5 years ago, I decided to think more seriously about what starting my own business would look like. The idea gradually grew as I thought about a name, branding, etc.– what goes into making this a real business, not just a side hustle. Read more>>

Kristina Debbold

Creativity has always been a part of who I am. As a little girl, I was always drawing, choreographing dances, or carrying around my Polaroid camera taking pictures of everything and everyone. In high school, I took a photography class back when we were still shooting film and developing our own photographs in the darkroom. Read more>>

Monique Hercules

Growing up, I was the child who was always getting into my mom’s makeup. I was fascinated by it from a young age, but growing up in a Caribbean household, makeup meant something different. It was often seen as something for grown women or at least for when you were trying to be one. Read more>>

Prady AKA Pradnya Kharat

I was born and raised in Mumbai and across different parts of Maharashtra, so I grew up surrounded by an incredible mix of culture, tradition, cinema, color, and style. Being from Mumbai, the energy of Bollywood was always somewhere in the background. I think that environment influenced me much more than I realized at the time. But my relationship with artistry actually began very early. Read more>>

Deep Space Cookies Gerald Brister

I started baking cheesecake about 4yrs ago, but I never thought of selling them. I got tried of buying them so I started making my own. Before cookies it was BBQ pop-ups and I decided to add dessert to my menu. I landed on Banana Pudding and it was a big hit. Then I thought what can I add the doesn’t need refrigeration. Read more>>

Moses Lauriston

My story starts in Poinciana Florida, I’m the son of two ambitious Haitians that came here and gave birth to me and my older siblings. We’re a music family, my sister being a singer my brother a rapper + producer, my dad a pianist and my mother involved in our church choir. It was inevitable that I would become an artist myself. Read more>>

Joshua Sylvain

My story started in my parents’ basement, where I began recording music with nothing more than a podcast mic and a desire to create. I was teaching myself how to write, record, and produce, figuring things out through trial and error while trying to discover what my sound could be. My journey hasn’t been easy. Read more>>

Ashlye Hylton Toure

Fastpitch softball has been a part of my life from an early age. Growing up in Northern California, I rode horses, raced BMX bikes, and played softball. My goal was always to play collegiately, and the excitement of going away to school ultimately led me to accept an athletic scholarship to play softball at Sam Houston State University in Texas, where I majored in Journalism. Read more>>

Dee Carr

I’ve always been someone who used writing to process life and make sense of what I was feeling. For a long time, poetry was very personal for me, but eventually I realized that some of the things I was writing about were things other people were feeling too. Read more>>

Armani Mines

My journey into fashion history and archives really began with my love of both history and fashion. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been interested in the two separately, but I didn’t initially realize there was a career that could bring them together. In undergrad, I attended Old Dominion University, where I earned a B.A. in History and a B.S. in Fashion Merchandising. Read more>>

Madeline Brennan

When I was 10 years old, I would steal paper from my Mom’s printer and tape it to the box TV in our basement while reruns of The Lion King played. For hours, I would trace the characters on screen onto different sheets of paper. All I understood at the time was that I was making the characters move like they did on the TV. Read more>>

Mikayla Rogers

Where do I even begin? Like many others, the idea of posting on the internet as a career was an enigma that just sort of fell in my lap. I woke up one day and thought ‘I think I want to do that’ and I just started filming myself. I remember watching a Jaclyn Hill tutorial, and that was it. I was hooked. Read more>>

B.E. Boykin

I’ve loved music since I was a child. My parents say that I became interested in the piano around the age of 3 but I didn’t start formal lessons until about the age of 10. I studied classically with a woman by the name of Mrs. Alma Sanford. Read more>>

Quay Fair

Honestly, I feel like I started creating from birth lol. I was the kid who was supposed to be sleeping but was actually making Barbie clothes and heels out of construction paper. Read more>>

HOUSE OF X ENTERTAINMENT

House of X was formed back in 2008 by CEO Mr. Leo Williams, known as CHOCOLATE X as a unique pageant house after winning titles, working with many organizations, and giving back to his community, he has also help many with their pageantry career and performances. Over the years, his vision of Entertainment became bigger. Read more>>

ATL Redd

I started doing music when I was sixteen, after losing my dad. That loss drew me to music and gave me a way to express what I was feeling. Over the years, I’ve changed my style a couple of times and even changed my name, but I never stopped pursuing my passion. Read more>>

Moses Hamilton

So, I’ve been doing hair since 2016. I had the opportunity to have a cosmetology program at my high school. At the time, I honestly didn’t really understand how lucky or how blessed I was to have that opportunity because a lot of schools don’t have that. Read more>>

Justyn Lamar

My story with beauty started long before I knew it could become a career. Somewhere in my family is an old home video from my grandmother’s house in Trinity Gardens, Alabama. Someone asks, “Where’s Justin?” and my aunt responds, “Probably somewhere playing with a Barbie doll.” That pretty much sums it up. Read more>>

Alexis Rodriguez

I started photography when I was 18 years old, around the same time I started studying film at Georgia State University. I began by primarily shooting on location, and over the years I learned how to work with all kinds of environments and conditions. Photography started as something I was interested in, but over time it became something I knew I wanted to seriously pursue. Read more>>

Diane Glenn

Im Diana Born in Iowa . Read more>>

Karyn Staples

I am a mover at heart. I was a gymnast as a child and when I found Pilates as a young adult the movement and underlying philosophy felt good in my body. I went through the Polestar Pilates Comprehensive Teacher Training program in 2004, completion in May 2005. Read more>>

Emma Rose Wagner

I think I’ve always known that I wanted to tell stories, even before I knew exactly what that could look like as a career. I grew up in a very creative household. Read more>>

Shemika Owens

I got started with Blossom University back in 2018 when my daughter was 8 years old. I really wanted to create a community for moms so they didn’t feel like they were in motherhood alone. Read more>>

Will Ayarza

I originally went to school for Nutrition & Dietetics without really knowing what the job market or earning potential looked like. After graduating, I became a nutritionist for WIC, a government-funded program, making around $43,000 a year. At the same time, I had already been dancing professionally for years, specifically Breaking, and was making additional income through parties, commercials, films, performances, and other gigs. Read more>>

Kentha Giles

I actually started creating content on Instagram with a segment where I would talk about things that were on my mind, what was happening in the world, lessons I had learned, and different perspectives I wanted to share. Read more>>