Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber A. Harris.
Amber [actress, singer, director, writer, producer, philanthropist] born and raised in Atlanta – (Adamsville), has had a love for the arts since childhood. Being an only child, meant that her life consisted of constant entertainment, whether it was for herself or others. Amber begin performing professionally at sixteen at the Tony Award winning – Alliance Theatre.
Amber auditioned and graduated from North Atlanta High Performing Arts as a Show Choir student, then went on to study and earn her B.A. in Theatre Arts with a minor in Criminal Justice from Alabama State University. She taught in the Montgomery Public School System before receiving a scholarship to earn her M.F.A. in Acting from Louisiana State University, where she was also a Professor of Acting for two years.
Amber has performed throughout regional theatres in over 30 theatrical productions including, Drums of Sweetwater, First Breeze of Summer, Soul of Nat Turner, Black Nativity, The Trial of One-Short Sighted Black Woman, Naomi in the Living Room, A Taste of Chocolate, Speak Truth to Power, The Miser, King Hedley II, 365 Days/Plays, Cocktail, The Heidi Chronicles, Hair, Pirates of Penzance, Willful, The African Company Presents: Richard the III and The Incredibly Deaf Musical.
She has toured as a featured soloist and performed with legends such as Hinton Battle, Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond, Brian McKnight and Wynton Marsalis. She’s performed in over 35 US states in addition to Paris, France; Beijing, Shanghai, Xen, Suzhou, China and Zurich, Switzerland.
Amber has a non-profit organization established in 2009 named “Educated Daughters of Tomorrow”, that focuses on education, arts, etiquette, mentorship and community service for girls 9th-11th grade. E.D.O.T. was birthed in Harlem and executed in Brooklyn at P.S. 26 Frederick Douglass Academy IV with 20 plus girls. E.D.O.T. strives to provide the necessary tools of life, while reinforcing education as a mandatory prerequisite for cultivating talent, capturing potential and allowing young girls to grasp their rightful place in society.
While living in New York City, Amber worked as a teaching artist, having the opportunity to teach various entities of the arts at the Historic and Prestigious “The Harlem School of Arts,” Geoffrey Canada’s “Harlem Children’s Zone” and also for the “Classical Theatre of Harlem”, where she would go into inner city schools and teach students the fundamentals of acting, stage presence and Shakespeare, mixed with some Kendrick Lamar.
Amber was featured in 2014 in the book, Reflections of Style: A Philanthropic Glance at the Arts by Dr. Courtney A. Hammonds for her philanthropic endeavors through the arts. On April 14th of 2018, Amber will receive the Torch Award at the “Celebration of Excellence” from the Atlanta Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., for her contributions to Arts and Letters and the Community. Amber recently earned her M.F.A. in Filmmaking in September 2017 from the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles. Overall, she has worked on more than 26 films and music videos and she recently was the casting director of five Screen Actors Guild (SAG) short films.
Amber has written, produced and directed four of her own films-one entitled “Boarding House,” highlighting homelessness and the severity of this International issue. The film had its world premiere in 2017 in Nova Scotia and was nominated for 2017 Best Student Film in Nigeria. Amber’s latest SAG short film “Never Alone,” deals with mental health in the black family. During filming weeks, Amber gave many of the middle school, high school and college students in the area opportunities to volunteer and earn an IMDB credit and community service hours from the project. “Never Alone” was screened at Universal Studios in Los Angeles and is currently preparing for an Atlanta premiere and for film festival submissions.
Amber was recently named the Arts Coordinator for the Summer Camp at South Fulton Arts Center, where the theme for the Summer is “Ode to Hip-Hop”.
Amber’s ultimate desire is to work with her SHEro and Muse Ava DuVernay, while also working with Oprah, Spike Lee and John Singleton. She feels that a girl should always dream and those dreams might as well be BIG!
“I shall pass through this world but once, any good that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now and not defer it. For, I shall not pass this way again.” -Stephen Grellet
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has not been a smooth road in life or in this industry. I dealt with face to face racism and changing of grades from Faculty and Staff at Louisiana State, which forced me to leave the school, 9 months shy of my degree. I moved to New York with $300 and a dream and I was determined to make it. I lived on an air mattress and couch for 3 months, until I got a job and got my own place. My daily routine would be to get up at 5 am take the train into the city from Brooklyn by 7 am, only to sign my name on a piece of paper outside of the audition room, with the hopes of being seen, which sometimes I wasn’t, because I didn’t have an agent and I wasn’t an equity actor.
Eventually, my good friends and Alabama State Alums, Laiona Weaver and Jeff B. Calloway introduced me to their agent, we had a meeting, I auditioned for them and they signed me. I booked my first film which premiered at the “Tribeca Film Festival” with them and I booked the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
New York is a place that can swallow you whole if you allow it. I started my own company in 2008 in a brownstone in Harlem, I was doing pretty good financially, until I wasn’t. I started falling in the trap of New York, because I’d become comfortable with my life and my network of friends, I’d learned how to make it in the city where they say, “if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere”. But my creativity was being stifled, due to my own negligence of my craft. I’d lose my drive.
I took a trip to L.A. to film a few episodes of a TV show and meet up with a recruiter from the New York Film Academy, I was offered yet another scholarship to receive my M.F.A. [Masters of Fine Arts] in Filmmaking. This time, I succeeded and I’m grateful for all the challenges and obstacles that were laid before me. It was all a test to see if I’d give up or endure to the end.
Just An Inch Entertainment – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Just An Inch Entertainment provides producing, directing and filming of short films, feature films and web series, fashion shows and gala’s. We also provide performance coaching, vocal lessons, on-set sound mixing, production design, costuming, personal styling and casting.
I’m most proud of taking the first step to start my company. It’s made me money and it’s put me in the hole, but that’s all apart of the business. It’s not always about the money you make or winning, but learning a lesson in the end.
What sets me apart is that my company is made up of 4 women, striving for one common goal, which is telling our stories from our point of view.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I personally define success by what I set out to accomplish and if I see those tasks to completion. I don’t measure success within the realm of what society says is success. Simply because there is no big or small success. If you succeed in or at something. It’s because you put forth the effort to manifest that was you were passionate about and dedicated to.
Now, do I feel there are levels to success, yes, but they all can’t be weighed on the same scale, because some folks got “Big Things Poppin” – T.I. and some have “little things popping”, but as long as something is popping, it’ll be successful.
I’m looking for every opportunity that comes my way, to catapult me to a higher level of vibration and accomplishments.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.justaninch.com
- Phone: 404-939-3635
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/letmestyleyou/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JustAnInchEntertainment/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmbertheActress
Image Credit:
Jenny Graham – OSF, Amelia Jackson – Amelia Design
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