Meet Gail Everett-Smith of ActNet Entertainment in South Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gail Everett-Smith.

Gail, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
During my early childhood, my mother put me into every possible pageant and dance contest available. I was also in the band, orchestra, choir and even a majorette. So I guess you can say entertainment was always in my blood. My Mother also corraled my siblings and I into a professional gospel singing group, “The Everett Gospel Singers. Which is an entirely different and interesting story of my mother’s descent into Schizophrenia due to a medical condition. In 1988 I was injured on the job while working for the Federal Government as a Management Analyst handling Naval facilities in the UK and learned that Universal Studios was moving to Florida so I decided to pursue my dreams of becoming an actress and moved to Orlando, Fl. I was concerned about being scammed so I contacted the head of the drama department at the University of Central Florida to learn where I could find legitimate acting classes. I was directed to Lisa Maile School of Acting in Winter Park FL where Roscoe P. Coltrane from the Dukes of Hazard (not his professional name) and Delta Burke trained. Within one week of beginning classes I had my first audition with Dan Akroyd in Miami. I had only taken one on camera class and when I walked into the audition there were two cameras.

Obviously, I did not book that role in “My Girl”. I had this Nell Carter look going on and was called for auditions and bookings frequently. I even auditioned for Kevin Costner and Jayne Jenkins who cast “Dancing with Wolves” I didn’t get that role either because a friend that was also a local casting director played a trick on me, in fun but it didn’t turn out very funny. I was told that I would need to take my dress off since I was auditioning for a nude dead body. So wear a long slip. This role would have required a body cast to be made specifically for me. At the end of my initial audition I was asked if I had questions to which I replied “Do you want me to take my dress off now? They looked at each other and then said not right now. I got a callback and repeated the process. This time they looked at me like I was a nut but said okay. I whipped the dress over my head then turned around so they could see me clearly. When I exited the audition room my friend was on the floor screaming in laughter. They never wanted me to take the dress off. I lost that job because I was too busty. Should have kept that dress on.

I worked so much, even winning a Crystal Reel Award for a Rap Video I did for Eckerd Drug Store and became known around Florida as the go-to person when film crews came to Orlando and were looking for African American actors. In 1990 I opened Star Quality Talent Marketing Service in Tampa FL which was provided ethnic talent for various projects for Nickolodean, most of the new tv shows and film coming out of Florida. I also provided talent to sing for the Super bowl, German Oompa Bands, Japanese dancers, etc. for advertising agencies. I began training talent in the art of performance. But my career began developing towards the Atlanta and New York market. I moved to Atlanta in 1993. I had a young son at the time and had dragged him across the US following my career. I decided for his sake it was time to put down roots here in Atlanta. The market in Atlanta changed eventually to primarily Industrial films and I had done so many that I wasn’t very interested in continuing. That turned out to be a mistake as well.

When I moved to Atlanta, I was represented by Houghton, Agency as well as Atlanta Talent and Model Agency. I stopped acting except in plays for the Rockefeller Foundation. I began training other actors, especially children to act and assisted adults in marketing to the legitimate industry because of my personal desire to avoid being scammed as I learned to promote my career. I opened ActNet Entertainment Studios in 2013 in Fayetteville GA. A 3500 sq ft facility devoted to training in Acting, Dance, Singing and Photography. We also added a professional music recording studio. In 2014 we begain Summer Entertainment Camp for kids which culminated in performance in an actual theater. It was an amazing time and in 2015 we added academic tutoring to the summer curriculum. Parents of my kids began pushing me towards representing their kids and I closed the school and became a talent agent. I only worked as an agent for 2 years because I quickly learned that I needed to belong to specific organizations to adequately represent my talent and I did not want to hold them back in their budding careers due to inadequate connections.

While working as an agent my dreams were reawakened of working as an actor and I began acting again after closing the agency and was fortunate to become represented by East Coast Talent Agency, which has been a real blessing for my career. It has been an amazing journey with highs and lows but one thing remained and that’s my passion for the entertainment business. I continue to assist budding talent wherever possible while developing other projects. I opened ActNet Entertainment Films in 2018. I had begun writing my family’s story in 2013 and in 2018 I hired two writers Naz Pankey and MaSu Carty to assist me in converting my story “Mama, Henry & Us Gospel Singers” into a screenplay. When MaSu suddenly left the project I added Nikki Wade to the writing team. She was already my Producer for the project and dove in to bring my story to life. She has been invaluable with getting this project into development making numerous rewrites, assisting with casting and doing whatever required. We began filming in July of this year and we will complete the project in the Winter of 2019. It’s been a 31 years journey and I wouldn’t change a thing. Each defeat taught me something new. One thing I learned over the years is that you can’t win if you never begin. There were no failures only transitions. And I am still at it! And still love what I do!

Contact Info:

• Phone: 770-875-2353
• Email: [email protected]

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