Today we’d like to introduce you to Suzen Baraka.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
In 2017, I decided I wanted to buy a house and go to acting school. I had been practicing law since 2013 and though I’d started in entertainment law, by that point I had fully transitioned to investment banking regulatory work at Barclays.
Well, I purchased my home in Brooklyn that January, and in August 2018 I’d decided to hold off on acting school, but I lost my job at Barclays anyway. Shortly thereafter, I was offered a small scholarship to attend the Atlantic Theater Acting Conservatory, and separately, I was offered a role in the legal department at Warner Bros. Records. I felt like the Universe was testing me, but I also felt like maybe I could find a way to do both eventually and that continuing to practice law was the safer choice, so I chose the position at Warner to start on March 15, 2019.
Fifteen days before my start date that job fell through, so I called the Atlantic Theater Company Conservatory back and I asked them if there was any chance I could get my scholarship back. Chris Booth at the Conservatory said he was hoping I’d change my mind so he never processed my paperwork turning down the offer. That’s when I knew that I was meant to pursue acting.
Shortly after I transitioned back into the arts, I won a regional Emmy for a poem I was commissioned to write for the 2020 Election called “VOTE” which was turned into a PSA and which was later published in a Kevin Powell’s anthology “2020: The Year That changed America”. I also co-starred on HBOMax’s The Other Two and CBS’ Blue Bloods and became the writer and face of Theraflu’s Right to Recover Campaign, advocating for women’s right to paid sick leave.
Upon graduating acting conservatory in December 2021, I was one of 20 actors selected out of 11,000 applicants to participate in the inaugural launch of the WarnerMedia Talent Access Spotlight program. Afterward, I worked on a one-woman show at the Denizen Theater titled “Grounded” written by George Brant.
Most recently, I completed work on a feature film titled “Break”, set to release May 2023. Currently, I am splitting my time between NY and LA, and in January I will be participating in the Inkwell Theater’s workshop of a play titled “Two Stop” by David Johann Kim.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The biggest challenge for me was me. It took me a long time to admit that this was, is and has always been my calling. Yvonne Orji said on her podcast once that “sometimes success can take you away from your purpose,” and I think that being a lawyer, and living a really good life on paper, was really difficult to leave behind. In truth, I hadn’t really prepared to go into a life of art, even though I had been thinking about it for a long time. I was also married, and my husband and I split when I decided to buy a house and go into acting, so those two factors, plus losing my job in August 2018, plunged me into a deeply precarious financial position.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m an actor, but I’m presently most known for my spoken word work. I slammed and toured nationally over the last 20 years, and my latest spoken word short film has been making the rounds at the film festivals this year including The Micheaux Film Festival, the UrbanWorld Film Festival, The Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival, and the Pan African Film Festival.
My sister, Ayana Baraka (www.AyanaBaraka.com), is a brilliant director of photography, specializing in virtual reality cinematography and also in lighting and shooting people with Black and Brown. My best friend, Jami Ramberan, is an accomplished director and tenured professor of film and television at Howard University. They’re not only the backbone of my work but also my primary producers and the ones who most often shoot and direct (respectively). They produced and worked on “My Asian” and we just finished work on a short film titled “Things That Remain” which we are submitting to festival this year.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
For me, starting out, community was really important. Training is also super important to me. My go-to rules: Be kind; Be curious; Be professional.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.suzenbaraka.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suzen_baraka
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/suzen-baraka
Image Credits
Forrest Renaissance Jonathan Sherburne Amaka Korie
