Today we’d like to introduce you to Julienne Irons.
Hi Julienne, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up in New Jersey in a very religious household, and while there was love, there was also a lot of complexity. My mom emigrated from Jamaica and opened our home to foster kids constantly. That taught me early what compassion looks like in action—you help because someone needs it, not because it’s convenient. It was meaningful, and it shaped my sense of responsibility to others.
At the same time, it wasn’t always easy. Our house was full, loud, and constantly shifting. Little-me often wished for one room that stayed mine, one space that didn’t change every time another child came through our door. I didn’t have the language for it back then, but that level of instability leaves an imprint.
Still, I understood—even as a kid—that my mom believed in caring for people because she trusted that care would circle back to us when we needed it. That belief stayed with me. It’s a complicated kind of inheritance: both the tenderness of service and the ache of not always feeling grounded. And both of those truths have shaped who I am and the work I do today.
I always knew I wanted to perform. The exact moment it clicked was when my church took us to see Mama, I Want to Sing at eight years old. I remember sitting there with goosebumps, turning to my mom and saying, “I want to do that.” And she just nodded and said, “I know. But you have to go to college first.” So I did. After high school, I went to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, then eventually traded New York winters for Los Angeles sunshine.
Since moving to LA, I’ve worked on a number of TV shows and recorded 96 audiobooks—I’ll hit 100 by the end of the year. In early 2025, my sisters Jeannine and Jasmine and I created 3 of Cups Healing, a heart-centered, multi-branch company built around the things we each love: storytelling (through my podcast, The Hanged Woman), energy healing and art (Jasmine’s Temperance Energy Healing and The Empress heART), and small business marketing (Jeannine’s The Magician’s Vision). Together we’re building a brand rooted in love, community, and the belief that healing and creativity belong to all of us.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t been a smooth road at all. The hardest blow came in 2013 when my older sister Jamila passed away suddenly from a brain aneurysm. She was young, healthy, and raising two little kids, my niece Gabrielle, who was five, and my nephew Jayden, who was two. Losing her shattered my world and forced me to confront questions I had been avoiding about my Christian upbringing. I was already beginning to deconstruct my beliefs, but her passing pushed me into a full dark night of the soul. I had to relearn who I was in a world where my sister no longer existed, and that kind of grief changes your internal landscape forever.
I’m grateful for my family because they were the safety net that kept me from disappearing into that grief.
And then, in 2016, while still mourning, I was sexually assaulted. That trauma sent me into an even deeper spiral. I didn’t tell anyone, which only amplified the shame, the isolation, and the self-loathing I was already carrying. I disappeared into solitude and wine and tried to hold myself together in private.
What ultimately kept me from sinking was my art. Acting gave me somewhere to channel the pain, and teaching audition technique at Wendy Davis Acting Pros pulled me back into community when I was isolating the most. It gave me structure, purpose, and a way to remember I still had something to offer. During that period, I also booked several TV roles, and I don’t think that was an accident. I was finally pouring my energy into creation instead of suffering. Those creative opportunities became the light I followed out of the darkest places and the foundation I used to rebuild myself.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m an actor at heart, but like most artists who survive and thrive in Los Angeles, I’m also a storyteller in several mediums. On the TV side, I’ve appeared on shows like How to Get Away with Murder, The Rookie, and most recently Matlock. Acting is the thing that has always lit me up; it’s where I feel the most alive and the most like myself.
When the pandemic hit and everything shut down, my on-camera momentum stalled. Instead of waiting for things to get back to “normal”, I pivoted. I received a grant for Elise Arsenault’s Great Audiobook Adventure, and that one step opened a completely new lane for me. Audiobook narration ended up being a game-changer. I discovered how much range and power lives in my voice, and that confidence became the foundation for hosting The Hanged Woman podcast.
The podcast is produced under 3 of Cups Healing, the company I run with my sisters. And honestly, out of everything I do, The Hanged Woman is the work I’m most proud of. It’s the first space where I’ve gotten to be all of me—actor, narrator, thinker, seeker, producer. I book the guests, I shape the conversations, I edit the episodes, and I show up fully visible in a way I never allowed myself to before. It’s taught me what I’m truly capable of.
What sets me apart is that I’m not afraid of reinvention. I don’t wait for permission to expand. I set a new goal and leap toward it, even if I don’t know where it will take me. Audiobook narration started as an experiment and became a major part of my career. The Hanged Woman began as a whisper of an idea and is now a growing platform. Every time I jump, something surprising and meaningful catches me, and I trust that pattern now.
What does success mean to you?
If you’d asked me this a year ago, I probably would’ve said success meant being wealthy and getting to do what you love every day. But this past year—building 3 of Cups Healing, growing The Hanged Woman, and doing my own inner work—has completely rewritten my definition.
Success, for me, is the ability to keep moving forward even when life knocks you flat. It’s being deep in the muck and still tuning into your own heartbeat, even when it’s barely a whisper, and trusting that you can figure it out. It’s choosing to pursue something even when there’s no evidence yet that it will work.
Success is in the tiny moments when you catch a negative thought and shift it—not with toxic positivity, but with honesty. The kind of shift that sounds like: “I’m terrified right now and nothing looks how I want it to…but I’m still choosing to believe I’m on the right path, that I’m safe, and that things are working out for me.”
When you get to a place where the outside world can throw anything at you and you can still square your shoulders, lift your head, adjust your crown, and keep going—that’s real success. That’s the life-changing kind.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://3ofcupshealing.com
- Instagram: @3ofcupshealing @julienne_irons
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/3ofCupsMissionofLove
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julienne-irons-704b7113/ and https://www.linkedin.com/company/3-of-cups-an-irons-sisters-mission-of-love/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHangedWomanPodcast
- Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hanged-woman/id1801346609
Image Credits
Matt Stasi
